Reliability with game engine

General (non-technical) App & Game Development
#1

Hello,

I have a general question about game engine reliability in the long term. I used to be flash game developer back in before 2010 when flash based browser games were a thing. After that, during smartphone games evolution period, first time I tried a game engine that would export to smartphones was Marmalade 2D around 2015. I worked over 1yr with a game with Marmalade 2D game engine then they suddenly stopped supporting altogether and my game died after wasting 1yr of time. Now I have a plan to work on a new game that would take 2yr+ time, I like Solar2D more than any other game engine out there to implement the game. Now my question is:

  • What if the owners of Solar2D stop supporting the game engine after 2 yr for whatever possible reason, what will happen to any games running with the engine? I know it is open source, but I don’t have the skill or energy to figure out the open source and fix it as necessary.

  • What normally happens when Google or Apple ask for a new requirement for the app that every developer has to abide by? I understand if I build the app in native android / ios framework, I can just follow their instructions to apply the changes to my game, but how does it work with a game engine? What happens if the people who manages Solar2D are busy and can’t work on the fixes for a few months?

Thanks in advance

#2

When it comes to predicting the future (especially two years), that is a hard task. It seems like you know the answers to questions you ask and there are a lot of “What if” questions. Obviously if there are no updates to Solar2D for a few months, Apple and Google are eventually going to change some policy or behavior that may “break” or prevent your app from being on the store. This is true of pretty much any game engine.

“In my opinion/experience” the source code for Solar2D Core is pretty solid(all things considered), really just needs minor version bumps and tweaks to keep your game running. There also lot of great people supporting and using Solar2D :slight_smile:

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#3

I think Scott put it really well.

There’s always an element of uncertainty, but Solar2D has been doing very well in the past few years. In fact, there’s been a lot more development and engagement with the engine than in the last few years of Corona SDK days.

When it comes to 2D games, I don’t even consider other engines anymore.

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#4

One other thing worth mentioning is that there are no owners of Solar2D. It’s community-supported and open source.

4 Likes
#5

Hi,

I come from a heavy Flash background as well. When moving to mobile I used the AIR SDK.

When I stumbled upon Corona/Solar2D is was like finding a new friend. In my opinion Solar2D is the easiest transition for a Flash developer to make. A lot of commonality between the two.

But two things I would like to point out.

First, I think it’s interesting to talk about the reliability of engines when both Flash and AIR fell to the wayside. It completely turned my life upside down personally. There are no guarantees with technology.

Second, I have been a long time Corona/Solar2D user. I took a break for personal reasons and this is the first time I have been/posted on the forums in about 2 years. Just browsing I can tell you that Solar2D is in the best place it has ever been.

Again, there are no guarantees but if I were to invest time in a technology Solar2D would be my choice hands down. To put it in perspective, I’ve been around the project for nearly 10 years. There have been crazy ups and downs during that time and the engine persevered. Most would crumble.

Hope that helps you a bit. I’ve used countless engines and Solar2D is the only one still active in a solid way.

-dev

11 Likes
#6

WOW! Great to see the awesome Develephant back on the forum. You strengthen this forum with your wisdom.

1 Like
#7

What if the owners of Solar2D stop supporting the game engine after 2 yr for whatever possible reason, what will happen to any games running with the engine?

There are no owners, just a well funded dev team. At this point I trust an open-source model with community funded devs way more than a closed box for profit company. A for profit company can close its doors without notice, completely leaveing the tool and all the apps you built on it dead. Open-source can find new devs if needed and continue on.

What normally happens when Google or Apple ask for a new requirement for the app that every developer has to abide by?

This has happened multiple times already, and the dev team behind Solar are always there to support the new requirements. Look at Google how many times they’ve upped their API requirements, and Solar is always ready to handle it. And on Apple every single iOS update has been supported by Solar within days of release. And even the potential ending of OpenGL by Apple is already supported by Solar because they saw it as a big potential roadblock and implemented Metal builds.

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#8

It’s been a while since I posted on the forums but hey, here I am!

At this point, I don’t think anyone can easily say “Solar2D will be around for years and years to come” because it’s not backed by VC money or investors etc. The thing is I’m not even sure if this can be said for any other engine. See, Unity lost huge chunk of its value and merged with an ad company which Corona SDK did back in the day(Fuse and Perk?) and look where we are now!
The dev team is funded over Patreon and GitHub so, as long as we are here, Solar2D has a good chance of survival.

For your second question, as a Corona SDK / Solar2D veteran, I can easily tell you that newly added store requirements are addressed and implemented faster than before. That’s what I’ve seen so far.

1 Like
#9

Hello everyone, thank you so much, I really appreciate all your thought and feedback, everything makes sense to me. Also Solar2D has everything I need from a game engine without any extra overload. I already started working with it, and will keep going on. Thank you.

4 Likes