I will watch the video. I skipped over it in the email sorry.
Totally fine. Like I said it was long and probably a bit boring. Keep in mind I recorded it after a major marathon session of coding which is probably a no-no.
Can you place link to this file under help (i.e.:bug reporter) … just cuts off a few steps of looking for the link…
I have noticed on all the projects I have created thus far using GDT all have the wrong package name. The created package name is com.bluefiregames.jason.test2 when it should be com.bluefiregames.test2.
This is probably due to me entering my personal name when I created the account instead of my company name. I do not see any way to change this. Perhaps it will be in settings once it is added.
Jason
Another thing I have noticed is that for some reason on Android Tablets the app icon of created projects is blurry (I am using the corona icon).
Jason
One last thing for now is that I am unable to get input from the Amazon Fire TV and the Amazon Stick TV. This is on all projects I have created with GDT and I am selecting the Android TV option (under TV/Console) when I create the project. I am able to get input from normal Corona projects using the Amazon Fire TV and the Amazon Stick TV when creating projects the normal way.
Jason
re: Package Name -
Hi. Thanks for the feedback, but GDT doesn’t control or affect package names. 
That is something you type into the build dialog for Corona:
re: Fuzzy Icons - Yes, the icons may be fuzzy. This is a side-effect of using Corona to generate them. Not being designed as a image editor, Corona doesn’t have the same features as a full blown image maipulator like Photoshop. However, the good news is, the final version of EAT (new name for GDT) will allow you to use the free ImageMagick app to do the actual conversions.
re: Fire TV - Wow, it’s cool you’re trying to build for Fire TV. Please note, that the demo game in GDT is not ready for Android TVs yet. While it should run, the inputs won’t be hooked up. Right now, selecting ‘Android TV’ only ensures:
- The right resolutions are available in a later configuration dialog.
- The build.setttings file has the right Android settings.
Note: If you don’t mind too much, I’m going to ping you later to help me test Fire TV specific features. I don’t have one of these so I always make a note when someone says they have one. :)
I will be happy to help you test Fire TV features.
Jason
I have noticed if I delete a project manually from the hard drive (by pressing the delete key while the folder is selected) EAT does not remove them from the projects tab. Each time the projects tab is pressed you might have EAT check each project to see if it still exists and remove the listing for ones from the project tab that no longer exist.
Jason
Is it possible to reopen a previously created project at a later time to add another template to it. For example create an empty game project then come back the next day and add the mobile ad monetizer to it?
Jason
The tool doesn’t care if you delete or move generated output. This is intentional.
Remember this is a code generator. The output of that generation step has no future linkage to the project record stored by the tool.
You can generate over previously generated output, move it , rename it, whatever you want.
I am also having trouble figuring out how to add A. Feldman 1945 Sprites to a project. How would I go about doing that in EAT?
Jason
re: Re-open project. - Because of this exact issue I’m splitting EAT into separate tools:
- EAT- Frameworks. - Generates EMPTY framework or framework with SAMPLE game. This is a very powerful tool that will let you easily generate working frameworks with things like sharing, rating, leaderboards, IAP, etc.
- EAT - Tools - Tools for creating icons, launch images, particles definitions, etc.
- EAT - Games - A series of discrete game templates made by me and ready to drop right into the customize-able frameworks.
- EAT - ??? - Possible future products depending on engagement with the community.
This will all become clear in the next couple of days as I release first EAT - Frameworks and then EAT - Tools for general consumption.
’EAT - Frameworks’ (Tool 1 derived from GDT work) has been released:
https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/62799-eat-frameworks-released/
Please do not post to this thread any more. Instead, post any comments and questions in thread linked above.
Hi
Here’s my very first report on OSX 10.11.4 MacBookPro13(2010) 1280x800.
It’s all about first launch user experience
Not exactly technical issues but… something people feels.
My First GDT experience was “intercepted” by LittleSnitch (a network filtering app) 
At first launch Little Snitch detected immediately a connection attempt to google.com, blocking it and showing me a popup to request my decision. I’ve then granted permission for all connections but GDT’s test had already failed and i saw the “internet not found” message.
In doing this I’ve lost the slideshow messages: my attention was shifted on Little Snitch requests
After having granted network access in LittleSnitch, the next launches of GDT worked perfectly, but the startup messages were gone forever for me (until I’ve reset the prefs…)
A possible solution might be to perform the connection check only when the app is in a “static” phase. In a screen where I am not required to pay attention to instructions or messages as something external from GDT might break the user flow.
Maybe you might check first on entering the “New Account/Login” pages and then check again upon some user action like pressing one of the create/login account buttons, or on form fill completion (to avoid relaunching the app when the first check fails because of network filtering alerts).
that’s it for my first ten minutes on GDT.
Then i had a small hiccup on new account creation.
The buttons for account creation confused me a little mainly because of their appearance: the enabled state of the OK button is slightly noticeable while the “Create New Account” button is instead clearly highlighted and visible.
So, after filling the form, I instinctively went for the most visible button, the Create New Account one, instead of the OK. I saw the highlight not the text. To be more precise, I really noticed the OK button only the third time i filled the form, after my first account creation attempts failed and reset the form fields.
The same thing can be said for the login page. The OK button gets unnoticed because of the Log In highlighted button.
Summary:
a) the network check might interfere with user first experience
b) the buttons in account/login page can confuse users.
cheers,
G.
P.S.
I’m writing a lot while testing, keeping logs and other stuff.
Isn’t there a risk of overusing the forum? this thread might become a very loooooong one…
A bit of unfair testing: I’ve quit the app while it was downloading assets (during the first download phase).
On next start of the app GDT does not seem to notice that the assets are not there. Only in the Tools page I see a “double click to download” message on the Icon Generator Tool Icon.
The catalog page shows all the assets, as if they were present.
But i know they really don’t exists on my drive as I deliberately interrupted the download/install process.
the ~/Library/Application Support/GDT_ClosedBeta contains only config files and two trees of empty folders (Documents and tmp)
I kept one zipped copy of the contents of ~/Library/Application Support/GDT_ClosedBeta and one of the console-log for future reference and comparison, if necessary.
So i go on, create a project and as expected i get my crash, after the “empty project” selection.
Apr 7 11:15:06 Scrat GDT\_ClosedBeta[1340]: Load content of this project: s\_basic Apr 7 11:15:06 Scrat GDT\_ClosedBeta[1340]: sources.template.t\_basic.package nil Apr 7 11:15:06 Scrat GDT\_ClosedBeta[1340]: ERROR: Runtime error Apr 7 11:15:06 Scrat GDT\_ClosedBeta[1340]: unhandledError: Apr 7 11:15:06 Scrat GDT\_ClosedBeta[1340]: notifyRuntimeError: ?:0: attempt to index field 'projectPackage' (a nil value)
Then I deleted the ~/Library/Application Support/GDT_ClosedBeta, relaunched a fresh copy of GDT, allowed the assets to download and created
My first project.
But then, when i press “Run My Game” nothing happens…
Apr 7 11:32:28 Scrat GDT\_ClosedBeta[1377]: open -n -a "" "/Users/pignus/Desktop/GDT Projects/GS\_test\_beginner\_1/main.lua" Apr 7 11:32:28 Scrat GDT\_ClosedBeta[1377]: 256
Some notes.
Cosmetic:
In the catalog page the bottom-right icons overlap a little with the user message text (in experienced mode only)
Geek notes:
-
in last.settings.json There’s a hardcoded pathToImageMagick pointing to a windows C: drive
-
the “forgot” button did not send the email with my user details.
One Question:
Device Orientation: Why do i Have to choose between portrait and landscape? What if i want to support rotation in all orientations?
That’s all for today.
Ciao
G.
Ed-
In Beginner mode - Mac osx
When I create a game, generate works great then press “Run My Game”… nothing happens. From the created app, I can run the app in luaGlider or zeroBrane the game does work. The simulator is not being called (for me) I do not know how to attach simulator to GDT
@sierramanagment
Can you press “Show my code”? If you can it will open the game folder.
Do you see “run.bat”? Wait. Your on Mac. Sorry.
I’m guessing there’s something similar to get the code running? Can you take a screen shot of your folder? Thanks!
May i ask how you work with the credit system? Is it stored locally or all on server?
Seems like it’s stored on the server but i’m not sure.
@g.sciacchitano,
re: Delay internet test till login screen/account creation. - Good idea. I’ll put that on the list.
re: Buttons being confusing. - Agreed. I’ll give this whole thing a once over on art and aesthics before the open beta starts. I wanted to before the closed beta, but I more wanted you guys to get this more…
re: risk of breaking the forums - I’ve been assured it will be fine even if the thread gets very long. So, lets filler up.
re: Killing app during download. - Dang. I failed to say ‘don’t do that’ in the video. Actually, thats cool. I hadn’t tested that yet. I’ll run through some tests however. Ideally, the app would detect you didn’t download all the content and try to download them on the next launch or give you the opportunity to re-download them.
Note: There is an update button on the (otherwise empty) home page. If you click this, it should download the missing content.
re: ImageMagic - That is left over from the alpha. I left it in because I’m going to give folks the option of using ImageMagick to do any art generation, scaling, etc. Using Corona is good, but ImageMagick does a better job. i.e. Corona is not a art processing tool while ImageMagick is.
re: Landscape and Portrait - I struggled with this for a bit. I’ll experiment to see if it matters anymore. Initially allowing both made writing the other bits difficult. Finally, I decided… it is extremely rare that a game support both landscape and portrait and this is a game making tool first. However, again, I’ll see if it matters any more and if not, allow either.
Extra Note: One of the biggest challenges of making a tool like this is the interconnectedness of the most mundane seeming details. Like i said, “Pull a string here and a bell rings over there”, but its more like, “Pull a string an 10 bells ring and a piano plays, add a trumpet and the orchestra loses their sheet music…”
re: Can’t run game from GDT - I was afraid that might happen. I autodiscover the location of the latest binary, but if it isn’t where I expect it to be, the App fails to find it. I’ll add an update to the GDT beta to explicitly list the path where it thinks Corona is, so if it doesn’t find it you can type in the path manually (or maybe use the explorer to find it)… I’ll have to think on this a bit, but I should have an update for early next week.