doc/docs/en/manuals/macos.md

---

title: Defold development for the macOS platform

brief: This manual describes how to build and run Defold applications on macOS

macOS development

Developing Defold applications for the macOS platform is a straight forward process with very few considerations to make.

Project settings

macOS specific application configuration is done from the OSX section of the game.project settings file.

Application icon

The application icon used for a macOS game must be in the .icns format. You can easily create a .icns file from a set of .png files collected as an iconset. Follow the official instructions for creating a .icns file. Brief summary of the steps involved are:

1. Create an iconset folder, eg foobar.iconset

2. Copy icon files to the created folder:

   • icon_16x16.png
   • [email protected]
   • icon_32x32.png
   • [email protected]
   • icon_128x128.png
   • [email protected]
   • icon_256x256.png
   • [email protected]
   • icon_512x512.png
   • [email protected]

3. Convert the .iconset folder to a .icns file using the iconutil command line tool:

   iconutil -c icns -o foobar.icns foobar.iconset
   

Signing and notarizing your game

Apple requires all software distributed outside the Mac App Store to be notarized by Apple in order to run by default on macOS Catalina. Refer to the official documentation to learn how to add notarization to a scripted build environment outside of XCode. Brief summary of the steps involved are:

1. Sign your game using codesign:

   $ codesign --force --sign "Developer ID Application: Company Name" --options runtime --deep --timestamp Foobar.app
   

2. Zip and upload your game for notarization using altool.

   $ xcrun altool --notarize-app
              --primary-bundle-id "com.acme.foobar"
              --username "AC_USERNAME"
              --password "@keychain:AC_PASSWORD"
              --asc-provider <ProviderShortname>
              --file Foobar.zip
   
   altool[16765:378423] No errors uploading 'Foobar.zip'.
   RequestUUID = 2EFE2717-52EF-43A5-96DC-0797E4CA1041
   

3. Check the status of your submission using the returned request UUID from the call to altool --notarize-app:

   $ xcrun altool --notarization-info 2EFE2717-52EF-43A5-96DC-0797E4CA1041
              -u "AC_USERNAME"
   

4. Wait until the status becomes success and staple the notarization ticket to the game:

   $ xcrun stapler staple "Foobar.app"