Godot iOS publishing from Android
This guide walks you through setting up ShipThis on an Android phone using Termux. By the end you will have shipped a Godot game to the Apple App Store without a Mac or laptop.
You will need an Apple Developer account to publish to the Apple App Store.
1. Install and set up Termux
Termux is a terminal emulator for Android. ShipThis runs as a command line tool, so Termux is how you will run it on your phone.
Download Termux from the Play Store, then open it and run:
termux-setup-storage grants Termux access to your device's shared storage. Accept the permission prompt when it appears. Once that is done, mkdir /sdcard/GodotProjects creates a shared folder that both Termux and the Godot Android editor can access.
/sdcard is a standard Android path that exists on all devices. On phones without a physical SD card slot it maps to emulated internal storage at /storage/emulated/0.
2. Install Node.js and ShipThis
Termux uses pkg as its package manager. Install Node.js, then install ShipThis globally via npm:
3. Install the Godot Android Editor
The Godot Android Editor is a full version of the Godot editor that runs natively on Android.
Download Godot Engine 4 from the Play Store.
4. Download a sample project
If you do not have a Godot project ready, you can download a sample game from the Godot Asset Library.
Open Godot and go to the Asset Library Projects tab. Search for Dodge The Creeps and select it.
When Godot asks where to save the project, set the path to /sdcard/GodotProjects/. This is the folder we created in step 1, and it is accessible from both Godot and Termux.
5. Run the ShipThis iOS wizard
In Termux, navigate to your project folder, log in to ShipThis, then run the iOS wizard:
The wizard will walk you through all of the steps required to build and publish an iOS game. See Set up iOS for a full breakdown of what it does.
6. Ship it
The shipthis game ship command uploads your game to the ShipThis build server, which exports it for iOS, signs it with your certificate, and uploads the result to TestFlight.
The --follow flag streams the build log to your terminal as it runs.
7. View your build in TestFlight
Once the build completes, open App Store Connect and navigate to TestFlight. Your build will appear there ready for testing.