next »

[simeon]

Edit: It's available now

Hi everyone

I've been working on a personal project this year called Codify. It's a tool for rapidly prototyping game ideas, mechanics, interactions and simulations on your iPad.

Here's a video before things get too text heavy:

Codify Video



It came about because I often had arguments with fellow game designers over whether something would work, and often settling such arguments involved writing a prototype. When I didn't have my laptop with me, I had my iPad. And I knew it was capable of doing what I wanted, I just needed the app. That's why I made Codify. I use it a lot now.

Anyway, it's very much inspired by Processing.org, which is one of my favourite prototyping tools. Except I've tried to make it really touch-friendly and quick to use with only the on-screen keyboard.

Let me know what you think. Is this something that might be useful to indie developers?

[increpare]

Hey.  Looks interesting. 


Main question : what's going on with text input in that video?  You're not inputting with the screen, and I hear tapping, so what is this magical mysterious input device, and is it something that you recommend people using this application use?

[simeon]

Good point

For the video I used a bluetooth keyboard so that my hands wouldn't get in the way, and also increased the volume of the tapping sound a bit because I liked it.

However I normally use Codify with the on-screen keyboard in portrait (thumb typing) or landscape mode - the extra keys are available in a strip along the top of the on-screen keyboard.

Edit: regarding whether I recommend it, a bluetooth keyboard is faster but I don't like to carry one so use the on-screen keyboard. One of the beta testers used a bluetooth keyboard. The app works well with either.

[Chris Pavia]

Wow, this looks amazing! If this works as well as it seems to, I can see myself using it a lot. Well, after I get up to speed on LUA that is. Day 1 purchase for me, my friend. I hope your documentation is good, as that will make it or break it for people like me who aren't expert coders.

[increpare]

Good point

For the video I used a bluetooth keyboard so that my hands wouldn't get in the way, and also increased the volume of the tapping sound a bit because I liked it.

However I normally use Codify with the on-screen keyboard in portrait (thumb typing) or landscape mode - the extra keys are available in a strip along the top of the on-screen keyboard.

Edit: regarding whether I recommend it, a bluetooth keyboard is faster but I don't like to carry one so use the on-screen keyboard. One of the beta testers used a bluetooth keyboard. The app works well with either.

I think it undermines the demo a bit that you're using a keyboard.  If I were doing future promo I would avoid using peripherals.  (I'd also show multi-touch - for instance in the drawing bit of the demo).

Do you have built-in support for gestures?  I don't see these demoed in the video.

nonetheless, this looks cool, and I look forward to seeing what people make with it, maybe try it out myself : )

[simeon]

@increpare: I agree, however some of the previous videos I had made were more functional – this one is more about showing off a few key features and examples in a short period of time. I plan to do a real-time video of making a small game like Breakout using the on-screen keyboard. Hopefully that will give more of an impression of actual use.

There is no built in support for gestures besides detecting them yourself. I am planning to add this soon, but I am still trying to make sure the API is simple enough.

@Chris: There is a lot of documentation. It is largely reference + examples with some small overview sections. I'll be expanding on the overview sections over time. For now you can actually browse the documentation here: Codify Reference Documentation.

[Chris Pavia]

What about support for getting the games you make onto other devices, even if it's just other people's iPads? Being able to share games via Bluetooth/wifi through the Codify App would be cool, or some sort of portal. It would be fun to use this at the next global game jam, but I think I'd need some way to get the game online.

[simeon]

In the initial release there isn't away to share projects. Apple is very fussy about these things. However I have an update ready to go that includes some basic project sharing and plan to submit it tonight. If Apple rejects it I will have to go through an appeal process and I didn't want that to delay the release of Codify.

In addition, after release I plan to open source the backend portion of the code (renderer, parsing tools) and hopefully make some command line tools to run Codify projects. From which other stuff can be built.

[Chris Pavia]

Great, I'm glad you've got some plans in the works. Looking forward to wednesday!

[increpare]

@increpare: I agree, however some of the previous videos I had made were more functional – this one is more about showing off a few key features and examples in a short period of time. I plan to do a real-time video of making a small game like Breakout using the on-screen keyboard. Hopefully that will give more of an impression of actual use.

Cool

There is no built in support for gestures besides detecting them yourself. I am planning to add this soon, but I am still trying to make sure the API is simple enough.

Cool

You seem like a good guy, I hope launch goes well

[Ashkin]

This looks beautiful. I only wish I knew proper Lua so I could use it properly.

Looks to be shaping up as a great way to prototype games while out and about!

[kukouri]

Love the concept, would love to give it a spin. 

[Tanner]

This makes me want an iPad.

[Chris Pavia]

I hope there will be support for using custom sprites at some point soon? Perhaps importing them from the photo album or something?

[simeon]

Codify is available now. If you get it and have any feedback or suggestions, be sure to let me know.

I hope there will be support for using custom sprites at some point soon? Perhaps importing them from the photo album or something?

Yes, it's a little tricky as I don't want users to inadvertently load too many resources and kill performance. So there will have to be some basic image editing (cropping and resizing).

One feature I'd really like to add is an in-app sprite editor. So you can tap to create a new sprite pack, then pick a sprite from either your photo library or create a new one on an 8x8, 16x16, or 32x32 grid. You could then tap out the pixels with your finger and have a quick sprite to use in-game.

There are some more fundamental features to be added first, which I am working on at the moment:
- A text(string, x, y) API for rendering text to screen
- Project sharing over email

[Alec]

Very cool idea.

I'll have to try it out.

[increpare]

Tried it out there - my main issue with the editor was actually selecting text to copy/paste.  Maybe I haven't fully gotten a handle of it in iOS in general, but a double-tap+drag doesn't always seems to do it.

Is there a quick way to undo?  I found myself looking at the augmented keyboard for a button to do it.

I didn't like how the modifications I made to the default projects weren't saved when I moved between them.

I found the top row (the tabs, and the back button) were uncomfortably small.

[simeon]

Thanks for the usability feedback, increpare.

Tried it out there - my main issue with the editor was actually selecting text to copy/paste.  Maybe I haven't fully gotten a handle of it in iOS in general, but a double-tap+drag doesn't always seems to do it.

Agreed. One of the features that didn't make it into the initial release is tapping and dragging the line gutter to select a block of text. I'm going to add this as It's something I would really like to have for my own use. (Though probably not in the very first update.)

Is there a quick way to undo?  I found myself looking at the augmented keyboard for a button to do it.

There is an undo button on the standard keyboard - visible when you hit the number (.?123) key. This will undo typing events but not copy/paste events. Perhaps a two finger swipe for undo/redo? Will have to try it out.

I didn't like how the modifications I made to the default projects weren't saved when I moved between them.

Damn I had that in my list of features for initial release but de-prioritised it. I'll have it prompt you to duplicate the project when you quit a modified example in the future.

For the time being you can duplicate example projects by touch-holding on their icons and choosing to copy them into a new user project. Then you can edit them.

I found the top row (the tabs, and the back button) were uncomfortably small.

The back button is especially small. It was put there for bluetooth keyboard users who can not access the other back button when you dismiss the keyboard. I'm going to look at increasing its hit radius. However I find the tabs are okay, I have missed them a few times but never enough to cause me frustration.

In the end It was a trade-off between visible lines of code (especially in landscape mode) and hit size. I felt uncomfortable with taller tab designs because the landscape code editing view, that I felt everyone would use, seemed so short. Though in practice I've found myself using portrait more and more.

[increpare]

Agreed. One of the features that didn't make it into the initial release is tapping and dragging the line gutter to select a block of text. I'm going to add this as It's something I would really like to have for my own use. (Though probably not in the very first update.)

Great.  Thought I was going crazy.

For the time being you can duplicate example projects by touch-holding on their icons and choosing to copy them into a new user project. Then you can edit them.

ok, cool

Though in practice I've found myself using portrait more and more.

Ah, I've exclusively used portrait mode.

One other thing - I can see the aesthetic of the demos (which'll affect what sort of people you'll attract, and what they'll end up making) moving in a couple of different directions (beyond where it already is) - one way would be to try go in a processing--like direction with them, have some cool pretty interactive things.  Another way would be to have some very simple things like ticky tacky does (flash lua engine by farbs, not used too much, but there's a thread here with some experiments : http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=8207.msg260010#msg260010 ).

[Chris Pavia]

I hope custom sprites come soon after your other top priorities, I'm digging this app but I can't see myself using it long term without that feature.