🐍 Writing "Snake" in Lua from scratch

Creating your own game is the dream of many who start learning programming. And if you take the language Lua, then the legendary game will be an excellent starting project "Snake". And we will do without engines and libraries — only pure Lua and console.

Lua is easy to learn, has a concise syntax, and is great for creating games and prototypes. It is often used in game engines (Roblox, Love2D, Defold), but even without them, you can write a working game in Lua.

What do we need for our "Snake"?

• The playing field is a two-dimensional grid in which the snake moves.

• Snake - a list of coordinates of its segments.

• Food is a random point on the field.

• Control - arrows (or WASD).

• Mechanics - the snake moves, grows when eating food, loses when colliding with a wall or itself.

The first step is the playing field

width, height = 20, 20

The snake and its movement

snake = {
  {x = 10, y = 10},
  {x = 9, y = 10},
  {x = 8, y = 10}
}
direction = "right"

Food

math.randomseed(os.time())
food = {x = math.random(1, width), y = math.random(1, height)}

Management

io.input():setvbuf("no")

function getInput()
  local key = io.read(1)
  if key == "w" then direction = "up" end
  if key == "s" then direction = "down" end
  if key == "a" then direction = "left" end
  if key == "d" then direction = "right" end
end

Game cycle

while true do
  getInput()
  
  -- перемещаем змейку
  head = {x = snake[1].x, y = snake[1].y}
  if direction == "up" then head.y = head.y - 1 end
  if direction == "down" then head.y = head.y + 1 end
  if direction == "left" then head.x = head.x - 1 end
  if direction == "right" then head.x = head.x + 1 end

  table.insert(snake, 1, head)

  -- проверка на еду
  if head.x == food.x and head.y == food.y then
    food = {x = math.random(1, width), y = math.random(1, height)}
  else
    table.remove(snake)
  end

  -- проверка столкновений
  if head.x < 1 or head.y < 1 or head.x > width or head.y > height then
    print("Game Over!")
    break
  end

  -- вывод поля
  os.execute("clear") -- для Linux/macOS (или "cls" для Windows)
  for y = 1, height do
    for x = 1, width do
      local symbol = " . "
      if x == food.x and y == food.y then
        symbol = " @ "
      end
      for i, segment in ipairs(snake) do
        if segment.x == x and segment.y == y then
          symbol = " # "
        end
      end
      io.write(symbol)
    end
    io.write("\n")
  end

  os.execute("sleep 0.1")
end

What can be improved

• Add a score counter.

• Make different speed levels.

• Add the ability to exit (for example, when entering q).

• Draw a snake beautifully (for example, the head "O", the body "o").

Writing "Snake" in Lua without engines is a great project for a beginner. It helps to understand:

• how to work with tables,

• how to implement a game cycle,

• how to process user input.

And only then you can transfer this experience to Love2D, Roblox or even write your own mini-engine!

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