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Your game as a Mac, iPhone and iPad app

JumPHP makes your game real Apple apps, with no browser: PHP 8.5, SDL, OpenGL and OpenAL run inside the app, as on a computer and in the native Android app.

  • Mac: one app for Apple silicon (M1 and later) and Intel Macs, macOS 11 or newer, as a .dmg;
  • iPhone and iPad: an .ipa, iOS 14 or newer, with the on-screen controls drawn by the engine and the game's orientation; and the same app for Xcode's simulator.

Building an Apple app needs Xcode, so a Mac. You don't need one: GitHub builds it on one of its Macs (free for a public repository), from any computer. You need a JumPHP project on your computer (on your computer) and a GitHub repository. Your Claude can do it all for you: ask it "make the Mac and iPhone apps of my game".

One command

bin/jumphp apple my-game      # Mac + iPhone / iPad
bin/jumphp macos my-game      # only the Mac
bin/jumphp ios my-game        # only the iPhone / iPad (and the simulator)
  1. The first time, it asks the app's identifier (io.github.you.my-game: it never changes once on the App Store).
  2. It writes the version in games/my-game/apple/app.json, puts the workflow .github/workflows/apple.yml in your project, commits them and, after your yes, pushes.
  3. GitHub builds the apps on a Mac (first time ~40 minutes, then ~10: PHP and the libraries are kept in the cache), then tries them: the Mac app runs the game and keeps a picture of it, the iPhone app is installed in a simulated iPhone, launched and photographed.
  4. It publishes a release of your repository with the apps and both screenshots, and downloads them into games/my-game/dist/apple/ (the screenshots in check/: look at them).

Next versions: bin/jumphp apple my-game --version 1.1 (the build number goes up by one each time). On a Mac with Xcode: --local builds everything there.

Files outside git (an original game's data, kept out of a public repository, like the playground's private files): the command finds them and, after your yes, puts them in a draft release of your repository, which only its writers see; GitHub's Mac puts them back into the game before building it. The apps themselves contain these files: their release is then a draft too, you decide whether to publish it.

Without an Apple developer account (to start)

The apps are signed "ad hoc", with no identity:

  • Mac: the first time, right click on the app > Open (macOS asks once). Fine for you, your friends, your testers.
  • iPhone / iPad: an iPhone only installs an app signed for it. The .ipa waits for the account (below). In the meantime: the simulator's app (on a Mac with Xcode), and the web version installs from Safari (Share > Add to Home Screen).

With an Apple developer account (next)

Each developer uses their own Apple Developer Program account ($99 a year): the apps are published under their name, with their certificates, kept in their repository's secrets. It is needed to:

  • open the Mac app without the right click: Developer ID signing and notarization by Apple;
  • install the app on an iPhone, send it to TestFlight, then to the App Store.

That is JumPHP's next step. The App Store accepts a PHP game: the code runs inside the app and ships with it, nothing is downloaded later (guideline 2.5.2).

Touch controls

On iPhone and iPad the engine draws the on-screen controls as in the browser and on Android: the d-pad (or a joystick), A, B and START. They are set in game.yaml:

game:
  touch: { pad: stick, a: Space, b: Escape, labels: { a: JUMP } }   # pad: stick = joystick, else the d-pad

A gamepad (Bluetooth, MFi) works too. On a Mac: keyboard, mouse, gamepad, as on a computer.

Inside the app

  • PHP 8.5 built for Mac (Apple and Intel) and iPhone with JumPHP's extensions (SDL and its image, sound and font modules, OpenGL, OpenAL, gd, openssl, mbstring...), SDL2 and OpenAL Soft. No JIT: Apple forbids it on iPhone.
  • Your game, as is, inside the app. Saves and options go to the app's folder (Application Support) and stay from one update to the next.
  • The name, the icon (assets/icon.png, else the title's initial) and the orientation (the game's shape) come from game.yaml.
  • 3D games (gl(), opengl()) work: OpenGL ES on iPhone, OpenGL on Mac (the engine adapts the shaders itself).
  • HTTPS works ($engine->http(), online play over wss://).

Technical details: docs/apple.md in your project.