This is amazing.
I have learned lua from this app and my skills are better from this app. 10/10
Doesn’t work
Doesn’t work on my new iPhone. Just a black screen.
Amazing!
Good, just don't want to pay for more than 500 lines of code. I am making a Roblox like game and I need rounded corners, modified squares take up LOTS of code and might need to use thousands of lines of code. Still, Amazing if you are looking to build your own games for friends, family, or yourself! Also add a built in rounded corner please!
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Great app!
This is great app
Good for making games.
I’ve owned Codea since at least 2017 and have made a lot of personal projects on it. Back then I spent hours searching for game development done completely on the iPad all by itself. Codea was just the strongest option back then. I’ve enjoyed scripting in lua these past 9 years. The games you can make are not as free as if it was not on an iPad but it’s still free enough for it to matter and make games. One day, the music() player stopped working and nobody what iPad I’m on I’m not able to actually play music from inside the app.
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Deleted
My initial review was deleted even though it clearly expressed my opinion of this product without unsupported hostility or unrelated tangents. When this application’s publisher restores my valid and warranted review, I will submit an update reflecting my thoughts after having used it,
Lets me code when I fell the itch
I mostly use Codea on my iPhone because I use it when I might be scrolling social media. It’s simple and the documentation and references in the app are really nice, makes it possible to learn even though Codea isn’t that popular on YouTube, etc.
Would love to see more polish on iPhone, but works 99% fine for me. Only bug I have is when I use the space bar cursor move on my keyboard, the cursor in Codea disappears, so I have to use the old hold in the text feature instead, which is fine, just less convenient
Would love to see more polish on iPhone, but works 99% fine for me. Only bug I have is when I use the space bar cursor move on my keyboard, the cursor in Codea disappears, so I have to use the old hold in the text feature instead, which is fine, just less convenient
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Assets don’t work
I open assets from my project menu and everything just freezes, please fix it I wanna finish my game I needed to add custom assets :/
Need Pencil scrolling slider. TOO MUCH ACCIDENTAL WRITING
8/9/25 REVIEW: Too much accidental writing, add a slider to the left of the numbered code blocks, so we can scroll through the code with our Apple Pencil.
We can no longer use Apple Pencil, to highlight code, copy, paste, cut… because codea developers have now made it primarily for writing any time your Apple Pencil touches the editor.
GPT 5 has just made your app *50 million years better* Please give us back our Apple Pencil selection functions back.
5 stars and updated review when fixed
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I’ve owned this app for well over 10 years. I always disliked the developers because they made it a tough environment for *no code background* to use this app. My goal was and still is, to prototype my game mechanics for our VR game we are developing on Unity engine.
Regarding Codea, at first I was determined and even supported by buying their shader app.
Then.. I started noticing, the more I dug the more chaotic it became to learn, the community was good to ask questions and you can get solutions (but you rarely now what questions to ask, when you’re new)
The community didn’t have have guides or tutorials at the time.
The ones they did offer were highly defragmented and not noob friendly.
And the ones you did find that were noob friendly.. were always outdated by 5+ years, and worse..
the developers and community did not provide YouTube resources. (things maybe different now) who knows.
I stopped going to the forums and stopped using Codea altogether for many years.
I eventually learned how to use pre visualization apps like shot pro so I can animate my character models to visualize my game mechanics I was designing for our VR game.
Fast forward to the future 2024:
Now thanks to Chat GPT, I’ll prompt gpt to code my designs of a specific game mechanic on codea.
I then test its game feel. If it passes the game feel test, I then update my design document with any tweaks I may have done during codea stage, pass on the design doc to our (hourly wage) game developer and have them add those mechanics onto our VR prototype for our Quest 3 Headset.
If you are a game designer, because of Chat GPT, you now have the capability to rapidly test your game mechanics.
Otherwise if you are new to coding, want to learn coding - going off my horrible past experiences, I would avoid codea as your learning base.
We can no longer use Apple Pencil, to highlight code, copy, paste, cut… because codea developers have now made it primarily for writing any time your Apple Pencil touches the editor.
GPT 5 has just made your app *50 million years better* Please give us back our Apple Pencil selection functions back.
5 stars and updated review when fixed
—————————-
I’ve owned this app for well over 10 years. I always disliked the developers because they made it a tough environment for *no code background* to use this app. My goal was and still is, to prototype my game mechanics for our VR game we are developing on Unity engine.
Regarding Codea, at first I was determined and even supported by buying their shader app.
Then.. I started noticing, the more I dug the more chaotic it became to learn, the community was good to ask questions and you can get solutions (but you rarely now what questions to ask, when you’re new)
The community didn’t have have guides or tutorials at the time.
The ones they did offer were highly defragmented and not noob friendly.
And the ones you did find that were noob friendly.. were always outdated by 5+ years, and worse..
the developers and community did not provide YouTube resources. (things maybe different now) who knows.
I stopped going to the forums and stopped using Codea altogether for many years.
I eventually learned how to use pre visualization apps like shot pro so I can animate my character models to visualize my game mechanics I was designing for our VR game.
Fast forward to the future 2024:
Now thanks to Chat GPT, I’ll prompt gpt to code my designs of a specific game mechanic on codea.
I then test its game feel. If it passes the game feel test, I then update my design document with any tweaks I may have done during codea stage, pass on the design doc to our (hourly wage) game developer and have them add those mechanics onto our VR prototype for our Quest 3 Headset.
If you are a game designer, because of Chat GPT, you now have the capability to rapidly test your game mechanics.
Otherwise if you are new to coding, want to learn coding - going off my horrible past experiences, I would avoid codea as your learning base.
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It’s Still Great In 2025
I don’t really know what I’m doing but I fumble around with it using the tutorials and playing around with stuff and I’ve managed to create a few games and programs. Great app. With a bit of time and effort, I can see that you could create anything you imagine.
Use w/ GPT
I’ve owned this app for well over 10 years. I always disliked the developers because they made it a tough environment for *no code background* to use this app. My goal was and still is, to prototype my game mechanics for our VR game we are developing on Unity engine.
Regarding Codea, at first I was determined and even supported by buying their shader app.
Then.. I started noticing, the more I dug the more chaotic it became to learn, the community was good to ask questions and you can get solutions (but you rarely now what questions to ask, when you’re new)
The community didn’t have have guides or tutorials at the time.
The ones they did offer were highly defragmented and not noob friendly.
And the ones you did find that were noob friendly.. were always outdated by 5+ years, and worse..
the developers and community did not provide YouTube resources. (things maybe different now) who knows.
I stopped going to the forums and stopped using Codea altogether for many years.
I eventually learned how to use pre visualization apps like shot pro so I can animate my character models to visualize my game mechanics I was designing for our VR game.
Fast forward to the future 2024:
Now thanks to Chat GPT, I’ll prompt gpt to code my designs of a specific game mechanic on codea.
I then test its game feel. If it passes the game feel test, I then update my design document with any tweaks I may have done during codea stage, pass on the design doc to our (hourly wage) game developer and have them add those mechanics onto our VR prototype for our Quest 3 Headset.
If you are a game designer, because of Chat GPT, you now have the capability to rapidly test your game mechanics.
Otherwise if you are new to coding, want to learn coding - going off my horrible past experiences, I would avoid codea as your learning base.
Regarding Codea, at first I was determined and even supported by buying their shader app.
Then.. I started noticing, the more I dug the more chaotic it became to learn, the community was good to ask questions and you can get solutions (but you rarely now what questions to ask, when you’re new)
The community didn’t have have guides or tutorials at the time.
The ones they did offer were highly defragmented and not noob friendly.
And the ones you did find that were noob friendly.. were always outdated by 5+ years, and worse..
the developers and community did not provide YouTube resources. (things maybe different now) who knows.
I stopped going to the forums and stopped using Codea altogether for many years.
I eventually learned how to use pre visualization apps like shot pro so I can animate my character models to visualize my game mechanics I was designing for our VR game.
Fast forward to the future 2024:
Now thanks to Chat GPT, I’ll prompt gpt to code my designs of a specific game mechanic on codea.
I then test its game feel. If it passes the game feel test, I then update my design document with any tweaks I may have done during codea stage, pass on the design doc to our (hourly wage) game developer and have them add those mechanics onto our VR prototype for our Quest 3 Headset.
If you are a game designer, because of Chat GPT, you now have the capability to rapidly test your game mechanics.
Otherwise if you are new to coding, want to learn coding - going off my horrible past experiences, I would avoid codea as your learning base.
Show more
When....?
When Codea code compiles into native apple executables, then I'll buy the lifetime contract which is what I did when I originally purchased it as an interpreter, what's going on with your brains up there in the north. Has Donald Trump psychosis infected you.
Only Review I’ve Written
This app is one-of-a-kind phenomenal. I used to use this as a teen before I had a computer, and I was just brought back here after purchasing a new iPad. I’d recommend this to anyone, personally.
Great in theory, but frequently hangs
A lot of examples don't seem to work on M4 iPad and iOS 18. 3D asset viewer just displays a blank screen, while pressing "Run" in the "Learn Craft" examples makes the whole app hang.
5 stars
Because… of the reviews and it’s my first time using it but I just tried it out and I think I’m gonna love it! Yay!
Broken
Can’t do anything it just crashes
please fix
hello, can you fix the fact that when air code is used and we change something in visual studio, codea crashes and so does the connection
Best IDE on the AppStore
I'm a long time user of Pythonista on iOS, I was sad to see it become mostly abandonware over the last few years. However, the eventual death of Pythonista led to the discovery of Codea.
Now Python and LUA are vastly different languages with very different audiences but if you love to code you to learn to adapt.
That is the only place Codea falls short compared to Pythonista. Documentation and the organization of that documentation. I understand Two Lives Left is an independent studio with a small team and I have nothing but praises for them. But, a LOT of users are going to need good, easy to follow docs with examples of how this engine works to properly get the hang of it.... Myself included....
Honestly calling Codea an engine makes a LOT more sense than calling it an IDE. Sure it's an IDE but it is also a renderer, handles all animation, shaders and so on. This is defold for iOS with some platform specific handcuffs thanks to iOS.
The community is strong, responsive, extremely friendly and helpful and only a click away from within the app. Well done there. This helps fill the void from confusing docs.
Best money I've ever spent in the AppStore, without a doubt.
Now Python and LUA are vastly different languages with very different audiences but if you love to code you to learn to adapt.
That is the only place Codea falls short compared to Pythonista. Documentation and the organization of that documentation. I understand Two Lives Left is an independent studio with a small team and I have nothing but praises for them. But, a LOT of users are going to need good, easy to follow docs with examples of how this engine works to properly get the hang of it.... Myself included....
Honestly calling Codea an engine makes a LOT more sense than calling it an IDE. Sure it's an IDE but it is also a renderer, handles all animation, shaders and so on. This is defold for iOS with some platform specific handcuffs thanks to iOS.
The community is strong, responsive, extremely friendly and helpful and only a click away from within the app. Well done there. This helps fill the void from confusing docs.
Best money I've ever spent in the AppStore, without a doubt.
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Can make games
Like this app. I am making a game with it. It support controller, keyboard/mouse, and touch.
Fake app 🤮 Dont buy: 🛑😡
money theft, not useful for devs 🤮 I’ll contact apple to get my money back,
It does not support any programming languages It's just a pixel game development. 😭
”Robot Mania: Physics Sandbox” is Much better and free. waste of money.
It does not support any programming languages It's just a pixel game development. 😭
”Robot Mania: Physics Sandbox” is Much better and free. waste of money.
