I just got Codea today and I wanted to do some tests with it, so I decided to code a simple Chopper game (The usual of the chopper in the cave)
Preview of the game: http://p.twimg.com/ArPboRICEAAufUr.jpg
After a couple hours I have a reasonably playable version (I will share the code when done), and several problems or doubts about Codea:
I know this has probably been discussed, but I couldn’t find it, I’ve seen the Cargo-Bot game in the App Store, and I was wondering if there is a known process (hopefully simple) to export apps from Codea to the AppStore
Another thing is, Codea is great for games, but it doesn’t really have many options to either interact with the user (Form creation for example), the iPad (more os functions) or the Internet. I would love to code some Apps for some of my websites, but right now Codea doesn’t really provide the tools for that. Is it possible that the developers will add such features in future releases?
I’m glad you’re enjoying Codea - your helicopter game looks cool
In response to your questions:
There will shortly be a public release of a Codea Xcode template. You’ll be able to import your Codea project into this and build it into a standalone app. You will need a paid Apple Developer account to run it on a real device or to release it into the App Store.
As for extra functions - I don’t know if anything is planned for adding UI controls, but an upcoming update of Codea should add support for downloading files from the web, as well as providing your own sprite images.
Hi @Chevi! Glad you’re liking Codea. Love the progress on your Chopper game, it sounds like a fun project — a lot of possible experiments you can try with procedural level generation.
Codea 1.4 is due soon and focuses on allowing you to get custom graphics into (and out of) Codea. It’s a very big update that really lets you personalise your creations.
The Codea Runtime Library will be announced in a few hours (but is available now as @nuke440 says). You’ll be able to use it to make stand-alone iOS applications out of your projects.
Great! I will work a couple more hours on the game these days to get a hang of Lua, it’s quite an easy and fun language
It’s good that 1.4 will let you download stuff from the Internet
Any thoughts on iOS specific functions? Maybe access iPhone camera, vibration, Game Center… Codea is really a great idea, until now I was wondering how could it be that the iPad couldn’t be used to code for iOS
Just quick query on the 1.4 update; I assume you are adding features so that we can easily add sprites and graphics. Have you included handling the TMX map format used by Tiled, it seems to be very popular?
That would help to formalise packaging for games and should help ease transfer to iOS.
Hi Simeon,
I bought Codea last week and am really enjoying it. I have been programming for way too many years, but have not had so much fun in a long time. I have a 21 hour flight to the UK tomorrow, so am really looking forward to getting a handle on it. Congratulations on a great tool. Now that we can compile in XCode, I see great things ahead.
It’s actually quite a lot of fun coding in Codea, I only noticed a little bug, when you try to print a nil value it hangs up (I think that is the reason)
I’ve created a playable version of the game I was doing (http://youtube.com/watch?v=FG9u-HpaSXs), If there’s ever again a way to share projects I will post it in case anyone finds it useful…
Hi chevi, welcome aboard! Looks like a fun game you are making there. You can still share your code through copy and paste, either on a thread created here using three ‘~’ signs before and after, or with a link to a code sharing site like github or pastebin etc. You can take a copy of all the tabs at once if you press and hold the project from the main screen.
Just looked at your scrolling demo on you tube and realised you have achieved a scrolling background similar to what I would like to produce. Can you outline how you did it, it will save me some time if I can get 90% there quickly. I currently have a scrolling line which does not scroll smoothly.
I am really sorry, I didn’t get any notification for this reply (That I saw at least)
I will answer just in case you or other people are interested,
It’s not the most efficient method, but I was just testing things… My program creates an array of “heights” (integers) that represent the height of the cave. On every iteration it adds and removes elements, and it draws them as rectangles on the screen.
Although it is not a very efficient solution it still renders pretty well
Thanks for the reply, your code will be usefull to help me design a scrolling background of my own. I haven’t been as active on the forum recently due to other pressures, but I’ve just started getting back into it. I’ll keep you posted on any progress I make.
