MacAnagram - 29 years in the making!

A new take on an old Word Game has finally been published after 29 years in the making!

MacAnagram, the anagram Word Game for Mac and PC doesn’t just confound you with some cryptic clues, it’s also slightly rude if you get it wrong! It started life in 1987 on my original Macintosh Plus which ran Apple's amazing scripting language, HyperCard! Sadly, Apple abandoned development of HyperCard. The functionality of HyperCard was picked up and extended with a different product and company called RunRev. That as then transformed into LiveCode which is now based in Scotland.

After a major re-design to comply with this modern programming language and to make it Internet compatible, MacAnagram has taken on a new lease of life and is available for you to enjoy!

The screenshot shows how the game provides a random scrambled word based on categories selected! A free hint is provided and all other help is 'purchased'. Clues are mostly cryptic to increase the challenge and it provides a randomized 'slightly rude retort' should you get anything wrong! The dictionaries can either be web-based (most current) or on-board which is updated with each new release of the App. From an Educational point of view, once the answer is revealed, an option to check it out on Wiki pops up in its built-in browser.

You can get it here and read more about it here.

Code an App store accepted game in a week

Dave Probert wrote a complete iPad game (from idea to App store submission) in just a week using Livecode.  The actual approval process took longer than the time it took to write the code!

The game is HexThello - a 2 player boardgame based on the 'Reversi/Othello' type of rules, but using a hexagonal grid instead of the usual squares.  This gives it an added extra two directions of action and requires a little more thought during play.  The game has three modes: two player, one player, and even no player - the program plays itself.

Dave explained "LiveCode provides a medium that was quick to produce a prototype of the game, and then to enhance and develop the final working product in just a few days.  The cleaning up and testing was another couple of days.  For the most part it was quite a painless process.  For anyone out there who is looking at creating a 2D game and wants a lot of control over the precise action, then Livecode is a good solution."

It's in the AppStore.

Build a virtual pet ... when you're eleven!

William Eller used LiveCode to develop his own virtual pet. He was eleven at the time.

Build mobile games

Andre Garzia wrote a couple of simple mobile games for an upcoming book on developing mobile games with LiveCode.

Build a mobile trivia game

Alistair Campbell organised a trivia party with some friends. He wanted a different way to organise the questions so decided to write his own app in LiveCode. I'll let him tell the story:

"The most interesting thing for me was that in that day of LiveCoding I decided that this really needed to be delivered as a mobile app. I had not used LiveCode for mobile development before so I thought this might be a really big ask. In fact, it was incredibly easy. So, right now, I have a working Android app that sits on my phone."

Learn by programming games

Save the bird was written by a 13 year old girl student of Cyril Prusko at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in LiveCode.  It's a cute 3 level game to fly a bird to the finish, collecting cherries for points. You never die, you just get sent back to the start. It took her about 4 weeks. During that period, she also wrote a maze game, an educational game and a few other programs.

Another of Cyril's girl students wrote a spacecraft game. The objective of the game is to collect stars whilst avoiding moving objects. Her original game was a Dr Who game where you flew the Tardis through space. She changed it to a rocket.

Haunt your house

Scott Rossi built this digital ouija board in LiveCode. It generated random phrases for a haunted house event.

Build a battleship game

Scott Rossi produced this prototype battleship game with LiveCode.

Create fast-paced action games

Obleo Beck developed Pop Tone with LiveCode. It's a fast pace casual action board game for iPad with three game play modes.

More information.

Teach your child games programming

Andreas Klostermaier is using LiveCode to teach his young son programming. 

He says "His title artwork might be more promising than the gameplay can hold up to, but I like his absolutely fantasy-full, playful and funny approach to game design. I will never forget his eyes, when his hand painted graphics showed up on the iPad screen for the first time!"

Write asteroids

Mike used LiveCode to write his own version of asteroids.

Work out how to build a pyramid

Andreas Klosermaier was doing a Minecraft project with his son. They wanted to build a pyramid as the ancient Egyptians did (no cheating, real crafting!). They used LiveCode to calculate the resources required for different sizes of pyramid. The point was to find out if they could actually accomplish such a venture in any reasonable timeframe.

I'll let Andreas continue "As you can see from our background image, we were developing some doubts about it when we reached the third level. Meanwhile we have reached level 34."

Write a 'bot' to help you play online games

David Williams wrote a LiveCode server script which is used to implement a Minecraft server bot without altering the game files themselves. It can track the game whilst he's doing something else and gives him hints on what actions to take.