Two Lives Left

What Two Lives Left does

Two Lives Left is an independent, bootstrapped software studio founded in Adelaide, Australia by Simeon Saens and John Millard, operating since approximately 2011. The company develops and distributes two native iOS applications: Codea, a creative coding environment that enables users to write, edit, and execute Lua programs directly on iPad and iPhone with a custom-built runtime, syntax-highlighted code editor, and touch-optimized menu system; and Shade, a node-based shader and material authoring tool featuring a proprietary graph editor with auto-swizzling, connection stacking, real-time previews, AR and 3D model viewing, and PBR map export. Both apps are sold as one-time paid downloads on the Apple App Store, with Shade offering a free trial and a Pro tier that unlocks its Lua-based Export Plugin system, which defaults to exporting to Codea, Unity, and Unreal Engine.

The company serves two closely related customer segments: independent creative developers and digital artists who use Shade for procedural texture and material creation, and iOS developers who use Codea for learning, prototyping, and building Lua-based applications on mobile devices. Distribution is exclusively direct-to-consumer via the App Store, with marketing relying on a technical blog, the annual Nodevember community challenge, and organic social media presence. The product surface is technically distinctive: Codea's runtime and Shade's graph editor share an unusually tight integration through the iOS file system, with Shade's UI itself authored inside Codea. The business model is one-time license revenue with a Pro tier overlay, no subscriptions, no enterprise contracts, and no external funding, leaving the company as a small, founder-operated studio with limited disclosed scale signals.

Name

Two Lives Left

Legal name

Two Lives Left

Website

https://twolivesleft.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Two Lives Left is a bootstrapped, two-person Adelaide-based studio that builds and sells native iOS creative tools: Codea (a Lua coding app) and Shade (a node-based shader/material tool) for individual developers and digital artists.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Creative Coding Software

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Coding & Programming Learning Platforms (EDAFANAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Mobile App Development (iOS/Android) (EDAMACAD), Low-Code/No-Code Application Development & Modernization (BPAEAFAF)

Keywords

• Creative coding tools
• Mobile development environment
• Shader authoring software
• Procedural art tools
• IOS development apps

Headquarters

HQ city

Adelaide

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. iOS App Sales (Codea): Codea is sold as a paid app on the iOS App Store. Version 2.0 was released in 2014, with the company having worked on it for over ten years. Revenue is generated from upfront app purchases.
2. iOS App Sales (Shade): Shade is sold as a paid app on the iOS App Store with a free trial period (14-day trial, 7-day free trial mentioned in marketing). Export Plugins feature is available to Pro users only, suggesting tiered pricing.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Two Lives Left develops and sells native iOS applications for creative coding and procedural art. Codea is a creative coding environment that lets users write and run Lua programs directly on iPad and iPhone with a touch-optimized code editor, autocomplete, and asset management. Shade is a node-based shader and material authoring tool that supports real-time shader previews, AR visualization, PBR map generation, and export to Codea, Unity, and Unreal Engine. Both products are sold directly to consumers through the Apple App Store.

Product overview

Two Lives Left is a software company specializing in creative coding and procedural art tools for iOS. Their product portfolio consists of two primary applications: Codea, a creative coding environment for iOS that enables Lua programming directly on iPad/iPhone with features including syntax-highlighted autocomplete, asset management, and code execution; and Shade, a node-based shader creation tool that enables procedural texture and material design through a visual graph interface with real-time preview, 3D rendering, and AR support. Both products are designed to work together, with Shade able to export materials and shaders directly to Codea, as well as to third-party game engines including Unity and Unreal Engine. The company also organizes Nodevember, an annual November challenge promoting procedural art creation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Codea: A creative coding app for iOS that allows users to write code and create visual applications on iPad and iPhone.
• Shade
• Nodevember

Products and services

• Codea Creative coding app for iOS that enables users to write, edit, and run Lua programs directly on iPad and iPhone with a touch-optimized code editor, autocomplete with syntax highlighting, asset management, and real-time preview capabilities. Sold as a paid app on the Apple App Store.
• Shade Node-based shader and material creation tool for iOS that enables procedural art through a visual graph interface with auto swizzling, connection stacking, real-time shader previews, physically-based rendering, AR visualization, 3D model previews, and export to game engines including Codea, Unity, and Unreal Engine. Sold as a paid app on the Apple App Store with a 7-day free trial.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature14 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• UnitycoreTechnology or IntegrationShade includes a default built-in export plugin for Unity, allowing users to export shader graphs and PBR material maps directly for use in the Unity game engine. This is a core integration enabling the primary use case of Shade for game development workflows.
• Epic Games (Unreal Engine)coreTechnology or IntegrationShade supports export of detailed tileable texture maps (Diffuse, Roughness, Metalness, Height, Normals, Ambient Occlusion) for use in Unreal Engine and any other game engine, enabling game developers to create PBR materials on iOS and deploy to desktop game engines.
• ApplecoreTechnology or IntegrationBoth Codea and Shade are native iOS applications distributed through the Apple App Store. Codea leverages iOS system features including UIVisualEffectView, Dynamic Type, drag-and-drop, native text editing, and integrates with iOS file system, UIDocumentPickerViewController, and NSFilePresenter for live file monitoring. The apps target iPhone and iPad with universal support.
• Open Source Contributors (Export Plugin Community)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerShade's export plugin system allows users to write their own Lua scripts and template files to export to any platform. Example exporters are maintained at github.com/JohnTM/Shade-Plugins, enabling community-driven extensibility beyond the built-in Codea and Unity exporters.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Unity Technologies: Game engine with a built-in Shader Graph and material authoring workflow. Shade's Unity export plugin targets Unity users as downstream consumers, but Unity's own tools are a longer-term competitive substitute for material creation.
• Epic Games (Unreal Engine): Game engine with a node-based material editor that overlaps with Shade's value proposition for PBR material creation. Like Unity, Unreal is an export destination and a competitive substitute for shader authoring.
• Blender Foundation: Free, open-source 3D creation suite with a node-based shader and material editor. Competes with Shade on shader authoring capabilities and sets the free-tier baseline that any paid tool must justify, though not focused on mobile.
• SideFX (Houdini): Professional procedural-art and VFX tool with deep node-based workflows. Represents the high-end reference point for procedural creation that Shade and Nodevember's community partially emulate in a mobile-native form.

Direct peers

• Shapr3D: iPad-native professional 3D CAD/modeling app sold direct via App Store. Mirrors Two Lives Left's strategy of bringing traditionally desktop-bound creative workflows to iPad-first users and creators.
• Pixelmator Team: Small, independent developer of native iOS and macOS creative apps (photo editing, illustration). Closely comparable operating model: bootstrapped, small team, premium App Store distribution, native Apple-platform focus.
• Procreate: iPad-native creative tool (illustration/drawing) sold direct via App Store to prosumer creators. Shares Two Lives Left's mobile-native, single-developer ethos and target audience of iPad-based creators, though focused on illustration rather than coding or shaders.
• Swift Playgrounds: Apple's official iPad creative coding app for learning and prototyping Swift code on iPad. Directly overlaps with Codea's value proposition of coding on iOS, but Apple bundles it free, putting pricing pressure on Codea's paid positioning.
• Adobe (Substance 3D Designer): Industry-standard node-based procedural material authoring tool. Shade competes head-to-head with Substance Designer for procedural texture and PBR material creation, but Adobe's offering is desktop-first with substantially deeper feature set.

Emerging players

• Tynker: Creative coding learning platform primarily aimed at younger users. Overlaps with Codea as a coding-learning product but targets a different (younger, more education-focused) audience and primarily uses block-based rather than Lua coding.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/twolivesleft
• Instagraminstagram.com/NodevemberIO
• Facebookfacebook.com/TwoLivesLeft
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/two-lives-left-pty-ltd

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Two Lives Left