Category Archives: Codea

Cargo-Bot Released

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Cargo-Bot – The first game on the App Store programmed on an iPad – has been released.

The Press Release follows.

Cargo-Bot

The First Game Programmed on iPad

Adelaide, Australia – April 24, 2012 – Two Lives Left and Rui Viana have released Cargo-Bot, a puzzle game where the player commands a robot to sort crates. Cargo-Bot presents players with fiendishly clever puzzles and features stunning retina graphics. It is available for free on the App Store.

Cargo-Bot was programmed entirely on iPad using Codea, a touch-based programming app for iPad created by Two Lives Left.

It’s the first game of its kind, prototyped, programmed and polished on iPad. Cargo-Bot was created by Rui Viana, a Codea user who developed his initial prototype and shared it with the Codea community. Two Lives Left reached out to Rui in order to turn his prototype into a published App Store game. They also enlisted the aid of Fred Bogg, a composer who developed a music library for Codea, to create the music for Cargo-Bot.

Coinciding with the release of Cargo-Bot, Two Lives Left is releasing the Codea Runtime Library source code under the Apache License Version 2.0. Registered Apple iOS Developers will be able to export their Codea projects into the Codea Runtime Library in order to release them as standalone apps, just like Cargo-Bot.

Cargo-Bot can be found on the App Store, videos and additional media can be found at cargo-bot.com.

The Codea Runtime Library source code and documentation can be found at http://github.com/TwoLivesLeft

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Codea and Code Sharing

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I’ve seen a number of interpretations about why Codea’s project sharing feature was removed.

Here’s what happened.

We were contacted late December last year (20th or so) by an Apple App Reviewer. He informed us that Codea’s project sharing feature violated section 3.3.2 of the Developer Agreement.

3.3.2 An Application may not download or install executable code. Interpreted code may only be used in an Application if all scripts, code and interpreters are packaged in the Application and not downloaded. The only exception to the foregoing is scripts and code downloaded and run by Apple’s built-in WebKit framework, provided that such scripts and code do not change the primary purpose of the Application by providing features or functionality that are inconsistent with the intended and advertised purpose of the Application as submitted to the App Store.

While Codea doesn’t, and has never “downloaded” code. It did “install” Lua source code if directed to do so by the user. That is, a user could open Mobile Safari, point it at a .codea project, and be given the option to “Open in Codea.” This then placed the file into Codea’s sandbox and Codea would extract that file into a new project for the user.

This is essentially the same as the user visiting a website which displays the source code, selecting the text, copying it to clipboard, and pasting it inside the code editor. Except a lot more convenient.

I mentioned this to the App Reviewer over the phone. I think I even asked him, “What happens if the user types code into the app that they see somewhere on the web, is that downloading?”

The answer I got was that it’s a grey area. And most app reviewers are not able to make a decision like this – so they must err on the side of caution. However, the app reviewer was extremely friendly, helpful and completely open to allowing me to initiate further discussion with Apple over this matter. He even started the appeal process for me. This makes me hopeful that when this issue is examined further it will be possible to come to a solution.

It would be great if iOS development tools warranted their own clause in the agreement.

Codea Forums & Rename

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Codea (Codify) has a flourishing community you can join here: http://twolivesleft.com/Codea/Talk

All sorts of cool projects and hacks have been developed. Such as importing your own graphics, a vector font renderer, and a project for porting Codea/Codify projects to Mac, Windows and Linux using love2d

You may have heard that Codify is being renamed Codea in the next update, which is currently in review with Apple. The name is a combination of Code and Ideas, we feel this suits the application’s philosophy.