Pancakes for everyone

rolfpancake

Hi I'm rolfpancake or rolfo in short.

I discovered Gideros only a few days ago and after played around with it a bit, it catched me. /:)
I come from a python (kivy), godot (gd-script) and love2d (lua) background and wanted to dive more into lua app and game programming.

What I really liked at first sight is the Gideros Studio and it's simplicity. I didn't even had to read a guide to get some examples running. No additional installation needed, no cracks and dependency hooks. Kind of candy - I hope I won't get addicted

At first I searched tutorials and such but there isn't much readable stuff around. I found a book and some tutorials here in the forum (which are sometimes not available anymore and there is no central collection with links).
The docs are quite nice - especially the getting started guide. But I wasn't able to find a pdf-version (I like it printed). So I created one (attached).

Is there some other material around?

Thanks in advance!

You see: I am already hooked. :-bd

antix

@rolfpancake - Hi, and welcome. One of the devs wrote a book about how to make a game with Gideros. It's available on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Gideros-Mobile-Development-Arturs-Sosins/dp/1849696705). It wasn't expensive and I personally found it a good starting point.

If I wasn't so busy writing code I would make some tutorials but my partner says I'm only allowed a year off work to indulge myself (make a game or two) so I just don't have the time right now 3:-O

There's a game template somewhere in the code snippets section and the provided examples are all pretty easy to hack into your own projects.

There are a bunch of oldish tutorials about on the net.. http://bluebilby.com/ http://appcodingeasy.com/ but nothing much more recent as far as I know. It would be great to have more. If only I could get paid to make tutorials

Anyway just ask and usually somebody can help you out with any questions you have \:D/

totebo

Yeah, you're hooked.

rolfpancake

Hehe now I see why everyone around here likes the forum. Highspeed answers and helpfulness. I really appreciate that.

@antix:
Thanks for the suggestions. Fortunately I got that book as an ebook on packt publishing while it was free for one day. It will be my next evening read.

antix

@rolfpancake - I can highly recommend downloading and using ZeroBrane as your code editor. It is way better than the supplied Gideros Studio, which you still have to use now and then to add/remove resources from your projects.

Ninjadoodle

Hi @rolfpancake

I felt exactly the same when I first downloaded Gideros. I love the one stop shop system - you get everything you need in one download, including a texture packer and font creator.

The editor is really cool too, as I love how you get to manage your assets and test on your device instantly. It is sooooooo much better and well thought out, than every other SDK I've ever tried.

I honestly found Gideros really straight forward to get started with. The awesome thing is, that if your start working on a project and don't know how to do something specific, just post here on the forums, and someone more experienced will usually help out within a few hours. The community here is the best one I've ever been a part of. Everyone is very friendly and helpful.

@antix lol, I actually really like the Gideros code editor. I love it's simplicity and the fact that it has everything you need build in, and nothing you don't. Sure, it could be more featured - but I really like it

antix

@Ninjadoodle - I also like Gideros Studio. Once you hit 10,000 + lines of code you will appreciate ZeroBrane's Outliner pane. Once you have tried Outline, you will find it hard to go back unfortunately 8->

Ninjadoodle

Hi @antix - Yeah, I can understand how that would be a problem!

I used Sublime Text with the previously engine I was using, and I thought that was pretty good too. I guess I'm lucky with the type of games I make, as most of the time I have small minigame type puzzles/levels separated into different lua files.

This makes it really easy for me to organise and find my way around. I can see however how this would be impossible with a game where this can't be done.

SinisterSoft

@antix Then put a request on Github for that to be added to the editor.

keszegh

Hi @rolfpancake, gideros editor is indeed cool, gideros is cool to be a full featured toolset. yet, i also miss e.g. an outline window, and don't be afraid to try zerobrane studio, it's very intuitive too, you will learn to use it in a very short time. and it also allows you to debug more efficiently (watch, stack, stop debug at any line) and other goodies.

antix

@SinisterSoft - I could, but I really am happy to use ZB right now. I'm more keen to see things like APK creation without requiring Android Studio

hgy29

@antix, I am already using APK export and yes it is a big time saver! You'll need android sdk, java and apache ant installed, but once you have everything set up, Gideros will be able to build your APK for you, including app icon!

rolfpancake

Already fell in love with this forum :x

I once used ZeroBrane ages ago and felt it was quite mature. But I also used Atom or just Notepad++ for scripting and had no big hassles.

Yeah this 'one stop shop system' @Ninjadoodle mentioned is one point which hooked me at first. It is easy to concentrate on the framework itself, if you don't have to mess around with things on the sides.

Also the docs are made with love, well formatted and filled with examples. This is a huge advantage over other open source engines/frameworks.

antix

@antix, I am already using APK export and yes it is a big time saver!

@hgy29 - I'm really looking forward to this Quality of Life improvement

@rolfpancake - I don't find the documentation very friendly. It's functional yes, but personally I find the navigation a pain when it keeps collapsing sections and whizzing all over the place. It really would be better as some static tree where you can expand and collapse as required.

rolfpancake

@antix - I think this is a result of the responsive approach. An option for expanding and collapsing the whole tree would be nice though.

simwhi

@rolfpancake Welcome aboard!! When we switched from XYZ framework to Gideros there was no looking back.

@antix I use ZB too. I also edit my resources directly in ZB. It's just XML, so it's very quick and easy.

antix

@simwhi - true, I never even bothered to open up a gproj, easy )