Puzzle Pullooza App With LiveCode

This little puzzle example started out as a little Sunday evening mental exercise. How to create a simple puzzle activity that would work well as a desktop application and as a mobile application. As a result of that effort, I think this little project does a great job of showcasing some of the great features of creating mobile and desktop apps with LiveCode. There is actually a great little book by Colin Holgate, LiveCode Mobile Development, https://www.packtpub.com/application-development/livecode-mobile-development-beginners-guide, that I would recommend that gives another puzzle app example and much more. It’s an easy read and great way to introduce yourself to LiveCode.



Now, back to Puzzle Pullooza. The app is pretty basic in appearance and in its code. To begin, the majority of the code is in the stack script. Here is a Google Docs link where I have shared the code: Puzzle Pullooza Code . You can see from the Google Doc, the code is pretty easy to understand. I have attempted to comment each section of the code to explain what it does. But, you may be able to decipher what the code does without even understanding much programming.

In order to begin poking around the app and discovering how it works, I would recommend you download the free LiveCode Community version of the software, http://livecode.com/download/. This is the full version of LiveCode, but the OpenSource version. You can create apps, compile apps, and do everything you can with the commercial version, you just can’t sell what you create in the Apple App Store.

Once you have downloaded and installed the Community Version of LiveCode, you can download the Puzzle Pullooza app here: Download Puzzle Pullooza

Open it up and have a loop around!

The Puzzle Pullooza app showcased many of the nice feature built into the development tool. First is the ease at which code is written in the development tool, as I shared earlier. The coding features mirror many other development tools, but the plain language, and effort to create with LiveCode far outshine other development tools, in my humble opinion.

As with most applications under development, Puzzle Pullooza suffered from “feature creep.” It was very easy to take components others had shared in their projects and incorporate them into my app.

For example, I added a timer another LiveCode developers had shared online. There’s nothing like adding a stopwatch/timer to increase your level of urgency when solving a puzzle. There is also a very active LiveCode developer list, http://livecode.com/community/, and great Developer resources here: http://livecode.com/developers/.

I thought it would be neat to have folks share out on Twitter when they completed a puzzle. This component demonstrates how easy it is to build a custom web browser directly in your app. In this case, the web browser’s only purpose is to provide the twitter interface for posting to Twitter.

I’d encourage you to take a look at LiveCode. It is a great tool for students and those learning to code. The free Community Edition makes it a “no (cost) brainer.”