Kenney Shape for macOS
macOS Porting · Developer Tooling
An open-source compatibility toolkit that brings the Linux release of Kenney Shape to macOS through runtime matching, native adapters, and targeted assembly patches.
Stack
macOS, Unity, Python, Objective-C, C#, Mono.Cecil, OpenGL
Links
Overview
I built an unofficial toolkit that creates a working macOS app from a user’s Kenney Shape 2.0.0 Linux download. It preserves the original application resources and modelling tools while adapting the runtime and desktop integration to macOS.
The result is a repeatable local build: supply the original Linux release, run the Python builder, and get a signed .app bundle without installing the Unity Editor.
Engineering work
- Matched the application to its Unity player version and selected an Intel OpenGL 4.1 runtime that can use the shaders included in the Linux release.
- Implemented a Cocoa file-browser adapter in Objective-C for open, save, and folder dialogs, including asynchronous callbacks, extension filters, and UTF-8 paths.
- Built a C# patcher with Mono.Cecil to fix sample-resource paths and add Command-key shortcuts to a local copy of the application assembly.
- Automated runtime extraction, bundle assembly, input verification, and ad hoc code signing with Python.
Validation and scope
The documented validation run loaded all 159 sample projects, edited and saved a project, reloaded it, and checked OBJ, STL, and SVG exports. The repository also includes input-validation tests and separate native-dialog tests.
The current build was tested on an Apple M4 using Rosetta 2. It uses an Intel runtime and OpenGL; native ARM/Metal support and broader macOS compatibility remain further work.
The toolkit is MIT licensed. Users supply Kenney Shape separately, and the matching Unity component is supplied locally or downloaded during the build.