Lightwell
p/lightwell
The Lightwell team is now a part of Twitter.
Alexis Ohanian
Lightwell — A simple tool for creating native iOS apps on Mac 💻 📲
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Lightwell is a powerful creation tool for artists, designers, and developers. Build, prototype and publish your own native iOS app without writing code.

Replies
Ricky Yean
Congrats Suzanne! Been waiting for the release to power storytellers everywhere to build interactive stories without writing code!
Suzanne Xie
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Maker
@rickyyean Thanks Ricky!
Alexis Ohanian
I’ve been following Suzanne and her team since they released their first interactive story app on the App Store. Now with Lightwell, they are changing the app creation process for all artists and storytellers. Lightwell is a Mac app for creatives to make iOS apps that export to Xcode. It is simple, yet powerful — and I can’t wait for you to try it out. Give them some PH love and let’s create a new world of content! 👍
Suzanne Xie
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Maker
Thanks for the hunt @alexisohanian and hi everyone! We’re super excited to launch on PH today and hear what you think! 🚀 We started building apps six years ago, and created an interactive 8-book app series called “The Adventures of Pan.” Each app took us 9 months to create from start to finish, and we came to a realization: that building apps should be easy (at least easier than it was)! Thus, Lightwell was born. It was developed in-house to help us streamline the process of app creation, and the same app that took us 9 months was rebuilt in Lightwell in 2 weeks. Over the last few months, we’ve worked closely with a bunch of creators to understand how to make Lightwell an even more useful and powerful tool for them. We’re happy to share Lightwell 3.0 with the PH community today, and can’t wait to see what you create! ✨ A couple of key features we’re proud of: Completely redesigned interface for easier creation Auto image conversion and scaling Master scene templates for faster creation Rapid previewing and prototyping with a companion iOS app Optimized asset management, for all iOS devices and screens Auto phoneme lip sync calculation Over the next few weeks, we’re going to share interviews and stories of creators who are creating their first app in Lightwell, and engaging with their audience in an entirely new way. Feel free to follow our Medium page for more updates: https://medium.com/lightwell-pro 💌 --- As a thank you for joining us on our PH launch today, please use a code “PH50” for 50% off the first year or first three months of Lightwell, for this week only! --- We’ll be here to answer questions all day 👋 Suzanne, Max, Mike, Ben, Miles
Arun Pattnaik
@alexisohanian @suzannexie I want to hold off purchase until you have sketch support (haven't used photoshop in years), but I don't want lose the 50% off. Do you have a public roadmap for Sketch integration (or other features)?
John Lynn
I worked directly with this team during my time helping at the Techstars NYC program, and, for sure, they are among the smartest, most tenacious, and team-centric innovators I know -- they are doing something awesome with core technology on this one, and it is a gift to creatives everywhere. Happy to see it up on PH and looking forward to big things coming up!
Miles Hilton
@jmlynn7 that's definitely been my impression of the team since I've started working here 😃 anything in particular that you're looking forward to?
Suzanne Xie
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Maker
@jmlynn7 you know how to make a team 😊 ! We loved working with you too, those were fun times. Super excited to bring this internal tool to all creators! cc @alexiskold
Max Rose
Aww shucks @jmlynn7 😅 Thanks for the shout out! We've been taking all of our learnings from our own app creation process and a whole bunch of other artists and have been putting it into Lightwell 🤓 We'd love to know what you think of the new version!
G G
Looks good I wonder how it compares to dropsource.com The price is cheaper too. As long as it has more features than Dropsource this is a winner.
Max Rose
Hi @androidlove! Thanks for checking us out! It looks like Dropsource is made for teams and companies to build traditional menu based apps. Whereas we built Lightwell for independent artists and designers to be able to make content driven apps. This includes key frame animations, touch and gyroscope effects, and quick calculation of phonemes for matching mouth sprites to a piece of dialogue 😁
Antonio García

Been experimenting with earlier versions of Lightwell for a while now and love where the team has taken the platform. Its perfect for content creators looking to build and prototype interactive stories, learning modules, graphic novels, lightweight applications and games. You can tell right away it was designed with visual storytelling in mind. If you're an illustrator, animator or motion designer with tale to tell, check it out.

Pros:

Building interactive time-based narratives without code

Cons:

Nothing off the top of my head.

Scott Valentine
Disappointed that Sketch integration is not a feature but I guess this is a "story-app" builder, not a platform that allows you to create functional applications. That was not clear from the value prop headline. Good luck nonetheless.
Suzanne Xie
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Maker
@scott_valentine we have a Photoshop script that cuts all your layers for import into Lightwell, and are working on integration for Sketch and Illustrator next. They are on the roadmap for the near future! While we think Lightwell is the *best* platform for interactive story apps (anything content-driven, really), we're also working on adding more functionality outside of content. Let us know what you're looking for, happy to hear from other makers. Thanks for checking us out!
Scott Valentine
@suzannexie Hi Suzanne. I app-reciate your quick response! 🙄 I'm looking for video camera and video player function. Will keep an eye on your platform as you progress on your roadmap!
Suzanne Xie
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Maker
@scott_valentine Haha :) Cool, that's good to know. We're looking into that type of functionality for the future API. Thanks!
Tepes Ovidiu
Glad to see Lightwell here again, love the design of the website! Thanks for the promo code :)
Suzanne Xie
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Maker
@ovidiutepes thanks Tepes! Would love to hear what you think when you try it. :)
Miles Hilton
@ovidiutepes Thank you! @benjamingage designed the site, and I coded it up. What do you think of the new software design?
Markus Steinbach
Excited to try this
Suzanne Xie
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Maker
@markussss Let us know what you think :)
Mike Karaś
Looks great :D I will try it.
Suzanne Xie
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Maker
@mikekara9 Thanks!
Max Rose
Thanks for your support yesterday everyone! Just posted and update to v3.0.1. Looking forward to hearing what you all think about Lightwell. If you have any questions or feedback, you can always reach us at support@lightwell.pro Happy hunting!
COMRAD

Lightwell makes it super easy to create an iOS app with a focus on storytelling and intuitive UI without code. Highly recommend this app.

Pros:

Intuitive and Easy to Use

Cons:

can't think of any