It’s been a few days since I’ve posted any updates on the Zwoptex project and that is because I’ve been crazily busy learning Cocoa for desktop and building out the core project.
I’m finally at a point I think where development will be less volatile and it’s getting close to an initial early alpha.
The project has been challenging as Mac OS X development is something I’m not terrible familiar with and it’s definitely different than building an Adobe AIR app. The more I get used to Cocoa the more I love it though and many of my initial hurdles have been jumped over.
Below is a screen shot of the current build in action. Although it is in closed development you can expect to see an alpha in the next week or two.
I recently asked the cocos2d iphone community how they’d like the Zwoptex projects saved as. Specifically I was trying to figure out whether to use a single binary for the entire project like the web version does currently or create an project that uses file references much like XCode and provides an editor for all the suitable file formats.
The single binary provides a really nice single file stores all data as well as a much faster development process while the file reference provides a lot more flexibility and ease of updating/source control should the end user need it.
After researching and trying to implement both options the first releases of Zwoptex will be using the single binary file format. A big reason for this is to speed up the development process so I can focus on the desktop version and new features instead of the file format and project structure.
-Robert
Recently I’ve been working a lot on the Zwoptex App. For those that don’t know Zwoptex is the Cocoa desktop app to replace the current web tool at http://zwoptex.zwopple.com. As I’ve been developing I’ve found more and more that I am still extremely new to Cocoa and Objective-C which has in turn slowed the development as I’ve been researching and reading documentation more than actual coding.
Because of this I’ve changed the route of development to allow for a more rapid desktop release of the current feature set on the web tool as well as some additional ones of course and then plan to enhance it with the original feature set in mind.
Alpha 1 – Mid March 2010):
Alpha 1 will be fairly barebones. Most unfortunately it will only support the Zwoptex Sprite Sheet document a new .zss file which closely resembles the current project binary from the web tool. You will however, be able to open multiple .zss files and edit them all at once. They’ll support things like drag and drop sprites from finder and in-between sprite sheets, undo, redo, and of course most all that is currently in the web tool.
Alpha 2 – Late March 2010):
Alpha 2 will be updates to version one mostly including bug fixes, feature requests and general tweaks. This version should release fairly quickly after the release of version one depending on the user feedback etc..
Alpha 3 – Early May 2010):
Alpha 3 should see the inclusion of the Zwoptex Project document .zwtproj files. The Project-Document behaviour will closely resemble applications like XCode and Textmate.
As a side note I am looking for extra help if I find the right person for Zwoptex. If you have a good understanding of Objective-C and Cocoa and want more information please send an email to contact[at]zwopple[dot]com.
-Robert
