Opinion about Corona SDK from native iOS developer or Unity

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by bladko, Dec 12, 2012.

  1. bladko

    bladko Well-Known Member

    Jul 6, 2012
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    #1 bladko, Dec 12, 2012
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2015
    What is your opinion about Corona SDK from native iOS or Unity developers perspective (those more Pro)?

    Probably you will say its not so good but there are cons or pros. Would be great to hear from you about your opinion. The more IMHO the better.

    I am a Corona SDK user for some time and have some real limitation but on the other hand...
     
  2. araczynski

    araczynski Well-Known Member

    Oct 5, 2009
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    omaha, ne
    I'm going to tag on to this thread as I'm curious about CoronaSDK opinions as well, for a business application that will need to be available to both iphones and androids, that's initially the main thing that attracted me to it.

    In general I dislike the idea of using a middle layer for coding, but my timeframe doesn't allow for learning both platforms natively at the moment.

    But Lua, the language used by Corona, seems to be popular/accepted, so who knows...
     
  3. simplymuzik3

    simplymuzik3 Well-Known Member

    Aug 12, 2009
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    I switched to Corona from native iOS dev (about 1.5 years ago). I haven't looked back since. Corona is amazingly good! It's just so fast to get stuff up and running, performance is awesome, tons of community support, and they're always improving on it (they've hinted at Mac App Store and Windows Phone 8 support). I can't imagine using any other SDK now. It's actually that good! If you're on the edge about using Corona, go for it; you'll thank me later ;)
     
  4. ericlu2006

    ericlu2006 Well-Known Member

    Jan 11, 2012
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    We have switched from native iOS cocos2d to Corona about 1 year ago and we are quite happy about the result.

    Only thing to keep in mind though - if you develop free game and rely on the Ad, the availability of the ad networks may be limited. E.g, the Mobclix is not supported. Also Chartboost, PlayHeaven et al are not supported either.

    Eric Lu
    Toccata Technologies
     
  5. bladko

    bladko Well-Known Member

    Jul 6, 2012
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    #5 bladko, Dec 12, 2012
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2015
    try revmob in Corona SDK. I am using Corona for aprox 12 months so I can say same as you :) i was wondering to get some exp from the "dark side of the force".

    Tom
     
  6. simplymuzik3

    simplymuzik3 Well-Known Member

    Aug 12, 2009
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    I use inmobi + Revmob and it's been working great. In the past I've tried admob, iAd, Mobclix and a couple more but I've finally settled on inmobi (banner ads) and Revmob (full screen ads). And they're both fully supported in Corona :)
     
  7. robmiracle

    robmiracle Member

    May 30, 2011
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    Senior Corporate Trainer
    Raleigh-Durham, NC
    What limitations are you hitting?

    What limitations are you running into @Bladko?
     
  8. bladko

    bladko Well-Known Member

    Jul 6, 2012
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    #8 bladko, Dec 17, 2012
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2015
    If we assume that project Gluon is done and Corona Cloud would be as good as Game Minion API (plus cool pricing) then i lack Twitter API, some few minor API functions. Simulator is somehow limited, to many features require device, so its time consuming to use it. Would be nice to turn off launchpad because it sucks anyway.

    for full featured IDE you have awesome Glider IDE (huge update in few days) so i would not bother to have one from Corona. For UI editor i always use some build in house solution based on SVG + inkscape. For ads you have revmob.com and iAP is working fine (would be nice to have some server validation in the house) thou would be nice to have one for Amazon.

    I wonder what "native" folks think about this.
     
  9. MarkFromBitmenStudios

    MarkFromBitmenStudios Well-Known Member

    Apr 4, 2011
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    IT Architecture, Development Project Manager
    Austria, Europe
    I am one of the "native" guys but I have never used Corona SDK and the same prolly is true for most natives. It looks kinda mature but I'd personally only use it for prototyping. I'm using lua to script missions or similar stuff but I'd not do a sophisticated game fully in any scripting language.

    At the end of the day, it's about using the right tool for the right purpose. If you are doing a simple game then it may well work out for you. In my experience with other "rapid prototyping tools" in other areas, you always run the risk to run into something that was not supported by the environment and then whatever time you saved early on, you're going to spend trying to figure out how to solve that special problem. Or you need to leave out features you actually wanted in the game which is also not good.

    IMHO, get a good upfront design of your next game, then check against the capabilities of the platform. If you feel comfortable that you can realize all its features with that platform, then go for it. Otherwise don't.
     
  10. araczynski

    araczynski Well-Known Member

    Oct 5, 2009
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    omaha, ne
    I'm looking into doing some Corona work, but my intents are purely business app related, no 3D/physics or fancy audio/video needs, for which I think a system such as Corona is brilliant, especially since I need the app to be available for android/ios/kindle(android'ish') users.

    When I get into actual game coding, I would go pure ObjectiveC/iOS, as I don't really 'trust' any middle man for the reasons stated in the post above mine.

    Granted, there are probably many game apps (educational/learning) I could build that would still be perfectly fine in Corona (which I will probably be asked to do if the business app works out solid), but for a 'real' game, i'd personally be extremely leery to do Corona.

    But then again, maybe I'm not giving it enough credit, who knows. I haven't seen anything on their site bragging about any 'real' game.
     
  11. J. A. Whye

    J. A. Whye Well-Known Member

    Sep 26, 2010
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    Game Dev (tools & tutorials)
    Alaska
    Looking at the Top Grossing games in the App Store I think at least 70% of the top 50 games there could have been done with Corona SDK. 3D stuff, hard-core racing games, stuff like that are not a good fit for Corona, but most casual games, adventure games, board/card games, etc., are.

    Yes, there are "dead-ends" that can bite you if you don't know about them going in (such as, if you *must* use iAds, forget Corona) but as long as you're aware of the limitations (not as many as some make it out to be) you can go a long way with Corona. For both games and biz-type apps.

    Jay

    PS - I sell tutorials and tools for Corona SDK developers, but if I didn't think it was "the best" thing overall I'd switch to something else. I play with everything -- and keep coming back to Corona.
     
  12. bladko

    bladko Well-Known Member

    Jul 6, 2012
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    #12 bladko, Dec 20, 2012
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2015
    great folks thanks for feedback ! anyone else "native" ?
     
  13. CoronaGeek

    CoronaGeek New Member

    Dec 23, 2012
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    Sulphur Springs, TX
    As of December 21st, iAds support has been added in Corona SDK Build 992 along with a bunch of other features.
     
  14. bladko

    bladko Well-Known Member

    Jul 6, 2012
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    #14 bladko, Jan 1, 2013
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2015
    yes iAd, native twitter, android iAP. still waiting for corona cloud and admob thou :)
     
  15. binaryhelix

    binaryhelix Well-Known Member

    Oct 15, 2011
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    Unity is hard to beat for 3D especially with their built-in asset store. It can do 2D with a little effort.

    Corona is excellent for 2D. It's basically Lua + Box2d. Probably the easiest of the bunch to make a game. I hate their yearly subscription model though. If they go out of business or you don't renew, you can't update your app since the app submission process requires contacting their server. Gideros is another good alternative especially since they have a free "community" version that you can use to submit to the app store, and they have their own IDE. Moai is another possibility though it feels lower level, but a big plus is that it's open source, free, and Double Fine are making Middle Manager of Justice with it.

    So if you're considering 2D (Lua + Box2d) on iOS and Android, look into these products:

    Corona (http://coronalabs.com)
    Gideros (http://giderosmobile.com)
    Moai (http://getmoai.com)

    Moai can also do Mac/PC.

    And then there's Love which is only for Mac/PC/Linux: http://love2d.org
     

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