[!NOTE] This is a spiritual successor to the original guide How to turn Visual Studio Code into Defold IDE.

Defold Kit

A toolkit for Visual Studio Code to develop, build, launch, debug, bundle and deploy a game with Defold.

• 💼 Installing recommended extensions
• 📝 Lua highlighting, autocompletion and linting
• 🛠️ Applying relevant settings to the workspace
• 📘 Lua annotations for Defold API
• 📚 Lua annotations for dependencies
• 🚀 Building and launching
• 🔎 Debugging with breakpoints
• 📦 Bundling for all the platforms
• 📲 Deploying to connected mobile devices

You can not to use the Defold Editor at all if you are only working with code at the moment.

💬 Discuss on the forum

Setup

It's possible to install the extension from Visual Studio Marketplace or manually by downloading the .vsix archive from the realeses page.

After installing the extension and opening a Defold project, you will be prompted to setup Defold Kit with a step-by-step dialogue.

If for some reason this doesn't happen, you can run the Setup command manually.

Path to Defold

Defold Kit requires Defold installed (surprise).

Select the automatically suggested path if it exists, or select the Defold folder manually.

Extensions

Select the extensions you want to install.

The first two are highly recommended, the next three are optional:

• sumneko.lua - Autocompletion, annotations, diagnostics and etc.
• tomblind.local-lua-debugger-vscode - Launching the game and debugging with breakpoints.
• thejustinwalsh.textproto-grammer - Syntax highlighting for .collection, .go and other Protobuf files.
• slevesque.shader - GLSL support for .vp and .fp files.
• dtoplak.vscode-glsllint - GLSL linting for .vp and .fp files.

Workspace

Some additional settings to apply to the workspace.

Debugger Scripts

Displayed if the tomblind.local-lua-debugger-vscode extension is installed.

To debug the game with breakpoints, it's required to start the debugger on the game side. These files allow you to do that.

Launch Configuration

Displayed if the tomblind.local-lua-debugger-vscode extension is installed.

To launch the game from the Run and Debug panel, it's required to add the relevant configuration to the .vscode/launch.json file. The Defold configuration will be added.

Workspace Settings

These settings are recommended for Defold project workspace to make your development more comfortable.

The settings will only be applied to the installed extensions. You can check them in the settings.ts.

Workspace Recommendations

Adds Defold Kit to the .vscode/extensions.json file to appear in the recommended extensions to install for this workspace.

Annotations Syncing

This step is skipping if the sumneko.lua extension is not installed.

Synchronise Lua annotations with the Defold Editor version and project dependencies.

Defold API Annotations

Fethes Defold API annotations from the repository according the settings and unpacks them to the Defold Kit shared storage.

Dependencies Annotations

Unpacks archives from the .internal/libs folder and copies *.lua files from libraries to the Defold Kit workspace storage.

Opening Files from Defold

To open script files from the Defold Editor directly in Visual Studio Code, you must set the following settings by specifying the path to the executable file:

• Windows (user installer): C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe
• Windows (system installer): C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe
• macOS: /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/MacOS/Electron
• Linux: /usr/bin/code

Set these parameters to open specific files and lines:

• Open File: . {file}
• Open File at Line: . -g {file}:{line}

The . character here is required to open the entire workspace, not an individual file.

Run and Debug

Launch

To launch a game ensure that two these steps are done during setting up Defold Kit:

• The local-lua-debugger-vscode extension is installed.
• Launch configiuration are added to the workspace.

Ensure that the Defold configuration selected on the Run and Debug panel and launch it using the F5 keyboard shortcut (default).

Breakpoints

To make the breakpoints work ensure that Debugger scripts are added to the workspace. Then add the debugger.script component to your initial collection or add this code to your initial script:

local debugger = require('debugger.debugger')
debugger.start()

Commands

Commands with the Defold Kit prefix are available in the Command Palette using the [Ctrl/Cmd]-Shift-P keyboard shortcut (default).

Setup

Starts the setup dialogue. It's okay to run this command many times if you are not sure you are ready to turn on all the features at once.

Sync API Annotations

Opens the Annotations Syncing dialogue.

Clean API Annotations

Deletes all the previously synced annotations from the global storage and workspace storage.

Open Defold

Opens the current project in the Defold Editor.

On macOS, the window will be switched if Defold is already running.

Clean Build

Runs a bob instance with the distclean argument to clean the build folder.

Resolve Dependencies

Runs a bob instance with the resolve argument to resolve the project's dependencies. Then synchronises Lua annotations if the Lua Language Server is installed.

Bundle

Runs a bob instance with the resolve distclean build biundle arguments, selected options and defined values form settings.

Executes for all selected target platforms one by one. When finished will prompt you to open the bundle folder.

Platforms

Select which target platforms you want to bundle your game.

Options

• Release — Bundle a Release variant (otherwise bundle Debug variant).
• Texture Compression — Enable texture compression as specified in texture profiles.
• Generate Debug Symbols — Generate the symbol file (if applicable).
• Generate Build Report — Generate the build report file.
• Publish Live Update Content — Publish Live update content.

Deploy to Mobile

Deploy to the connected mobile device with ios-deploy for iOS and adb for Android. These tools must be installed and accessible via shell.

# Will execute for iOS
ios-deploy -b ${ipa_file}

# Will execute for Android
adb install ${apk_file}

The *.ipa or *.apk file is required in the corresponding bundle folder, so run the Bundle command before deploying.

Tasks

Build tasks with the Defold Kit prefix are available using the [Ctrl/Cmd]-Shift-B keyboard shortcut (default).

Tasks are aliases of some commands described above to have a quick access to them.

• Resolve Dependencies
• Clean Build
• Bundle
• Deploy to Mobile

Settings

defoldKit.general.editorPath

The path to the Defold Editor folder.

Running the Setup command is the preferred way to update this value, but you can edit it manually if you're sure of what you are doing.

defoldKit.general.suggestSetup

Suggest to setup Defold Kit if the game.project file is found in the current workspace.

defoldKit.general.showBobOutput

Open the Output panel during a bob instance executing.

defoldKit.annotations.repository

Where to get Defold API annotations. Three options are currently available:

• astrochili/defold-annotations
• mikatuo/defold-lua-annotations
• d954mas/defold-api-emmylua

defoldKit.dependencies.email

User email to resolve dependencies.

Adds the --email ${email} argument during Resolve Dependencies and Bundle commands execution.

defoldKit.dependencies.authToken

Authentication token to resolve dependencies.

Adds the --auth ${authToken} argument during Resolve Dependencies and Bundle commands execution.

defoldKit.bundle.ios.debug.provisioningProfile

Path to the *.mobileprovision profile for Debug variant on iOS.

Adds the --mobileprovisioning ${provisioningProfile} argument during Bundle command execution.

defoldKit.bundle.ios.debug.identity

Code signing identity for the Debug variant on iOS.

Adds the --identity ${identity} argument during Bundle command execution.

defoldKit.bundle.ios.release.provisioningProfile

Path to the *.mobileprovision profile for Release variant on iOS.

Adds the --mobileprovisioning ${provisioningProfile} argument during Bundle command execution.

defoldKit.bundle.ios.release.identity

Code signing identity for the Release variant on iOS.

Adds the --identity ${identity} argument during Bundle command execution.

defoldKit.bundle.android.keystore

Path to the *.keystore file for Android.

Adds the --keystore ${keystore} argument during Bundle command execution.

defoldKit.bundle.android.keystorePass

Path to the *.keystore.pass.txt file for Android.

Adds the --keystore-pass ${keystorePass} argument during Bundle command execution.

defoldKit.bundle.android.keystoreAlias

Name of the alias from the keystore for Android.

Adds the --keystore-alias ${keystoreAlias} argument during Bundle command execution.

Compatibility

It's possible to uncheck all the options during Defold Kit setup and still be able to sync annotations, bundle and deploy the game.

To use your own annotations solution you can skip the Annotations Syncing step or run the Clean API Annotations command.

Due to the flexibility of Defold Kit, it can be used in combination with the Defold Buddy extension, which adds additional sugars and features.

Logs

• The extension outputs logs to the Default Kit output channel.
• A running game with a debugger outputs logs to the debug console.
• A running game without debugger outputs logs to the Defold Engine terminal instance.

Troubleshooting

Defold Kit doesn't see installed extensions and prompts me to install them again.

Make sure that these extensions are activated. Defold Kit cannot distinguish a deactivated extension from a missing extension due to the lack of the corresponding Visual Studio Code API.

The game launched, but the breakpoints don't work.

Make sure that you started the debugger on the game side.

Build in VS Code is fine, but Defold Editor fails with the message module 'debugger.debugger' not found.

This can happen if you call a method on the requested module in a single line. Watch defold/defold/7963 for updates.

-- ✅ Correct way to require in Defold
local debugger = require('debugger.debugger')
debugger.start()

-- 🚫 Wrong way, will fail in Defold Editor
require('debugger.debugger').start()

Limitations

Change breakpoints at runtime

Breakpoints can be set before launch and changed on pauses only. But there is a workaround, you can bind some input key to call debugger.requestBreak() and execution will pause on this line.

Watch tomblind/local-lua-debugger-vscode/#32 and local-lua-debugger-vscode/pull/67 for updates.

Debug on mobile devices

Local Lua Debugger is a local debugger. So you can't debug the game on the device by this way.