Rapid Game Development with Corona SDK discusses the Corona SDK which allows developers to quickly and easily write mobile games and graphical apps for iOS and Android using the Lua programming language. It highlights success stories of apps developed with Corona, what the SDK provides like graphics hardware acceleration and physics engines, and its benefits like high productivity, cross-platform development, and an active developer community. Limitations include some missing native platform features and when not to use Corona for business apps requiring deep native integration. Sample code, tools, and the presenter's experiences with app development are also covered.

1. Rapid Game Development with Corona SDK- Altaf Rehmani

2. Altaf Rehmani - Introduction15 Yrs Financial Services IT3 Years Startup Experience (redbytes software)Merged with Iniquus IT services Ltd.Projects:Capital Markets: Trading, Settlement, Treasury, ComplianceClients: Publishers, Real Estate, Retailers, Catering

3. Jun – Sep 2011

4. Recently Developed AppsFun With ABC

5. Swim With numbers

6. My Talking album

7. Color Carnival

8. Learning Hindi

9. What is Corona?A cross development mobile sdk from AnscaMobile (http://www.anscamobile.com)An SDK that empowers developers to write mobile games and graphical rich apps for iOS and Android, quickly, and easily. Corona produced apps have been downloaded 22m timesCorona apps are approved for the Nook Platform. Price – USD 349 per year to publish for both iOS and Android. Free Trial forever.

10. Success StoriesBubble Ball 14 yr old – Robert Nay (> 7m Downloads) Float – Crawl Space games ~ 1 million downloads; one day to prototype; 2 months to develop Blast Monkeys – > 300K downloads: created in 14 days

11. What is the SDK?Lua Interpreter (110KB interpreter)Open GL – ES 2.0 (graphics hardware acceleration standard)Open ALPhysics engine built around Box2DNative C, C++ libraries (injected at runtime depending on the platform)

12. Things we love about the SDKHuge Productivity GainsCross Platform Ability for iOS and Android Simple, effective Dev environment and workflowHelpful and active communityAPI keeps expandingPhysics and other Framework supportLots of sample code and third party toolsMigration path from Flash to Corona

13. ProductivityDisplaying an image Objective C (iOS)Java (Android)Corona sdk (both platforms)Display.newImage(“myImage.png”)Display.newImageRect(“myImage.png”,1024,768)

14. Simple and effective dev workflowProjects are kept separate foldersAssets are compiled into appApp Code starts in the “main.lua”Code Editors of your choice: Text Wrangler, BBEdit, Xcode, Notepad ++ ..Works on Windows and MacCompilation does not happen locally!

15. Cross Platform DevelopmentSupport for Nook in the Final stages. More Platforms – in the future

16. SDK is good at2-D GamesGraphical-oriented UtilitiesRapid PrototypingApps which are graphical in nature

17. Catch the Ball – Game PrototypeBackgroundsPhysicsCollisionsStory: basketballs dropping from the skyUse a basket (hoop) to catch themDon’t catch bombs, but catch a special bonus ballScoring: + 1 for each basketball, +5 for special bonus, -2 for bombYou have 10 lives, each time you drop a ball life decreases.

18. Limitations of the SDKAndroid Only 2.2 or higherAndroid Armv7 only.iOS notifications not availableAndroid inapp purchase – not availableiAds only possible through a workaroundSome iOS features don’t work yet on androidwhen not to useIf you need native code integration and 3rd party toolkits integratedIf you need a business app with native device UI controls targeting both platforms

19. Sample Code availableAnd Much More..

20. What about Lua?Lua is smallAs small as <100 KB (DLL/LIB)Easy runs on small devices or in small apps. Lua is simple to useTo use-well suited for small softwareTo learn- ~20 keywords, ~20 operatorsPowerful arraysLua is fastApart from this, dynamic typing first class functions, easy interop, written in C, ample libraries.

21. Benefits to game developersSDK is easy to use; powerful with 500 APIsLua , fast powerful and easy to use languageAbility to publish to both iOS and AndroidAnimation and sprite techniquesPhysics engineinApp purchases for both iOSinMobi and Papaya Mobile Ad networksDynamic Content ScalingFile manipulation, xml / JSON parsing, SqlLiteReusable frameworks and code available from community – Director, Memory monitor etc Social integration, Launchpad, partnership with inMobi and PapayamobileNative Device Features(accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS, MAPS, async http

22. Tools for game developersSpriteloq – convert Flash animations to CoronaKwik – Photoshop CS5 plugin to create comics, storybooks from psd filesCPM – Corona Project Manager to manage your projectsParticle Candy – professional effects for gamesLime – include tilemaps created in Tiled

23. App Dev ExperiencesThe GoodReal Fast developmentAbility to cater for multiple resolution and devicesFocus on creativity and contentExcellent community of developersSource code available for common patternsDaily build, improved features ChallengesAndroid and iOS differences

24. Native UI look

25. Limited to what the SDK has to offer.

26. Both platforms may not have common elements

27. Marketing and App discovery

28. App EconomyLooking ForPublishersSchoolsTraining and consultancyPartnersContact me at:altafr@redbytes.inTwitter: altafrwww.thetinytapps.comwww.facebook.com/tinytapps