Develop 10 times faster?

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

I’m working on my Final CS project, investigating cross platform development, and am using Corona SDK. 

I’d anticipated a lot more effort to build for the different platforms, so to a certain extent my original project question has been blown out of the water.

So I’m now looking at how much faster development can be using Corona.

What would be useful is some hard data - the ad says 10x faster… 

If there are any corona data available on this, or other stats from folk who’ve developed using other frameworks, I’d love to hear from you.

Rob

#2

@Rob,

This question really boils down to ‘10x faster than WHAT?’.  Just like with any product, when you see something on the label like:

  • 5 times longer life,

  • 50% more fluffies,

  • or in this case 10 times faster…

, you need to find out what the comparison is against.  

Step #1 - Choose some engines/sdks for comparison. 

Some possibilities are: Cocos2D, Cocos2D-X, Torque 2D, Love 2D, Unity 3D

Step #2 - Choose a comparison work environment.  i.e. Are you an OS X, Windows developer, or Both? 

  • Windows: Cocos2D-X, Torque 2D, Unity 3D

  • OS X: Cocos2D *, Cocos2D-X, Torque 2D, Unity 3D

Step #3 - Choose a target OS.

  • iOS: Cocos2D, Cocos2D-X, Torque 2D, Unity 3D,

 - Android:  Cocos2D-X, Unity 3D

Step #4 Answer these other questions:

  • Does the engine/sdk support all the ‘features’ I need for my app/game?

- Does the engine/sdk support the (sound, graphic, data, …) asset types I have available, can make, and/or can buy to make my game?

  • Does the engine/sdk have a try before you buy or other low entry-price option?

  • Do I know the lanugage(s) used by the engine/sdk (both programming and scripting) or do I have to learn it/them too?  This definitely affects the 10X question.

  • Many more …

Step #5 Choose some test cases for comparison.  Once you’ve made it this far, you are ready to actually answer the 10X claim/question.  The best way to do that is by comparing sample apps. i.e. Choose some examples of apps you’d want to write and compare the effort to make them using Corona SDK and at least one of the above engines/sdks.

I’m currently looking for some good examples, for comparisons, but I figured I’d post this and try to get back to you later.  You could then grab some examples on your own and compare them.

Note: I hope this answer didn’t diverge too much from what you were looking for, but there is no neat-and-easy answer when comparing and choosing engines/sdks.  In fact, I left out a lot of other questions like community size, availability of docs, company health, etc.

* Yes, I’m aware that you can find Windows frameworks for Cocos2D, but it is designed to be used under OS X with XCode.

#3

I figured I’d toss my anecdotal two cents in.

It took me about 3 weeks to create the original v1.0 engine of my popular iPhone game Geared.  That’s learning and writing Objective C and OpenGL.  

It took me 3 hours to make (most of) it again in Corona SDK, and I did it in about 300 lines of code.  So that’s 168 times faster.  Though, to be fair, I didn’t have to spend any time figuring out what I wanted the game to do since I’ve done it before, or how to accomplish that in terms of process.  But I went into this not knowing LUA, and not knowing Corona.  I have also been coding gear related stuff for several years now, so I know that like the back of my hand, but it’s incredible how much is built into the Corona SDK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZH4cMUpdkI

#4

Thanks chaps, that’s most helpful.
I’m delighted to have my thought processes confirmed by your outline Ed, indeed I started the project working with Cocos2D-X, tried Corona and found it so much more pleasant to use.

It is really useful for me to be able to cite a real life transcode case, thanks Bryan.

Rob

#5

@Rob,

This question really boils down to ‘10x faster than WHAT?’.  Just like with any product, when you see something on the label like:

  • 5 times longer life,

  • 50% more fluffies,

  • or in this case 10 times faster…

, you need to find out what the comparison is against.  

Step #1 - Choose some engines/sdks for comparison. 

Some possibilities are: Cocos2D, Cocos2D-X, Torque 2D, Love 2D, Unity 3D

Step #2 - Choose a comparison work environment.  i.e. Are you an OS X, Windows developer, or Both? 

  • Windows: Cocos2D-X, Torque 2D, Unity 3D

  • OS X: Cocos2D *, Cocos2D-X, Torque 2D, Unity 3D

Step #3 - Choose a target OS.

  • iOS: Cocos2D, Cocos2D-X, Torque 2D, Unity 3D,

 - Android:  Cocos2D-X, Unity 3D

Step #4 Answer these other questions:

  • Does the engine/sdk support all the ‘features’ I need for my app/game?

- Does the engine/sdk support the (sound, graphic, data, …) asset types I have available, can make, and/or can buy to make my game?

  • Does the engine/sdk have a try before you buy or other low entry-price option?

  • Do I know the lanugage(s) used by the engine/sdk (both programming and scripting) or do I have to learn it/them too?  This definitely affects the 10X question.

  • Many more …

Step #5 Choose some test cases for comparison.  Once you’ve made it this far, you are ready to actually answer the 10X claim/question.  The best way to do that is by comparing sample apps. i.e. Choose some examples of apps you’d want to write and compare the effort to make them using Corona SDK and at least one of the above engines/sdks.

I’m currently looking for some good examples, for comparisons, but I figured I’d post this and try to get back to you later.  You could then grab some examples on your own and compare them.

Note: I hope this answer didn’t diverge too much from what you were looking for, but there is no neat-and-easy answer when comparing and choosing engines/sdks.  In fact, I left out a lot of other questions like community size, availability of docs, company health, etc.

* Yes, I’m aware that you can find Windows frameworks for Cocos2D, but it is designed to be used under OS X with XCode.

#6

I figured I’d toss my anecdotal two cents in.

It took me about 3 weeks to create the original v1.0 engine of my popular iPhone game Geared.  That’s learning and writing Objective C and OpenGL.  

It took me 3 hours to make (most of) it again in Corona SDK, and I did it in about 300 lines of code.  So that’s 168 times faster.  Though, to be fair, I didn’t have to spend any time figuring out what I wanted the game to do since I’ve done it before, or how to accomplish that in terms of process.  But I went into this not knowing LUA, and not knowing Corona.  I have also been coding gear related stuff for several years now, so I know that like the back of my hand, but it’s incredible how much is built into the Corona SDK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZH4cMUpdkI

#7

Thanks chaps, that’s most helpful.
I’m delighted to have my thought processes confirmed by your outline Ed, indeed I started the project working with Cocos2D-X, tried Corona and found it so much more pleasant to use.

It is really useful for me to be able to cite a real life transcode case, thanks Bryan.

Rob