Any news on this? +1 [import]uid: 21703 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47659[/import]
If there were news there would have been some big announcement, as I’m sure you know. So, no. [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47662[/import]
Peach Pellen is Ansca Staff?
…wow… it seems that I’ve been away from this forum for too long.
As for desktop apps… that seems overrated to me. The desktop appears to be dying. I even tested things out the new Mac App Store and I wasn’t impressed. Sure, software like Pixelmator and Hype seems to have done well, but it still seems to be in sleepy mode for games.
One of the top games on the Mac App Store is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic… a great game… on the XBOX… almost a decade ago.
Windows is fragmented… where would the games be sold? Where’s the profit? Steam? There are some highly polished games on that site, so it seems like tough competition. Can Corona games compete with games that use $300 NVIDIA graphics cards? Maybe, but it’s really hard!
What are the top games for PC? I’m thinking it’s probably FarmVille and CityVille. That’s why I think desktop support through the web (HTML 5) is more useful.
I think the apprehension to install software on the desktop is a big deterrent. That’s what Pop-Cap learned (also about a decade ago) …which is why they went with Flash, as most of the people going online had Flash. And yet… things didn’t get interesting until the App Store appeared. And now, the company is worth what… about 3/4 of a billion dollars now?
Social games (like on Facebook) and App Stores… that’s where the action seems to be. A purely desktop game seems like a step backwards. [import]uid: 13264 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47695[/import]
You make some valid points…however, I’d argue it doesn’t de-value adding the desktop as a target platform. Thriving market or not, the existing Corona devs (including myself) have already expressed a desire to sell in places like the Mac App Store…and (although I obviously have no specific knowledge on what’s required) it seems as though it wouldn’t need much work beyond tidying up what we now use as the Corona Simulator (excluding support, that is). What harm is there in adding a deployment target for an app that you’ve already developed?
…and even a dev who decides to venture forth and develop something solely for the desktop, more power to them. Their journey is much tougher than the mobile dev, but there are still some experiences you just can’t replicate on a mobile device, including the iPad in some cases. [import]uid: 21712 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47697[/import]
To my knowledge, the makers of CoronaSDK are *Ansca MOBILE* that can be one of the reasons for only Mobile App support, however I would love to see that it supports Desktop Apps as well, be it Mac OS, Windows or Linux. After all if the code can work in the simulator, then it can definitely run on the desktop.
cheers,
?
[import]uid: 3826 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47701[/import]
True, and I’m not saying they have to change their whole business strategy just to appease devs who complain and ask for something more. I’m just saying that the status of the market itself is not necessarily a reason to avoid it, especially if the tech is as close as we’re thinking it is. [import]uid: 21712 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47702[/import]
I figured out the problem
we are asking for the wrong thing
what we need is laptop app support
this way it still falls under the mobile category [import]uid: 7911 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47704[/import]
That’s a fair question… why not?
Would it not make Corona look more competitive if desktop support was added too? Where’s the harm?
The problem is that it pulls resources from other projects that could be more important. Desktop support is not just added. It has to be supported too.
I too imagine that it’s not hard to add desktop support to Corona. Yet, it involves a lot of testing. Apple is fussy about what gets approved on the app store. And as the App Store changes or adds requirements, Corona would have to adapt with it. Example — what if Mac OS X Lion breaks something? Now you have to support Snow Leopard and Mac OS X Lion. It’s the same thing with Windows 8. Something might seem easy now, but what happens in the future.
Ansca Mobile… does that mean this company is exclusively focused on mobile apps? What about HTML 5 or desktop? It’s an interesting question.
As for porting existing games… wow… it can be challenging. The Mac seems to be hitting a standard… 1280x800. If your iOS game was 480x320, there are two big issues to solve — ratio and graphics quality.
That’s why I liked Flash. With Vector artwork, and scalable screen sizes, I could port my game to lots of platforms… web, PC, Mac… but my Flash games weren’t as profitable as my iOS games.
I think that’s the question relevant to this issue — do you want desktop support because it’s cool or because it serves a specific business need?
For Corona, the business need could be to better serve their customers and stay competitive with rival software. Even if customers don’t really need it, that doesn’t matter. The point is that they want it. Looking at this post, clearly it’s a popular feature. So, how hard is it for them to add the feature? That’s something that can be debated internally. I don’t know what the right answer is.
But after having experienced the Mac App Store, I’m not as excited about desktop publishing. Heh, and it’s a lot of work to change Anscamobile.com to Anscamobileanddesktop.com [import]uid: 13264 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47706[/import]
Ha ha… brilliant… Laptop support… that’s funny! [import]uid: 13264 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47707[/import]
Agreed, the support is the killer here on the business side, and we’ll never know how much of an issue that is internally. I was just saying that I don’t think the marketability of the platform is that big a deal in this specific case. For instance, I (personally) don’t find Android development very profitable. (*hides from Android devs*) Yet, there are tons of developers taking Ansca’s great tools and making it work. I’m just hoping Ansca sees that there’s a viable platform available and (after factoring in their internal cost and required resources) starts to think about how worthy desktop support might be.
…and we can definitely come up with some clever domains/names for them…hehe [import]uid: 21712 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47708[/import]
“I think that’s the question relevant to this issue — do you want desktop support because it’s cool or because it serves a specific business need?”
Business needs, mostly.
Like a few others, I write small support programs for internal use at work, and I’d love to work with one language and package. Currantly, I love Lua, but it’s too much hassle to try get a standalone app with it, so I have to use Applescript or Obj-C.
Another option is to use Flash or LiveCode, which support mobile and desktop (I believe LiveCode has recently added the ability to build your own external modules for mobile development), but I really like Corona.
As far as the Mac App Store, it’s still Early Days. If you’d looked around at the various smartphone application stores prior to the App Store, you might have thought there was no market in mobile apps, yet here we are.
Regarding support, it is a draw on resources, but they did hire the programmer who’d been supporting the Luabridge for desktop before, so they have someone with just the right experience.
– Walt Sterdan [import]uid: 4329 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47772[/import]
I lol’d at the “laptop” suggestion 
And yes, Photics - apparently you’ve been away awhile. I’ve been a part of Ansca since April 21st. [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 47838[/import]
Browser Plugin!!! I cannot ask it enough, our studio builds facebook games also and given a browser plugin we would be jumping in with both feet. [import]uid: 14451 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 48278[/import]
The rate OS X is going with Lion maybe one day it will run iOS apps anyway [import]uid: 10389 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 48942[/import]
+1 would love to see Corona -> Web also. [import]uid: 86662 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 56210[/import]
+1 from me too. Being able to deploy to Steam would be a huge win for me. You don’t need to be super high-tech to sell well on Steam–look at Braid or Plants vs Zombies! [import]uid: 93732 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 58247[/import]
+1 And also web support! [import]uid: 64009 topic_id: 5363 reply_id: 59889[/import]