Love2D Studio: A free tool to code and test fantastic games on iPad/iPhone

[marknote]

@SugarRayLua
Thank you so much for the feedback! As always, extremely helpful! I'll take some time to digest.

@marknote-- nice update, thanks! It looks even more professional now

Strengths:
Nice to have such a full screen display when running Love project (and then ability to close the screen easily and see code underneath)
Cleaner and more traditional IDE-like coding display of the file folders and the actual code
Nice to have a search feature and the added bonus of that search feature being global and allowing searches across all the files!

Suggestions for improvements:
Update the help part of the app (still seems to have instructions for operating app before the GUI change)
Unclear what the little blue button with the heart beat/wave tracing does on the top of the screen
Would be nice if the search feature not only located the block of code with the search term but actually highlighted that search term in the
Code like many other IDEs do
Would still be nice to have an option to have folders default to opening up the main.lua files in the folders (so that can quickly run the
project without having to search through sometimes a multitude of files in large projects)

Minor wording suggestions:
Advertisement on the App Store and Love2D Studio Website: instead of "Code, debug and test great games all from your lovely devices", would suggest something like:
"Code and debug Love2D games-- all on your mobile device"

Initial Love2D Studio start screen: instead of "Code the great", would suggest something like the phrase above or a shorter phrase like:
"Code great games"

Fyi

[marknote]

As previously stated, I discovered that Lua is a very user-friendly programming language for my son, and love2d is a great framework.
My son's only computer is an iPad, and Love2d Studio makes the pairing perfect

Hey guys, I am curious about the target users of this app.

Can you (if you are willing) provide some info on why do you prefer coding on a mobile phone vs laptop/desktop?
Is it because you use mobile phone primarily or you don't have access to a laptop?
Is it for doing last-minute changes to a mobile app?
Is it for a different reason?

Just my curiosity, thanks.

[dusoft]

As previously stated, I discovered that Lua is a very user-friendly programming language for my son, and love2d is a great framework.
My son's only computer is an iPad, and Love2d Studio makes the pairing perfect

Thanks, what a paradigm shift (programming on a tablet/mobile phone), indeed.

[marknote]

Haha, so you can code any time any where

As previously stated, I discovered that Lua is a very user-friendly programming language for my son, and love2d is a great framework.
My son's only computer is an iPad, and Love2d Studio makes the pairing perfect

Thanks, what a paradigm shift (programming on a tablet/mobile phone), indeed.

[SugarRayLua]

@marknote,

Does your newest release still allow importing of .love files? I don't seem to be able to import them anymore with the newest release. I can still workaround the issue by copying and pasting file from local device into the Love2D studio folder.

Thanks!

[marknote]

Thanks for the feedback.
Looks open ".love" file from Files app does not work for some reason and I will figure it out
but clicking the right top "+" -> Import still works.

@marknote,

Does your newest release still allow importing of .love files? I don't seem to be able to import them anymore with the newest release. I can still workaround the issue by copying and pasting file from local device into the Love2D studio folder.

Thanks!

[SugarRayLua]

Thanks for the prompt reply, @marknote.

For some reason I can't get any of the .love files to import from the top "+" import method

[pjft]

Hi @marknote

First of all, thank you for putting this together! I just recently got into playing a bit with creating things on Lua, and indeed during the day I carry my tablet around but not my laptop, and it's easy to just troubleshoot things or make small adjustments as they come along. Thank you!

One of the things I am playing with is creating small apps for my kids, to also have them start feeling interested in Lua. They're using Scratch right now, but I want to start exposing them to a less visual programming language as well, and Lua seems to be a great next step.

This, then, leads me to three questions, as I install some of these apps on their tablets:
1) Is there a way to launch a default app when I open the studio? Right now it always opens the "No Game" screen, which I always have to close. It's almost as if it _is_ automatically launching something when it opens, but I can't figure out the expected path. I tried adding a main.lua file to the root, but the same happened. Can you allow for a default program to be launched when it opens? Say, if I create a folder named "Default" or something?
2) Is there a way to have the app run in complete full screen?
3) Last, I'd support the availability of the app on the iPhone if possible. I know that the experience isn't the same, but it's certainly doable for small tweaks. See the https://apps.apple.com/us/app/visual-co ... orm=iphone Visual Studio Code app on the iPhone. We could code in portrait, and then run the apps in landscape. Right now they're stuck in portrait, which makes it hard to keep a consistent experience for the apps we're developing across desktop, tablet and phone. Any way to force the app to landscape?

Just a thought.

Thank you so much once again, and hope you have a great week!

[marknote]

Hi pjft,

I appreciate your feedback, and I am delighted to hear that this app is also helpful for you!

1) While it is technically feasible to launch a default program, my current concern lies in the potential issues that may arise with the program. For example, if an program crashes the tool, it could be challenging to handle... I am still figuring out how to effectively catch all errors thrown by Lua.

2) This feature will be included in the next version.

3) I agree that landscape mode would be beneficial for iPhone users. However, I have encountered some issues with unexpected behavior during orientation changes. Love2d is based on SDL, which operates differently from iOS's native UI frameworks. I have invested significant time in resolving this issue, but have not been successful yet. Once the problem is resolved, landscape mode will be enabled.

Thank you again for your support, and please stay tuned for updates.

Hi @marknote

First of all, thank you for putting this together! I just recently got into playing a bit with creating things on Lua, and indeed during the day I carry my tablet around but not my laptop, and it's easy to just troubleshoot things or make small adjustments as they come along. Thank you!

One of the things I am playing with is creating small apps for my kids, to also have them start feeling interested in Lua. They're using Scratch right now, but I want to start exposing them to a less visual programming language as well, and Lua seems to be a great next step.

This, then, leads me to three questions, as I install some of these apps on their tablets:
1) Is there a way to launch a default app when I open the studio? Right now it always opens the "No Game" screen, which I always have to close. It's almost as if it _is_ automatically launching something when it opens, but I can't figure out the expected path. I tried adding a main.lua file to the root, but the same happened. Can you allow for a default program to be launched when it opens? Say, if I create a folder named "Default" or something?
2) Is there a way to have the app run in complete full screen?
3) Last, I'd support the availability of the app on the iPhone if possible. I know that the experience isn't the same, but it's certainly doable for small tweaks. See the https://apps.apple.com/us/app/visual-co ... orm=iphone Visual Studio Code app on the iPhone. We could code in portrait, and then run the apps in landscape. Right now they're stuck in portrait, which makes it hard to keep a consistent experience for the apps we're developing across desktop, tablet and phone. Any way to force the app to landscape?

Just a thought.

Thank you so much once again, and hope you have a great week!

[pjft]

Hi! Thanks for the kind note.

I see, thanks for elaborating on the SDL challenges. I suppose my point isn't as much "native landscape", but rather allow the love2d app to _render_ rotated, in landscape. Some games will render weird because the default canvas is portrait, and would work well if it thought it had the landscape orientation when initializing.

Just a thought.

Thanks!