I read some time ago some comments that seems to be “killing” the community or taking away hope on the engine’s future, maybe they even don’t realize it. Anyway, I wanted to share my overall thoughts about this engine’s future:
When I started learning to code I was 13. I did go straight to web stuff (HTML 5/CSS and so) it was easier to get a grasp on designing web pages with bare tags.
I literally was learning too many things without actually using it in a project. I was not making real world projects, just “learning” random stuff I’d like. I loved (and still do) making front-end design as the hobbyist I am but I also wanted to make games, that was my real passion. Learned later that web is not (yet) powerful/suitable enough to manage even decent projects.
I remember I did try Game Maker and it was so easy to get started.
You just drag some boxes and write some “code” and you got your platform game in minutes. But I somehow feel like something was missing. I then learned that it has a not-so-good language to work with, though it’s as easy as lua. Then realized that yes, it’s a multi platform one but not free , exporting options cost TOO MUCH! , it´s not Open Source and so. I knew that I needed something let’s say, cheaper. Simpler.
I maybe tried literally every 2D game engine in the internet. Godot, Love2D even BuildBox, you name it. None of those compare to the simplicity that the-god-of-easiness Corona Labs engine had. Please, don’t get me wrong. Godot seems (in his awkward way) simple too, but the team behind this tool re-imagined how indie programmers could save a huge amount of time. There is (almost) not learning curve, this was the thing that made me said in my mind: “Oh man, I’m in!”. I actually learned to write programs with it. I did not used basic programming syntax before. So you get the idea.
Text displayed in screen? No problem, your basic Hello World program it’s an one-liner matured method away. Exporting hassle? Nope, instant exporting and preview in your phone in REAL TIME. No visual editor built-in it’s a problem but somehow complements the minimalist style the engine approach to do things.
Now that it’s becoming Open Source, I see that it’s actually becoming just how I would expect a mature 2D game engine to be. I encouraged developers to spread the word, to contribute or simply use it to make the next awesome pixel art blockbuster.
New features are a pull request away now.
-Nohak
