Hi.
i’ve been wondering this for a while, but on the official pages, Corona didn’t mention how far can the free version of Corona, a.k.a the Starter pack can do. Can anyone here enlightened me to how far the extent is the free version? Can you do it as far as using the API and publish it as an app?
the starter is not the same as the basic one right?
http://coronalabs.com/products/corona-sdk/faqs/ has a nice table.
I think the main difference is that Starter does not allow IAP (though you can, I think use Adverts)
Basic and Starter do not have Graphics 2.0 which gives a lot of extra graphic functionality. Pro is for ‘serious amateurs’ and Enterprise for professionals. Pro gives you most of the functionality, but you can’t build in anything other than lua and you have to build via Corona. The first doesn’t matter too much in most cases, and the second one isn’t a huge problem as you develop in the simulator.
I think the basic idea is:
Starter : try out, see if you like it.
Basic : first project, one man band
Pro: serious about it, but either work alone or in a small group
Enterprise: do it for a living.
Everything is a trade off. There are certainly bits of Corona I’m not enamoured of. But it is balancing support, developer activity, company stability. Look at the others, try them out, most of them you can try for nothing.
Look to see how many users it has - this affects both the speed of support (see if questions are answered by non Corona employees*) and the stability of the company.
I asked on one form what happened if the one developer was run over by a bus. This was treated by some as a joke question, but if you are doing it professionally support and stability matter. Ropey APIs can be worked round, usually. Apple especially continually bu**er around with the development environment, which can be a problem.
* this isn’t critical of the Corona staff who provide answers rapidly, but gives you some idea how many people are using it.
clear and short. thanks for the explanation paul!
Because it gives different perspective whether you are able to start a project from starter, or whether you must upgrade yourself to basic with some extra functionality. That is why i need to crack out how much can I squeeze from just using the starter pack edition of Corona.
imagine. Free SDK creating awesome free app. something that is quite idealistic. But hey, everything is impossible until you try it right?
Actually, I think the intent is more:
Starter: Hobbyist and people just starting out who plan to make money but can’t afford the start up costs. No In App Purchases, No daily builds, no premium graphics or premium plugins.
Basic: This gets you In App Purchases.
Pro: Full access to everything Corona SDK has to offer including all the premium features.
Enterprise: For those who need native features and have grown beyond what Corona SDK can do for you.
You can do quite a lot with the Starter account.
Indeed. The starter is very generous, you could probably justify not having Ads in it for example, so you’d have to go Basic to do any monetisation at all, or a mandatory splash screen. But it is a trade off between encouraging people in and making a living, and of course competing with other cross platform development systems of which there are many, most obviously free Unity3D. I was trying to give a ‘feel’ of what sort of persons would use each license, really, rather than saying what is in each license , the FAQ page explains that very well.
it does really depend on what kind of app you want to make basically. Comparing Corona to other SDK that also trying to excel in mobile game development sure offer great offers (e.g Unity3D, and the 2D too). i just found Corona to fulfill what i need, and not seeing the need to move to other library for now. thanks for the reply, Rob!
the starter is not the same as the basic one right?
http://coronalabs.com/products/corona-sdk/faqs/ has a nice table.
I think the main difference is that Starter does not allow IAP (though you can, I think use Adverts)
Basic and Starter do not have Graphics 2.0 which gives a lot of extra graphic functionality. Pro is for ‘serious amateurs’ and Enterprise for professionals. Pro gives you most of the functionality, but you can’t build in anything other than lua and you have to build via Corona. The first doesn’t matter too much in most cases, and the second one isn’t a huge problem as you develop in the simulator.
I think the basic idea is:
Starter : try out, see if you like it.
Basic : first project, one man band
Pro: serious about it, but either work alone or in a small group
Enterprise: do it for a living.
Everything is a trade off. There are certainly bits of Corona I’m not enamoured of. But it is balancing support, developer activity, company stability. Look at the others, try them out, most of them you can try for nothing.
Look to see how many users it has - this affects both the speed of support (see if questions are answered by non Corona employees*) and the stability of the company.
I asked on one form what happened if the one developer was run over by a bus. This was treated by some as a joke question, but if you are doing it professionally support and stability matter. Ropey APIs can be worked round, usually. Apple especially continually bu**er around with the development environment, which can be a problem.
* this isn’t critical of the Corona staff who provide answers rapidly, but gives you some idea how many people are using it.
clear and short. thanks for the explanation paul!
Because it gives different perspective whether you are able to start a project from starter, or whether you must upgrade yourself to basic with some extra functionality. That is why i need to crack out how much can I squeeze from just using the starter pack edition of Corona.
imagine. Free SDK creating awesome free app. something that is quite idealistic. But hey, everything is impossible until you try it right?
Actually, I think the intent is more:
Starter: Hobbyist and people just starting out who plan to make money but can’t afford the start up costs. No In App Purchases, No daily builds, no premium graphics or premium plugins.
Basic: This gets you In App Purchases.
Pro: Full access to everything Corona SDK has to offer including all the premium features.
Enterprise: For those who need native features and have grown beyond what Corona SDK can do for you.
You can do quite a lot with the Starter account.
Indeed. The starter is very generous, you could probably justify not having Ads in it for example, so you’d have to go Basic to do any monetisation at all, or a mandatory splash screen. But it is a trade off between encouraging people in and making a living, and of course competing with other cross platform development systems of which there are many, most obviously free Unity3D. I was trying to give a ‘feel’ of what sort of persons would use each license, really, rather than saying what is in each license , the FAQ page explains that very well.
it does really depend on what kind of app you want to make basically. Comparing Corona to other SDK that also trying to excel in mobile game development sure offer great offers (e.g Unity3D, and the 2D too). i just found Corona to fulfill what i need, and not seeing the need to move to other library for now. thanks for the reply, Rob!