Marmalade SDK 8.4 out now

The latest and greatest version of the Marmalade SDK is now available here
Highlights

  • C++11 support now available.
  • Apple Pencil pressure reading is now supported on iPad Pro in addition to existing 3D Touch support.
  • Slide Over and Split View multitasking now available to Marmalade apps on supported iPad models.
  • Compression of assets in APKs on Android is now supported.
  • Windows 10 ARM builds can now be directly deployed to any attached device without any special configuration.
  • s3eCamera can now return high quality still images on Android, rather than the viewfinder preview.
  • s3eWebView updated to use newer version of Chromium Embedded Framework on Windows Desktop.

A full list of changes is available here.

Marmalade SDK 8.2 is out now

The latest and greatest version of the Marmalade SDK is now available here.

Highlights

  • IncrediBuild support for ARM architecture
  • Improved video support for Windows Desktop
  • Updated version of ZeroBrane Studio for Quick
  • Multidex support for Android

A full list of changes is available here.

Developing games for mobile and desktop? Then why not go cross platform and try out the Marmalade SDK, its now free. Available in C++ and Lua flavours.

Goji game editor for Marmalade 1.7.2b now available

Latest version of the free Marmalade compatible game IDE the Goji Editor is now available for free download

Changes include:

  • Added New Project dialog with support for creating wireframe projects
  • Update to AppEasy Core to work with Marmalade SDK v7.4
  • Fixed export of extra app.icf settings
  • Fixed missing app_id for Facebook extension when deploying device builds

New to the Marmalade SDK?

So you downloaded the Marmalade SDK, but you haven’t quite got around to using it yet. Maybe you plan on developing full on native speed games? Maybe you want to develop apps that run across a large number of platforms? Or you just want to avoid XCode and Mac to develop iPhone and iPad games. Regardless of why you downloaded it, why aren’t you using it yet? Maybe it seems a little daunting at first and you just don’t know where to start? Well I have some news that may just help you.

Marmalade are running a series of Getting started with Marmalade webinars which will help you get up and running quickly. The webinars are hosted by Marmalade expert, developer and support engineer Nick Smith and will cover an overview of how Marmalade works; a number of practical demos and examples that show you how to start a project in Marmalade, or import an existing C++ project. Members of Marmalade’s support team will also be available throughout the webinar to answer questions. The webinars will last for 30-45 minutes.

Marmalade are hosting three Getting Started with Marmalade webinars on Friday 15th of August:

  • 13:30 India ST / 16:00 China ST (09:00 BST)
  • 17:00 Central European ST (16:00 BST)
  • 10:00 Pacific DT / 13:00 Eastern DT (18:00 BST)

To register use the links below:

9am BST

Audience Log-in URL: https://www.anymeeting.com/651-699-060
Registration Form URL: http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=EA58D78189493D

4pm BST

Audience Log-in URL: https://www.anymeeting.com/386-680-255
Registration Form URL: http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=EA58D78189493E

6pm BST

Audience Log-in URL: https://www.anymeeting.com/268-006-473
Registration Form URL: http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=EA58D78189483B

Marmalade SDK 7.3.1 is out now, Fortumo, FBX exporter and other cool additions

Yep that’s right, Marmalade 7.3.1 is smoking hot and fresh off the press. In case you have been developing games in a cave somewhere with no internet connection the Marmalade SDK is an awesome piece of technology that enables you to create games that run across many different mobile and desktop platforms with “one single code base”. I cannot stress how wonderful that is in mere words. You can develop products in C++, Objective-C, Lua or HTML / JavaScript, test under simulation on Mac / Windows desktop, deploy to device / store and whole raft of other cool stuff.

Anyways, sales pitch aside, lets take a look at some of the recent changes:

  • Fortumo now integrated with IwBilling and Quick Billing.
  • New FBX to Marmalade converter tool, making it easy to get your 3D assets from tools such as Maya LT, 3ds Max and others that support FBX format into Marmalade.
  • ideviceinstaller now available on Windows (goodbye iTunes!).
  • IwGx now supports the ETC2 and EAC compressed texture formats.
  • IwGx PowerVR texture compression efficiency improved.
  • Initial support for PowerVR Tools (PVRTrace and PVRTune) on Windows Desktop.

I’m majorly excited about three of the new features in particular. The first is the support for Fortumo integration into IwBilling and QBilling. If you don’t know what they are then they are a single unified solution that enables you to “very easily” add in-app purchasing to your app across multiple different app stores. The addition of Fortumo means that in-app purchases can now be accepted by a vast number of different app stores (Android in particular).

Second feature is not having to install apps to an iOS device using the infinitely despised iTunes client on PC. I have never come across such a bug ridden piece of software in all my years. I will be happy to be deploying directly to device from now on!

Lastly, a new FBX converter that converts Maya LT exported FBX files into a lovely Marmalade format, yummy yummy.

By the way, did I mention that the Marmalade SDK is now available on a FREE license!

Click here to download the latest version of the Marmalade SDK

Goji Editor the game IDE update

Just a quick heads up on the direction of the Goji Editor. With the news of a free Marmalade SDK license becoming available, I am going to rework Goji to integrate much more tightly with the Marmalade SDK. This will include features such as:

  • Integration into the Marmalade build and deployment system, enabling deployment to all Marmalade supported platforms
  • Test / debug using the more capable Marmalade simulator
  • Development using C++ as well as Lua and XOML
  • Deployment to device from the editor
  • In depth publishing options which enable you to set up all of the different Marmalade deployment options more easily
  • Marmalade code snippets / help / tutorials to aid development
  • Code samples / tutorials section
  • EDK builder to assist in the creation of Marmalade extensions

Other game development systems such as Corona and Gideros will still be supported for now. If you strongly want to keep support for Corona / Gideros then let me know

Marmalade SDK now offering FREE License!

Yes you did read that right! The Marmalade SDK can be freely downloaded and used in all its flavours including:

  • C++ – Create native games and apps in blazing pedal to the metal C++
  • Juice – Easily port existing Objective-C based iOS games and apps to Android
  • Quick – Create games and apps rapidly using Lua
  • Web – Combine the power of C++ and HTML5

Sounds too good to be true? No, not at all. There are some restrictions such as:

  • Limited extensions, but most important ones included
  • Shows advert on boot
  • Shows a splash screen on boot

But hey, you get support for the following platforms out of the box:

  • iOS
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Windows Store
  • BlackBerry 10
  • Tizen

Why am I so excited about the Marmalade SDK providing a free license? As most of you are aware I’ve been developing the open source AppEasy Core SDK which is a powerful game and app engine that makes creating games and apps super simple. This move by Marmalade will help to propagate its usage within the developer community. Not only that it opens the door for other developers to create extensions, middleware and tooling based on or around Marmalade.

Exciting times ahead is all I can say! Well done Marmalade.

What next? Well go and download your free copy of the Marmalade SDK right now.

Goji Editor 1.4 is now available – Corona support added

The newest shiny version of Goji Editor the game IDE is now available for download, now with support for Corona, Gideros, Marmalade Quick and AppEasy.

Changes include:

  • Export and test support for Corona added
  • New property added called Object that enables you to specify the tag or object type that is exported for Gideros and AppEasy
  • Gideros and Quick now export shapes and geometries as tables
  • Named joints are now exported if a name is specified
  • Added collision events to Gideros export
  • Fixed Gideros “Show” action
  • Fixed SVG import crash
  • Fixed docking issue
  • AppEasy circle shape radius was double what it should have been
  • XOML files with XML extension are now recognised as XOML files when imported
  • Fixed various issues with goji lua engine

More info and tutorials etc can be found at http://www.gojieditor.com/

AppEasy Core SDK is now open source!

If I remember correctly I promised a while back that I was going to open up the source to the AppEasy Core SDK. if you don’t know what that is then its a FREE open source cross platform game and app engine for mobiles and desktop that can be re targeted to work on anything you like as long as you implement the platform abstraction layer. At the moment, a Marmalade SDK layer is implemented so you can use it right out of the box. You will however need a Marmalade license to use it, although having a Marmalade license will give you deployment access to a vast range of platforms so its well worth it. if not then simply implement the platform layer for whatever platform(s) you desire. If you dont fancy any of that and just want to use Lua and XOML then you can always give the AppEasy service a try, which lets you deploy apps to iOS / Android and Windows desktop without the need to compile and re-write code etc..

AppEasy Core SDK is basically the big professional and powerful child of the old IwGame Engine. The IwGame Engine started as a tutorial project that I started a few years ago that was meant to teach developers how to use the Marmalade SDK. However, Marmalade has no out of the box game engine so IwGame evolved into a fully fledged game / app engine to fill that gap, although it was hastily developed and built directly on the Marmalade platform. I’m very much a recycler, so that’s not how I generally like to write an engine, I like to have a clear separation between engine and platform so it can be re-targeted at different platforms quite easily. I also wanted to get rid of the obscenely long names and add some proper structure / documentation to make the whole thing more easily understandable.

Well I think I accomplished all that and more, I also added many new features and fixed a mass of bugs along the way. When I get the time I will be replacing the old IwGame Engine page with an AppEasy Core SDK page, for me IwGame needs to be buried now I think.

I also developed a game / app editor called Goji Editor that lets you develop full on games and apps within the editor and export to AppEasy, Marmalade Quick and other engines coming soon, including HTML 5.

AppEasy Core SDK has the following core features:

General Features
– FREE and open source! (MIT)
– Can directly use data exported from the Goji Editor (http://www.gojieditor.com)
– Can be targeted at any development system / SDK by implementing the platform layer
– Marmalade SDK platform already implemented, giving you access to many platforms out of the box
– Develop using XML, Lua and / or C++
– Easy to learn mark-up driven language called XOML that enables rapid development
– Support for Lua scripting
– Styles and Templates
– Local and web based assets
– Proportional sizing and positioning
– Auto screen sizing and device orientation lock
– Local storage access
– Multi-touch input
– Accelerometer and compass support
– Smooth sub-pixel rendering and batch rendering for speed
– Touch panning and pinch zoom
– Persistent data
– HTTP POST / GET defined declaratively
– Access to video camera streaming
– Define actions that can be carried out when events occur

Game Features
– Polygonal based sprites and sprite depth
– texture atlases and batching
– Support for Scenes (game world / app canvas) and Actors (game / app objects)
– Images, fonts, compressed WAV sound effects and and MP3 music
– Animation
– Box2D Physics (fixtures, shapes, materials, collisions and joints)
– Video Playback

App Features
– Create simple or complex user interfaces
– Full support for simple and complex data bindings
– Data definition and organisation
– Access to local and remote data
– Support for SQLite

User Interface Features
– Text input boxes
– Buttons / Check boxes
– Labels
– Icons
– Sliders
– Panels (StackPanel, WrapPanel, Canvas)
– Grids
– Image / Text View – Support for pinch zoom and pan
– Web View (display web content)
– Tab Bars
– Video Overlays
– Sliders
– XML data bindings
– Multi-touch based user interface (up to 5 simultaneous touches)

Monetisation Features
– Ad integration
– In-app purchases

Advanced Features
– XOML Variables
– Modifiers
– XOML Programs and commands
– Inline scripts

Social Features
– Facebook API support

API documentation
API documentation is located at http://www.appeasymobile.com/appeasy-api/

The AppEasy Core SDK comes complete with:
– PDF documentation located in the Docs sub folder
– Extensive doxygen code documentation
– An example app that contains 70 examples demonstrating many parts of the SDK
– An example game
– XML schema for XOML

Whilst free support is not provided, a community support forum is available at AppEasy Community

You can download AppEasy Core SDk from Github

Goji Game and App Editor beta is now available

The Goji Editor has finally entered beta and is now available for download from www.gojieditor.com.

What is the Goji Editor?

One of the more difficult processes involved in developing applications and games is how to create and organise the content. By organising content we refer to managing all of the elements that make up the game or app, such as images, sounds, brushes, physics materials, level layouts, user interface layouts, scripts and so on. The Goji Editor primarily helps you to quickly create and test game levels / app layouts and organise the lifetime of resources as well as test in real-time across different screen resolutions.

Goji’s secondary function is to enable full game and app production using available game and app development systems such as AppEasy / IwGame Engine, Marmalade Quick, Corona, GiderOS, HTML5 etc,.,. Goji aims to be as platform and development system agnostic as possible to ensure that exported data can be used by any development system and on any platform.

What does the Goji Editor look like?

Goji Editor Screenshot

Who is the Goji Editor for?

Goji has been designed primarily for designers and developers that create apps and games for mobile and desktop systems. However, Goji is flexible, supporting a huge canvas area and could be used in any capacity that involves organising and laying out graphical information spatially. Goji is also a great learning tool for students that are interested in learning the process of putting together apps and games in an environment where they can make changes and see the results of those changes very quickly.

What are Goji’s features? 

  • Create and organise game level levels and app layouts into scenes and actors

  • Export to many different game and app engine / programming language formats, including AppEasy / IwGame Engine, Marmalade Quick, JSON, XML (HTML5, Corona and GiderOS coming soon)

  • Export in multi-resolution friendly format, allowing exported data to be used on any sized display

  • Assisted layout editing, including tools to enable easy layout / layout management, bookmarking, edge / vertex snapping, directional cloning and so on

  • Full drag and drop support, drop entire folders of resources onto Goji and Goji automatically sorts them all for you

  • Support for import of SVG, Texture Packer and other formats

  • Support for physics including fixtures, joints and the ability to test physics

  • Definition of gaming logic and play using events and actions lists

  • Support for Lua / Javascript and other language editing, includes syntax highlighting, code folding and search / replace

  • Interactive play mode that launches the game using the built in engine or other engines, also shows coloured debug output

  • Create complete working / runnable projects

  • Support for user properties

Notes:

  • TexturePacker is a tool that is used to combine many images into a single image, usually referred to as a sprite / texture atlas. Packing images into a single image improves rendering performance.

  • SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format is an XML based format that is used to represent two dimensional vector art work. Goji imports the following tags svg (scene), g (layer), image (actor), rect (shape) and path (shape or geometry). SVG is used by packages such as Inkscape and Adobe illustrator

Future features

Features that are currently in development or will be available in the near future include:

  • Export for Corona, GiderOS and HTMl5

  • Complex actions lists

  • Support for animation creation using timelines

  • Deployment to iOS and Android devices

  • Support for audio, video, web views, in-app purchase, ads and many more additional services

How do I download the Goji Editor?

At the moment the Goji Editor is in open beta and is free to use, however the Goji Editor will eventually become a paid product in the future. To download the Goji Editor please register and sign in then click the download menu to be taken to the download area where you can download a beta copy of the Goji Editor.