RapaNui: a new, open-source, high-level programming framework for Moai

[mikea]

YMobe Ltd. led by Moai community member ugo.landini has created a new high level framework for Moai games called RapaNui.

RapaNui (which was also the name of the indigenous people of Easter Island) gives game developers an open-source, ready-to-use, high-level framework for writing games with far fewer lines of code.

YMobe put together a very exciting 2 minute video of the RapaNui sample games and the code behind them, which we’ve re-embedded here because it’s just so good. :-)





Whether you’ve been looking for a framework just like this to speed your development along, or you’re planning to right your own high-level framework for your game sometime soon, you will probably want to check out the RapaNui code at Github.

Here’s a top ten feature list for RapaNui.  For the rest of the framework’s description and the Github link, please visit the Ymobe web site.

• Add Images, sprite animation sequences, and text with one line of code


• Schedule function calls with one line of code


• Add scene transitions (alpha, scale, move, rotate) with one line of code


• Easy touch callback function system


• Easy Physics support with one line of code (shapes, fixtures, forces, joints, collision handling)


• Tile Maps: support for full xml and lua maps


• Tile Maps: move maps on screen changing only x or y map's properties


• Tile Maps: maps clipping, only visible part is rendered on screen


• More than 30 samples to see how to use APIs


• 3 simple games examples included in the distribution: SunGolf, AngryDogs, Brick2D

Thanks to YMobe for building on top of Moai, and offering this version as open source!

- Mike.

[anddrewscott]

+1 This is a great framework. It is very similar to a closed-source competitor.

[teguhasep]

great framework... :)

i have tasted it.. i like Angry Dog game.. :D

[doctorludic]

This is excellent! I really appreciate the bundled sample games, as I feel that's the easiest and fastest way to pick up the language/platform/api :) 

[teguhasep]

Hello all... :)

i can't running sample everything under "Maps" in RAPANui API.. anyone help me...? :(

[stefano.linguerri]

Hi M Teguh A Suandi,



I'm from Rapanui team, if you found bugs or other problems feel free to open issues on github.

Let me know which problem you are facing.

Anyway consider that I'm rewriting the implementation (the API should remains the same) of TiledMaps support using MOAIGrids to boost performance API.



regards,

Stefano

[marcc3d]

I downloaded rapaNui framework, but it seems is not possible to run sample games on windows. I followed the instructions but it is aimed to mac users. Is there anyway to run the samples on windows, is it possible to use it to make android games? If so, where can I find a tutorial explaning how to do that?



Thx,

Marcos.

[stefano.linguerri]

Hi Marcos,

Yes samples run under windows, we will add an how to for win asap, sorry.

Rapanui wraps MOAI and doesn't contains "native" code, so should run on android too (we did some tests), now we are developing/testing both on mac/ios and windows anyway android it's on our todo list as well!



Stefano

[cobrocci]

Ciao Stefano e.. complimenti! :)

I would like also some documents and tutorial for this great high level framework!

[marcc3d]

Ok, Stefano I will wait, but could you post here on forum how can I run theses samples using windows? I know you are busy developing this amazing tool, but I am very anxious to starting using rapaNui. Anyway thanks for the quickly reply.

[mattfortunati]

Hi Marcos,

I'm the guy from RapaNui team who developes on Windows OS.

I've just commited a change to the README file to explain how to properly run RapaNui on Windows.



It's not that hard:

You should simply download RapaNui from GitHub and create a .bat file in the main directory in which you specify the paths of the moai.exe , config.lua and the lua file you want to run. 



For Example if your Moai files are under "C:moai-sdk" your .bat file will look like:

"C:moai-sdkbinwin32moai.exe"

"C:moai-sdksamplesconfigconfig.lua"

"main.lua" 



This is the same way the Moai samples work, too.

I hope you will enjoy the framework, thanks for your feedback.



Have Fun,

Mattia

[anddrewscott]

This is my setup for Rapanui:


This keeps the folder cleaner. 



run.bat contents:

@echo off
:one
"RN/moai.exe" "main.lua"
goto :one
end



run.sh contents:

while true

 do

../moai-beta/bin/osx/moai "main.lua"

done

 

(moai app - built in Xcode, main.lua)

[marcc3d]

Thank you Mattia for your efforts in help me, I tried what you said but I got this error mensage:


PANIC: unprotexted error in call to Lua API (main.lua:17: attempt to index global 'RNPhysics' (a nil value) - I don't know what could be wrong.

[cobrocci]

Everything works fine, but is there a way to have API Docs? Oh, and just a total noob question.. Can i still use the MOAI syntax or am i forced to work with this wrapper? (for example loading an image)

[anddrewscott]

You aren't forced to only use the wrappers (RN) API, you can use both RN and MOAI APIs. That is the beauty of it all.

[cobrocci]

woha! That's amazing thanks.

The only problem (which isn't that big) is that i need to check wrappers functions only by trial and by checking samples or is it supposed to be a documentation for them somewhere in the future?

[ugo.landini]

Yep, the best documentation now is ... the demo examples.

But we'll work on tutorials and docs as soon as possible, probably immediately after our first rapanui game release.

And being open source, writing a tutorial could be a great way to contribute :)

[mattfortunati]

To Marcus:

It's hard to help you if you don't post the code!

But probably you got that error because you haven't loaded RNPhysics correctly with

require("RNPhysics")



You should check how RapaNui's main.lua works :

it's a good example of how to properly load framework and samples.



Let me know,



Mattia

[anddrewscott]

require("RNPhysics")

makes a global variable RNPhysics*. Now Globals are be bad.



*(It is the same as 'RNPhysics = require("RNPhysics") ')

A better way to manage modules is to use a table to manage the modules.



So inside RNPhysics.lua you would have:

local RNPhysics = {}

RNPhysics:foo()

    –do some things

end 

return RNPhysics



Is that correct?

[stefano.linguerri]

Hi Andrew,



Thank you for the link and for the help and feedback you are giving (from the beginning!).

Now there are things that work because of globals, so it will take a bit to get rid of lua modules, but it's absolutely possible.

We will refactor the code as much as possible in next releases.



thank you,

Stefano

PS: pm me with your mail