Tutorial for Releasing to the Apple AppStore

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Red Apple Game Sprites Suitable for side scrolling, action, adventure, and endless runner game.
  • Hi guys,

    I've been working on this tutorial in my spare time, its a Work In Progress at the moment, but maybe it can already help some people trying to get their game into the AppStore. I will try to update this frequently over the next few weeks. Any feed back is highly appreciated.

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    ADD PICTURE

    Here is a very straight forward way to get your .capx file running as an XCode app. Just one rule, if something doesn't make sense, please first Google it yourself and try to find and teach yourself how to do it, nothing compares to or beats learn-by-doing in my experience, but if its really impossible you can contact me or comment below (preferred).

    Prerequisites that you absolutely need, NO exceptions:

    1) A Construct 2 private or business license (especially if you hope to make money with your app): https://www.scirra.com/store/construct-2

    2) Your game, it can be finished or a testing version, but must be a .capx file

    3) Some type of Mac computer (very important, if you don't have one, ask friends)

    4) Some testing device(s), the more the better, with possibly current supported iOS versions (extremely important, do not submit anything before thoroughly testing it yourself)

    5) XCode installed on the Mac: https://developer.apple.com/xcode/downloads/

    6) Apple License: https://developer.apple.com/programs/start/standard/

    7) CocoonJS account (my tutorial, so export it my way or figure it out yourself with Ejecta or PhoneGap, but CocoonJS > others): https://sso.ludei.com/ and sign up

    8) Icons and Launch images. 1 AppStore Icon of 512x512 pixels, and then a whole lot of app launch icons: 320x480, 640x960, 640x1136, 768x1004, 1536x2008, 1024x768, 2048x1496. (Note: if you think your game loads fast, simply create these launch screens as black boxes.)

    Let's Get Started

    After all the prerequisites are met, you will have everything necessary to create a fully working Apple iPhone or iPad app. First, let's open our game .capx file.

    Your Game Export Process

    So you've assumably created a wonderful game, which in itself is a great and rewarding experience. Congratulations! I mean it!

    Your dream has become a reality thanks to Construct 2 and you want to share this vision with the whole world, or more specifically iPhone and iPad users.

    Hopefully beforehand you looked up your desired device(s)'s screen resolutions, and limitations such as memory, app size, social feature support, IAPs, etc etc etc. In this department I cannot and will not help you unfortunately, but I'm assuming you've already done all that by yourself.

    So, open up your game, go to:

    File > Export > CocoonJS > and in the pop up select some way your sprites should be or not be compressed, and whether or not you want your code to be minified. Then hit the magic button to start exporting it somewhere like your Desktop or Dropbox. Depending on the style you are or are not compressing your sprites, this process should take 30 seconds to 15+ minutes

    ADD PICTURE

    Once the exporting process is finished, you will get a confirmation pop up and now you can safely close Construct 2. With this new folder, its time to head over to https://www.ludei.com/

    Ludei and CocoonJS

    Just in case you don't know, Ludei provides us with a very nice wrapper designed specifically for HTML 5 games.

    Sign in or sign up > click the 'DEV PORTAL' tab at the top. You should see Your Projects, and most likely its blank right now. Click the green '+ New Project' and add your project, its really simple and should be self-explainatory.

    Once its added to the Dev Portal, you can click on it to edit it. Here you will see a whole bunch of options which you will only need 3 of for Apple.

    Under 'General', give your game a name, Bundle Id (com.companyname.gamename), Version (1.0 for now), choose your Orientations, and Scaling methods. Once that's all done, hit the blue 'Update Project' button.

    ADD PICTURE

    Under 'iOS', upload your AppStore icon (the one players will press to start the game) and the Launch Images. All of them. No exceptions, even if your game is iPhone exclusive, still need iPad. You can load Optional assets, but they're optional. See what I did there? >_>

    ADD PICTURE

    Alright, all set up and happy? You 100% sure? Maybe go and double check to be really REALLY sure, because making an .xcodeproj is going to take about 20 minutes minimum. Okay, cool. Then let's do this! Go to 'Compile Project', add your zip of your game, select only Compile project for Apple AppStore (iOS), run using Canvas+ (best in my opinion for almost all games), use 2.0.0 beta compiler, accept the terms of service, sell your soul to Apple and Compile that game!! WOOOOO!! Now wait something like 20 minutes for the Ludei dudes to send you the .xcodeproj to your specified e-mail. In the meantime, you can prepare iTunes Connect to upload your final finished game. You will NEED a Mac now.

    iTunes Connect

    Go to https://itunesconnect.apple.com/ and sign in, of course on a Mac computer. Click on 'Manage Your Apps.'

    ADD PICTURE

    In the upper left corner is a blue button with 'Add New App'. Once you click on this, you will get this sentence "You have no eligible Bundle IDs for iOS apps. Register one here." Click on here.

    Creating a bundle is what all developers complain about, this is the painful process from Apple which can be complicated and tedious, and leaves a bad aftertaste in the mouth once you finish.

    I'll try to take you through the general steps. First, you need to give your game a name again under App ID Description. The Bundle ID you already created on ludei.com (its com.companyname.gamename).

    Under App Services, you need to decide what to fill in there, like does your game have IAPs or use Push Notifications? Fill all that out and click Continue.

  • Great tutorial thank's.

    Any tips to get traffic for the app?

  • That will be very helpful, thank you!

  • I have a Capxfile game I need to get the Xcode project for so I can submit to iTunes connect. It's been a nightmare trying to follow this tutorial can anyone help me?

  • So wait a minute...I have to purchase a Construct 2 license for $129 before I can convert my capx game to an Xcode project?

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  • appzbywellkunnec

    This tutorial is over 3 years old.

    And yes, you should buy a license, it comes down to legal issues as you can read here https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/57/how-construct-2-licenses-work.

    [quote:3ppenym9]You can also use a Personal license for commercial purposes, up to a limit of $5000. That means if you're an indie dev, you can make up to $5000 revenue from using Construct 2 (for example, by selling games or supporting them with adverts) before you need to get a Business license. Hopefully once you've made $5000 the Business license is easily affordable!

    Individuals can use their license on as many computers as they like, as long as they are the only one who uses it (see Using your license below).

    As for Apple, have fun reading this and figuring it out like I did, that is the real "nightmare" as you put it: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/SubmittingYourApp/SubmittingYourApp.html

  • Hi,

    is it true that apple hates using osx by vmware workstation ?

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