Solar2D Community Ideas

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#1

Hello!

We’re currently having an open discussion regarding Solar2D Community Ideas over at Discord. If you haven’t yet joined then here’s your invitation to join the conversation on how to grow the community and attract new users, etc.

We’re having the discussion in Discord in order to keep the conversation in one place. If, however, you don’t want to join the conversation there, but you have some ideas you’d like to suggest, then feel free to post them here and someone will bring them over to Discord. :slight_smile:

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Solar2D Blitz - micro game jam
#2

Well, I’ve had this idea for a long time and I don’t remember if I’ve already discussed it here, I love the Lua language and I think Solar2D is a great tool with a lot of potential, but I still see it behind frameworks like React Native and Flutter. I don’t use React Native because in my opinion, the cost to develop an app is too high, many heavy libs to download, compilation time, inexplicable errors, excessive performance and memory usage, etc. As for Flutter, memory issues and ease of use, I think it’s better than React Native, but I hate Dart’s syntax, no matter how hard I try, I can’t get used to it. So I still stick with Solar2D, but I think certain things should be rethought, many years have passed and 90% of Solar2D updates are bug fixes, nothing new features or anything relevant to clash with React Native and Flutter, that’s my opinion. First there should be a topic where everyone can give implementation tips, ask for new features, etc! I know it’s hard to keep asking things for a small team that takes care of Solar2D today, but if that doesn’t change, we’re going to die hugging Solar2D. I really miss basic things to create business applications, and before anyone says: So study more and make your own features, I don’t think it’s cool for a community to have that attitude, I think that, who knows more, could at least create tutorials or videos on how to do certain things, just like I had on the old Corona SDK blog, because I would certainly be the first to, for example: Learn to call native code in Solar2D to implement new features that today Lua does not allow natively! This would give a very big boost to the tool.

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#3

Hey there,
I want to recap something came out from Discord, so that those who are not there can know about it:

  1. Everyone should consider submitting their projects to https://madewithsolar2d.com/ It suits both released and upcoming projects, and it’s just beautiful to see all our games listed in one place! (I encourage uploading gifs or videos instead of static images. Users love moving things)

  2. It would be so nice if we’d start showcasing our projects on social media tagging Solar2D and using #Solar2D hashtag. Showcasing, or just saying why we love this framework… Come on, it’s a shame nobody is talking about it!

  3. Solar2D Game Jams! (Some micro game jams and a big one)

  4. Join other game jams making it public that our games are made with Solar2D

  5. Setting up a repo with all templates, prototypes, open source projects and tutorials for Solar2D

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#4

I second this in most points. I also feel that it is perhaps a little counterproductive that financial data for the engine’s development is not accessible openly. I think more developers might actually contribute and support if they were kept up to date with what the core team are prioritising in terms of features and how their monetary support could help the development of the framework.

I also feel that there should be a list of primary, secondary and optional objectives for the engine’s development so that features that are consider a necessary component from developers’ perspective can be prioritised and made stable and usable

If you check websites for other engines, there are always some aspects that are highlighted as it’s main offerings- easy integration of social login, monetisation plugins using ads and IAPs, push messaging, game network services, analytics etc. I think we often stray from these primary objectives as a community and a lot of these critical features are still very buggy and not very well documented. I know there will always be someone who has everything worked out— i know I’ve got most things working that i need for my projects but I’m not sure it’s sustainable that we just answer questions for struggling new members on case by case basis.

The engine will be so much more attractive if everyone could get some of these basics set up with little effort and could be secure in the knowledge that this main set of features will always be kept up to date.

Secondary priorities, imho, could revolve around core game development capabilities. The engine is already very performant and feature rich but frame pacing issues and somewhat tedious implementation for other features can be worked on. No major complaints on this front though

I have sincerely tried to push this engine as an investment opportunity to gaming businesses who are looking to invest and back a lightweight gaming engine but there are always some red flags that lead to things fizzling out.

I will gladly help in any which way I can but even as a long time developer and community member I don’t always feel like I know much about what the future holds.

I would sincerely like to help though. Thanks for reading.

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#5

You made me do this!

2 Likes
#6

Another thing is not to associate Solar2D only with games, I know that most use it for that, but it has enormous possibilities for creating business applications as well, because nowadays Solar’s competitors are basically game engines, such as Unity, Godot etc… But we know that Solar2D is much more than that.

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#7

Hey @famousdoggstudios,
I see that your focus is on what the core team could do for the community, and I want to ensure you that we are covering that as well. Some of your points have been discussed already, more will be discussed, and I believe that Vlad will address everything sooner or later.

…But now that Solar2D is open source we should really start thinking that we have a role in the future, and we can’t be just backers! I think there’s a lot we can do if we act in first person instead of demanding everything to Vlad.

We’ve been mostly passive and silent in these 3 years, as if we are still “customers”, but that’s not a thing anymore. That’s why I started talking about what the community itself can do (other than backing).

If you can access Discord you’ll see that something is moving :slight_smile:

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#8

Indeed. I am on the discord server and will participate more actively there here forth

I can help on the business side of things as I think building a strong network and partnerships with ad networks, other service providers etc will be great for Solar2D. Have recently also tried to put Vlad in touch with some people who are interested to work on SDKs for solar2D and can bring financial backing for the future.

We;d have to realise that not all of us will be able to contribute directly to the technical side of things though which is why I personally support the idea of having a core engineering team, which can, of course, be supported by the community. Will discuss more on this going forward.

Also I saw your post about tagging solar2D and getting more visibility for the engine. I actually have done this a lot through our social handles time and again and I completely appreciate and understand your rationale but I do feel that while this is a helpful step for us developers to take, we need to also seek out bigger opportunities and first help Solar2D reach a stage where social media and internet publicity can actually help.

Most of what’s there for solar2d on the internet is very limited whether it’s twitter, linkedIn or other social channels. I tried pushing solar2D a lot some time around 2020-21 when we were doing quite well on Steam but it’s a big ask to get anything going when we don’t have anyone managing these different avenues-- for instance the steam curator page or the linkedIn profile or the twitter etc. I will look into this more seriously and come up with concrete suggestions as regards how I can help in this.

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#9

I understand your points, and I think things should move at different levels.
Not only at core-team level, not only at community level.

The spirit of this post is motivating everyone to do their part despite who they are :slight_smile:

Of course most of us have no time or skills to contribute in a tech way (or in a financial way), and that’s why I started by identifying those 5 points. It’s something that anyone can do to manifest their support to S2D project (and it’s just the beginning).

Everything will work better if we create some synergy, and I believe that the core team will take action together with the community if they see a valid reason to do so!
…And this is already happening :grinning:

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#10

Ludum Dare 53 coming soon (5 days left), i think we can join ld53 event as the first step to help S2D grow again.
https://ldjam.com/

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#11

Im maintaining a semi-successful app called QuikFind that was built using Solar2d (corona sdk back in the days), the only limitation I have is expanding UI abilities which other native frameworks have

#12

I can try to use the networks I’ve got so far and push something

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#14

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