Other target platforms...

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#1

So, I saw someone ask this in another post, and the response was “That was a good laugh” or words to that effect.

But to me, it makes perfect sense…the feature set is ideal for cross-compilation to AS3. The Corona team ostensibly has a thorough understanding of Actionscript by way of their past employer being Adobe. It seems like a no-brainer…what am I missing? Why is this not a priority?

Wouldn’t it be awesome to take your code and target Facebook AS3 and almost instantly have a working Facebook game?

Facebook is one of the areas I’m very interested in exploring from a business standpoint. You already even have Facebook API’s…so you’re already headed in the right direction.

I haven’t looked into the Lua virtual machine, but I’m guessing an interpreter could be written in AS3 pretty quickly.

Thoughts?

-John Nagle

[import]uid: 29170 topic_id: 6050 reply_id: 306050[/import]

#2

PS: I had neglected to mention Win Phone 7…C#/XNA also seems like a natural choice. Plus, I’m doing lots of contract conversion work in this area right now…so it’d be great for me. [import]uid: 29170 topic_id: 6050 reply_id: 20715[/import]

#3

You also neglected to mention Windows and the Mac AppStore.
Seriously, 2D games could benefit immensely from targeting “desktop” platforms as well as phones, tablets etc.
That’s the full potential of Corona being based on Lua… it can be heavily cross-platform.

Don’t know about AS3… Facebook “ports” sound nice, although probably it would be quite an effort. [import]uid: 5750 topic_id: 6050 reply_id: 22473[/import]

#4

First off, I would probably be interested in WinPhone but don’t care so much about Flash. I suppose my feeling might be different if I weren’t already a skilled AS3 programmer.

That said, quick tip about making requests like this:

It seems like a no-brainer…what am I missing?

I haven’t looked into the Lua virtual machine, but I’m guessing an interpreter could be written in AS3 pretty quickly.

Speaking as a developer who’s dealt with plenty of requests from clients, statements about how easy requests must be turn me right off. Especially since assumptions of ease are almost never correct (programming anything is hard,) it comes across as presumptuous and dismissive. The task may be worth it, but it’s not easy.

In other words, statements like these trigger a negative gut reaction. [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 6050 reply_id: 22567[/import]

#5

Hey j,

“First off, I would probably be interested in WinPhone but don’t care so much about Flash.”

That’s fine, I’m in favor of a WP7 target also. But there are a lot more people who can play your game on Flash than on a WP7 device, and that won’t change for quite a while. 57 million people per month play Farmville in FB. Even more play CityVille now. I don’t think even Angry Birds can put up those kind of numbers.

“Speaking as a developer who’s dealt with plenty of requests…”

Wait now…I never said “easy”, I said “quickly”.

And I was speaking as a professional console game developer (since PlayStation 1 through N64, PS2, DreamCast, Xbox, Gamecube/etc.) and someone who has written cross-platform rendering engines. I wasn’t trying to be presumptuous or dismissive, I was speaking as someone who has done this sort of thing. (I wrote a cross-platform 2D rendering engine for PC, PlayStation 1, N64, and DreamCast circa 2000.)

The point I was trying to make (that you misinterpreted) was that there are no technical impediments to getting a core of functionality up and running in a relatively short amount of time. That’s all.

The Lua 5.0 virtual machine has a total of 35 instructions. While that does not necessarily make it “easy” to port, as each platform has their own set of issues to contend with. But it should be a straightforward bit of work.

(In thinking about it, cross-compiling to AS3 probably makes more sense than writing an interpreter in AS3.)

After all, seamlessly supporting multiple targets is really the primary benefit of this kind of abstraction. I was simply suggesting that Flash/AS3 is a natural target platform for the technology.

Not trying to pick a fight j…just wanted to correct the record. :wink:

-John [import]uid: 29170 topic_id: 6050 reply_id: 22575[/import]

#6

I’d like to see support for Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry. WP7 especially now that Nokia is moving away from Symbian to WP7. I know Blackberry is declining, but there are still lots of users out there still. [import]uid: 11021 topic_id: 6050 reply_id: 23158[/import]