Hi guys, I’m in the process of evaluating Corona for our team and I thought I’d share my thoughts and notes so far. I’d love to get feedback or for someone to help alleviate some of the concerns I have.
Summary
I think Corona would help us immensely getting a prototype up and running quickly. The sample apps, documentation and community support is top-notch. Samples and demos include source for everything from the simplest API features to fully featured games (Angry Birds clone with FE Screen flow, pause menu, level selection, Openfeint, etc).
However, I do have some serious concerns about using the SDK as our production tool. I am concerned about some seemingly random crashes I have encountered. Without source code, it is nearly impossible to track down the cause. Also, there are some missing API features: at present Corona lacks support for common Apple APIs. Notably, GameCenter and iAd. There is no way for us to “roll our own” support for those APIs, we are stuck with waiting for them to do it for us. The final thing that worries me is the build process. While it is very slick it relies on us uploading our project to a server somewhere, where it is built and the iDevice ready results are sent back to us. This raises the question of what happens if their servers go down, or they pack up and go out of business. Unfortunately, AFAIK, the answer is, we’d be stuck with no way to move forward.
Cons
-no access to source
-no IDE/Debugger
-encountered crashes and I have no idea how to debug (Simulator app just crashes).
-API support is limited to what they provide:
–no GameCenter (for now)
–no iAd (for now)
-2D only.
-no FMOD Audio.
-no in person support
-builds are uploaded to a server, requires internet connection.
–what happens if their servers go down when you need them?
-unfamiliar with Lua (although it’s very easy to pick up).
Pros
-online support
–well documented API
–well documented sample Apps
—from simple feature demos to full games.
–thriving community
—forum support help, sample code
-3rd Party API support
–Box2d
–OpenFeint
–OpenAL Audio
–In-App purchases
–JSON
–SQLite
–ASync Http (client side Cloud services)
–Facebook (post images, comments)
—powerful apps can be created with relatively few lines of code.
—great for prototyping ideas
-SpriteSheet support, we are current using TexturePacker.
-Android support
-Debugger
–gdb style command line debugger
-licensing
–no logo requirements
–no royalty fees
–no open source requirements
[import]uid: 80597 topic_id: 13615 reply_id: 313615[/import]