LÖVE

The idea is intriguing in every sense, and i guess the RAM on iPad could handle it. May i ask if anyone has already started or want to start?

plaything wrote:The idea is intriguing in every sense, and i guess the RAM on iPad could handle it. May i ask if anyone has already started or want to start?

I would want to start it myself, but, sadly, I don't know where to start.

This to me is the ultimate dream. To be able to write my code on my MacBook Air with my project in my Google Drive (I switched from DropBox) and a version of the Löve runtime running on the iPad (Even if I have to jailbreak it) with support for Google Drive and automatic reload of a project when changes are detected. It'd be the ultimate touch-screen game development prototyping platform SDK. Google Drive/DropBox would take care of the transfer of the files and Löve itself would simply poll the drive for changes every few seconds to see if a file had been changed in the project .love folder or the .love ZIP itself. (It would need to support both .love file formats. Both the traditional renamed ZIP file and the folder package type.)

Sadly, the above would be the EASY part. The hard part would be actually making Löve compatible and working on iOS. I mean, we already have a Mac version, and iOS is virtually compatible with OS X so it would only require specialized iOS versions of certain drivers and libraries and someone willing to actually sit down and do the actual hard work. But if we could get that to happen, it would be totally worth it in the end.

I can see it branching out from there. There'd be two versions of Löve iOS. One for prototyping that would let you import any .love file to run (As long as it's supported) and would be an SDK development environment. The other, an Xcode project that more advanced users could open in Xcode, drop the zipped .love file into, compile and submit to the App Store if they have an account. It would still use Apple's own tools and would still go through the same screening process, but it would be independent and a Löve-r could make an actual game for sale on the App Store. Of course, you could do away with the first option and just go with the second since Xcode lets you simulate a project both on your computer and iOS device, but then it'd only be available for Mac users. So the first option would work for Windows and Linux users that own iOS devices as well.

^ That would be awesome.