I want to echo @davebollinger’s sentiments here while trying to unify the sentiments here.
The GUI is not ready for the light of day. This isn’t a knock on the person/people who developed it; I believe they aren’t even with Corona any longer. It’s sitting in a broken state, and the best bet would be to shutter it/open source it completely, and devote those resources to other channels. The GUI would only be useful to create a very narrow genre of games IMO; if you are looking for something that will let you design your own game, you are far better off diving into Dusk and Tiled, or getting Retrofit’s Level Director X. Corona has a limited amount of dollars, and devoting them to the GUI is not worthwhile when there are viable community-driven options out there.
Speaking of Corona and their dollar situation, the way the splash screen has been communicated is poor, and no one (not even Corona employees) deny that much. No announcement and the implementation doesn’t look ready for Prime Time. The difference here, is that the move wasn’t nefarious; just ham-fisted. Considering the changing of hands of the company ownership, the issue with iTunes submittals, and a handful of other behind-the-scenes issues/moves/modifications made this particular checkmark get passed over. Unfortunate for all involved, as it made it seem like Corona developers were expendable revenue streams, instead of the de facto partners that Corona (in every different incarnation) has been trying to serve for years.
No one thinks that software companies can run on sunshine and rainbows, and clearly the ~15% of ad revenue isn’t keeping the lights on. The better Corona does, the better we all do; this is a very very important fact that has become, unfortunately, a cliche when used too often. If Corona is profitable, more bugs are fixed, more features implemented and more visibility will be better for everyone, in an industry where marketability is like gold.
The fact that you’ve got so many employees chiming in here means that they at least understand that there is no Corona without it’s developers, and are trying to meet us half-way. Will they accomplish it? It’s very likely that there will still be issues, but aren’t there always? Take the consternation and turn it into energy towards finding a development option that does for you what Corona does for free, or use it as the kick in the biscuit to push your apps and games towards a profitable release.
