iPhone Game Dev.. Hard Coding vs Cocos 2D vs GameSalad vs Corona vs other?

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Hi everyone.

I recently decided to get into iPhone game development.
My main goal is to create a puzzle game, and later, a small 2D RPG game. I’m hoping to achieve this within a year.

I remember when I started making music, I was looking in all the wrong places, and using all the wrong applications, and it was a couple of years before I even started going in the right direction. I don’t want to make that mistake with iPhone game development.

I have a background in graphic/web design (front end), and have some basic Java, Javascript and Flash/Actionscript. I also have experience with pro audio.

I had started learning Objective C recently, and bits and pieces of Xcode, but then I discovered GameSalad, which seems to be a very handy, codefree way to make games for the iPhone. This completely threw me, and when I read about Corona and Cocos 2D, my brain started melting.

Can someone please advise me, are there any caveats to taking the “builder” route and not bothering with Obj-C and Xcode?

I read somewhere that if I use Cocos 2D I will still have to learn OpenGL and Python. I’ve also read some concerns about ownership and different versions of Game Salad. Corona is ticking most of the boxes so far (I think)

I’m looking for an affordable way to create high quality 2D games, with a reasonable learning curve. I don’t mind learning coding, if it means my games will have more potential, or run smoother.

Perhaps there is another environment which specifically caters for iPhone game development which I haven’t mentioned?

Thanks for any advice. :slight_smile:

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#2

Have you seen

http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/testimonials/

and

http://developer.anscamobile.com/showcase/

and read our blog

http://blog.anscamobile.com/

And of course, Corona is top gun when it comes to the products mentioned.

C
[import]uid: 24 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14027[/import]

#3

Hi there. Thanks for your reply. Yes Corona seems to have a lot going for it. Actually, I’ve read nothing but good things about it.

Perhaps you can clarify something for me.

As far as I can tell:

1]
I can use the “Unlimited Trial Version” to make complete iPhone games, that I can test on my own iPhone, but not publish to Apples App Store.

2]
If I buy the full version for $349 (yikes!) I can then publish my completed projects to Apples App Store, completely independently.

3]
With the full version, I get free updates/bug-fixes for one year, but after that period I can continue to use the version of Corona on my machine.

Are these assumptions correct? (sorry I’m a bit stupid, and broke)

Thanks! [import]uid: 12575 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14033[/import]

#4
  1. YES
  2. YES – no Ansca Corona watermaking whatsoever and no revenue sharing.
  3. YES

C. [import]uid: 24 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14034[/import]

#5

Thanks again. Downloading the Trial Version now.

Looking forward to your next discount period!

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#6

I’ve only recently started working with Corona, but I’ve been doing iPhone development (including cocos2D) for a while and my take on these tools goes thusly:

cocos2D is an awesome framework and the best one to use if you need the flexibility of a native library and/or absolutely need features not supported in Corona. It is not a case of Objective-C or cocos2D; cocos2D is a library you use through XCode and Objective-C.

Corona is amazingly productive and the best tool to use if your project can be executed within the feature set. And note that trimming some less critical features is not a bad tradeoff at all because the massively accelerated development process (like 10x, seriously) is very valuable. Even without considering any other shortcuts (and there are a number,) the fact that you’re programming in Lua instead of Objective-C makes development an order of magnitude faster.

Game Salad is an interesting way to rapidly bang out prototypes of game ideas. I would not recommend releasing products made with Game Salad, but I have been actively recommending this tool to artists and designers who don’t know how to program and want to try out concepts.

The upshot is that I am planning to use Corona for my current and upcoming projects, but am glad I have cocos2D to turn to if I need it.
I read somewhere that if I use Cocos 2D I will still have to learn OpenGL and Python.

Well cocos2D was originally a game development framework for Python on desktop computers, but there’s no reason you need to learn Python in order to use cocos2D on iPhone. Now, I would highly recommend Python to add to your toolbelt since it’ll take all of a day to translate your knowledge of other languages, but that has nothing to do with cocos2D. [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14036[/import]

#7

jhocking thanks for your very helpful reply.

I was feeling a bit reluctant to leave GameSalad behind but your comment helped me to get over it :slight_smile:

I’m going to spend a few days with Corona and see how I get on. I get the impression my bit of experience with Javascript and Actionscript will give me a kick start to learning Lua.

I already downloaded the iPhone SDK and bought a couple of books on App Development and Objective C, so I’ll probably mess around with XCode a bit in my spare time, and possibly get into Cocos 2D at some point in the future.

For now though, it would seem Corona is the best route for me to achieve my goal of making and selling some simple, well optimized iPhone games within a year.

…hopefully [import]uid: 12575 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14037[/import]

#8

When I buy the full version for $349 I can publish my game to the App Store for
1 year ?? After that I have to pay again $349 ?? Is this correct ??

Sorry for this question but I still looking for my development system for iPhone games.
Greatings from Berlin Germany [import]uid: 12632 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14160[/import]

#9

Once you put your app/game on the app store is treated just like any other app and all rules are applicable from the app store. (we don’t get in the way)

The current subscription price is $349.00 for Corona, if you want to continue to make modifications to the game/app after one year, you will need to renew Corona. That is, if you want to get the latest updates to Corona and to your app/game.

Hope this helps (and makes sense too!) ;=)

C. [import]uid: 24 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14161[/import]

#10

Ok,so lets say every year I have to pay at least $349 or more if the price is growing
Otherwise I can stay with the old… [import]uid: 12632 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14162[/import]

#11

Sorry to say, I’m a bit confused now.

Between what has been said here and what is said in the FAQ.

++++
How much does it cost?
Download a free unlimited trial of Corona.
Purchase Corona for $349 and get all the features of Corona including the physics engine, spritesheets, OpenFeint, and more. Purchasing Corona includes a one-year subscription to all the software updates.
For information about volume discounts, priority support options, or source licenses to Corona, please send an inquiry to sales@anscamobile.com.

With the unlimited free trial you get the Corona Simulator, debugger, documentation, sample code, access to the Corona forum, and the ability to build iPhone, iPad, and Android apps for your own device. When you’re ready to distribute your app on the iTunes App Store or Android Market, purchase a subscription.

When you purchase a subscription to Corona you get all the tools mentioned above. You’ll also receive a free one-year Corona Developer Program subscription, and you’ll be able to build and sell your apps on the iTunes App Store or Android Market.
++++

The above text is ambiguous at best.

Please Carlos, (or anyone else) if you have time, answer this important question:

**If I purchase Corona, can I or can I not, continue to develop and publish iPhone apps after the one year period?

In other words - Can I make a one-off purchase of Corona, and continue using it after the year is up, even if it becomes an “older version”??**

There is a big difference between an application costing $350 to own, and an application costing $350 TO RENT FOR A YEAR.
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#12

There is a big difference between an application costing $350 to own, and an application costing $350 TO RENT FOR A YEAR.

Actually those situations are not very different if you think about it. At first I thought they were really different, but then someone pointed out to me that in a year’s time the software will be useless to you unless you get it updated, so either you buy the updates when they arrive or you get the updates as part of your subscription. So when you look at it that way the difference is just semantics; either way you’re paying for the company to keep maintaining their software for you. [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14179[/import]

#13

I would like to respectfully disagree with you.

Using Photoshop as an example, I can get pretty much everything I need done using Photoshop CS1… and the current version is CS5.

Why would the software be useless after a year (outside a subscription model)?

Within my budget, a once off payment of $350 would be just about feasible, but if it turns out that Corona must be rented, I will have to look elsewhere for now, not only because it is expensive, but because it is a business model which I dislike a lot.

So what is it? Can I “purchase Corona” like it says on the FAQ page? Or in fact, can I only rent Corona?

[import]uid: 12575 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14181[/import]

#14

[blockcode]If I purchase Corona, can I or can I not, continue to develop and publish iPhone apps after the one year period?[/blockcode]

YOU CAN!

[blockcode]In other words - Can I make a one-off purchase of Corona, and continue using it after the year is up, even if it becomes an “older version”??[/blockcode]

YES!
[import]uid: 10332 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14208[/import]

#15

But once the year is up, if I want to publish a new app on the App Store, I need to “renew my corona subscription” right?! [import]uid: 12575 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14211[/import]

#16

Condra, I think you can:
_If I purchase Corona, can I or can I not, continue to develop and publish iPhone apps after the one year period?

YOU CAN!_
[import]uid: 12632 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14218[/import]

#17

Can’t really comment on the other tools but my experience so far with Corona:

Pros

  • Easy to learn the basics
  • Deployment to multiple devices (although this sometimes requires tweaking)
  • Great developer support (dev team actually listens!)
  • Regular updates with new features
  • Good community and code support (not too many brats on the forums)

Cons

  • Newer features not always well documented
  • Not all native phone features/interfaces supported and sometimes requires workaround until they are included
  • No built in screen management (a personal pet peeve)
  • No UI builder (yet…)

It’s harder to code for Corona than WP7 due to lack of a UI builder and native interfaces, but it’s a hell of a lot easier than using the iOS SDK and objC.

I always judge a language by the simplicity of their sample code. I wanted to walk away from ObjC when I saw a Hello World sample that had several pages of instructions. Corona sold me with their physics sample video which only had a few lines of code.

I spent 4 weeks with iOS SDK and didn’t get very far. I spent 2 weeks with Corona and had my first prototype app up and running. On the whole I reckon it’s money well spent, so I say buy it. [import]uid: 11393 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14230[/import]

#18

MichaelS I fear you may be mistaken.

“The current subscription price is $349.00 for Corona, if you want to continue to make modifications to the game/app after one year, you will need to renew Corona.”

Doesn’t that suggest that the software is not $349 to own, but $349 to build/publish apps for 1 year.

On blogs I’ve read that mention Corona, they describe it as being $349 PER YEAR.

On a thread over at toucharcade.com, there are people fervently asserting that Corona is not a product that one can buy as a “once off”, but that one must pay the $350 ANUALLY, in order to continue to build/publish apps to the App Store.

Why is FAQ text about pricing so vague?
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#19

I think it’s pretty clear that you can’t. I don’t see anything vague about it and knew it full well when I signed up. The subscription is for a year, much like Apple’s developer program.

Unlike me, you don’t have to pay anything to get started and building to your device (except the $99 to Apple). So if you feel it’s worth it you can pay for it the minute you’re about to release to the store and you get a year to release as much as you can.

After that, it’s my understanding you’ll need to pay again if you want to release new apps or make updates to the ones on the store already.

In your second year you’ll have much better info to make a decision whether to pay for the sub again or not (how your apps are doing in the store).

As for me, I’m a very happy customer (even if you constantly see me complaining in the forums about missing documentation). I have a game submitted after only 6 weeks, with absolutely no previous coding (or art for that matter) experience and could not be more proud. I know for a fact I would never have gotten that far with Obj C and most likely would never have finished anything. So the $175 I paid is really nothing compared to the time Corona’s saved me. I guess different people value their time differently, but $175 or $350 isn’t really that many work hours for me.

Edit: Also I was in that touch arcade thread. [import]uid: 10835 topic_id: 4475 reply_id: 14236[/import]

#20

IgnacioIturra, thanks for your time and patience.

It’s clear now that Corona is effectively $350 PER YEAR.

Ansca can use whatever price and pricing model they like, but I do wish they were more upfront about their pricing model.

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