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Publishing a Windows/Mac/Linux Game
by Jon (Updated on 2015-10-17)
Contents
- Introduction
- Windows
- Mac
- Linux
- FAQ
Introduction
Stencyl supports the creation of native, standalone apps for Windows, Mac and Linux. These apps feature hardware accelerated graphics and consequently, better performance than their web or mobile counterparts.
Note: Publishing desktop games is a paid feature. Purchase a license to access this functionality.
Windows
Requirements
- Windows 7 or better
- We recommend Visual Studio 2013 for best results. The free editions are fine.
You can either install Visual Studio on your own, or if you attempt to run a Windows app from Stencyl, we’ll download the Visual Studio installer for you and then ask you to run it. We'll assume the latter.
Setup
-
After opening up a game in Stencyl, select Run > Windows from the main menu.
-
Stencyl will download the Visual Studio installer to your system. After that finishes, run the installer.
- Once you install Visual Studio, you’ll need to reboot your computer for Stencyl to recognize it.
Testing
To test your game, select Run > Windows from the main menu.
This step may take a while. You may find it useful to turn on the Log Viewer (View > Log Viewer) prior to running to see what's going on and catch any unforeseen errors.
Publishing
To publish your game, select Publish > Desktop > Windows from the main menu. This will export your game as a ZIP containing an EXE and the resources associated with the game.
Note: We don't support exporting the game to a single, bundled EXE. We tried to wrap them in the past using free solutions, but they were (wrongly) flagged by AV software, so we discontinued that experiment. If you must wrap an EXE, you can use a thid party utility such as Molebox to do this.
Mac
Requirements
- A Mac with Yosemite (OS X 10.10) or better
- The latest release of Xcode
- Registration in the Mac Developer Program (if publishing to the Mac App Store)
Setup
-
If you don't have Xcode, install it from the Mac App Store.
-
Launch Xcode, go to its Preferences, flip to the Downloads Tab and install Command Line Tools.
- If you are publishing to the Mac App Store, you must set up your App on iTunes Connect.
Testing
To test your game, select Run > Mac from the main menu.
This step may take a while. You may find it useful to turn on the Log Viewer (View > Log Viewer) prior to running to see what's going on and catch any unforeseen errors.
Publishing
When publishing for Mac, you have two options. You can publish for the Mac App Store (.PKG) or export the game as an App Bundle (.APP) for providing on a personal website.
- If you are publishing to the Mac App Store, view our dedicated article on that process.
- If you are publishing an App Bundle (.APP), you can do so by selecting Publish > Desktop > Mac from the main menu.
Linux
Note: We’re not Linux experts, so if you run into issues or have edits to propose, please submit a pull request on Github. For additional tips, visit our Installing on Linux article.
Requirements and Setup
- Ubuntu 11.04 or better
- All standard build tools such as gcc/g++ should be installed.
Run sudo apt-get install ia32-libs-multiarch gcc-multilib g++-multilib to fetch those build tools if you are unsure.
On Ubuntu 12.04 or better? Run sudo apt-get install gcc-multilib g++-multilib instead.
Testing
To test your game, select Run > Linux from the main menu.
This step may take a while. You may find it useful to turn on the Log Viewer (View > Log Viewer) prior to running to see what's going on and catch any unforeseen errors.
Publishing
To publish your game, select Publish > Desktop > Linux from the main menu.
FAQ
Can I publish a Mac app from a Windows computer?
No. You’ll need to use a friend’s Mac or figure out other ways to do this. The same goes for any “cross” platform combination. You can only publish to the platform of your host computer.
Can I publish to the Mac App Store?
Yes. We have an article on that.
How about the Windows Store?
You can, but we don't directly export to a Windows Store ready format. You'll need to wrap the app up on your own.
I just installed Visual Studio, but Stencyl claims I didn’t.
Reboot after installing Visual Studio.
Print Article Edit Article How to Edit an Article20 Comments
To make sure that Stencyl has tried to install Visual Studio in your Windows PC, then you might have noticed that while rebooting the system, Windows configures something. If Windows did configure its settings then Stencyl has successfully installed Visual Studio.
1
"I just installed Visual Studio, but Stencyl claims I didn’t.
Reboot after installing Visual Studio. "
I did and it STILL didn't work.
1
Hello to everyone, i just finished the crash curse 1, and for the ones try/developing on linux (specifically linux mint 17, or ubuntu 14.04), i've just finished the last step (test your game), with the same steps as for ubuntu 12(.04), and one last advice, also install the
libsdl1.2-dev
library, and the test will run just fine (without it, well, it just won't :P)
Note: I'm using the most current (to date) version of stencyl, 3.1
Note2: I'm not sure if its relevant, but i also have the latest (to date) version of JDK 8.0
0
Hi Jon (and others). I would like this document to clarify something for Linux. Specifically, "Ubuntu 11" and "Ubuntu 12" makes no sense. While it may seem that Ubuntu follows the traditional major_release.minor_release scheme, the version numbers are actually year.month, so there can be as much dfiference between 12.04 and 12.10 as there is between Stencyl 2 and Stencyl 3. Please clarify your instructions with actual Ubuntu versions.
0
Heads Up: We're rewriting this article for 3.0 since none of this process applies in the new version.
1
you have to run stencyl in administrator mode by right clicking it and selecting 'run as admin' that way you've given it permission
0
I'm still getting this after trying to manually install the adobe air sdk and replacing the files. I tried in the beta version and the regular version and have tried reinstalling and am still getting this issue.
"Error
"Could not export, this may be because of file permissions
the following page may help"
0
