What's your setup?

Some more info on my part -

  Tried GIMP out when I was getting started. It’s free, but the learning curve might be a bit big. I switched to Pixelmator because the easier interface was worth the $15 (they might have raised the price since I got it).

  Also tried out InkScape - I’d highly recommend it, unless weird windows popping up everywhere gives you a headache. GIMP also had it’s share of weird windows, by the way. Personally, I’d say InkScape isn’t quite as good as Sketch, though, also.

  Tried out Love2D (also when getting started). It has a few big things going for it. First of all, it’s free, no limits on pro vs. starter or anything. That’s a BIG pro over Corona. Don’t get me wrong - it’s fine for CoronaLabs to charge for their great SDK, but you have to admit, it’s hard to beat “free” for a price. Second of all, it supports shaders/pixel effects - if Corona did that, it would be great… For the pro subscribers. Love2D also has quad support, skewing, and some other things you can do to image objects.

  However, the Love2D workflow is a bit of a hassle. You can’t just save a file and instantly reload, plus you also can’t reload when the Love2D window is open - a small thing, but you’d be surprised at the effect it has. The “love.update()” thingy that Love2D does is also not as good as Corona’s, but it’s easy to write a “Corona wrapper” for object creation (add an XY position to each object when it’s created and put automatic object drawing into love.update()).

  In the end, I’d say…

[lua]

local function valueCheck(a, b)

  if a.value == b.value then

    print(“Love2D makes up for it’s quirks with pixel effects, skewing, computer apps (not just mobile), and the free price - Corona, though, is easy to use yet powerful and fast”)

  end

end

local Love2D = {

  value = 1000000000000

}

local CoronaSDK = {

  value = 1000000000000

}

valueCheck(Love2D, CoronaSDK)

[/lua]

So there’s a comparison of a few free things vs. paid things.

  • Caleb

@Caleb: This is one of the reasons we are using Corona for mobile and Love2D (if at all) for windows/mac ports :wink:

This is officially my favorite thread, absolute wealth of information. @Caleb cheers for posting some really cool stuff! I’m going to take a look at Love2d. Though be honest I’m still really a “starter” as it goes with Corona (can’t even seem to get my ebook working!) so I’ll have to work my way around a bit before I can dive straight in to do anything massively useful. 

As for the whole mac vs windows, I will probably move over to mac when I have the money to spend (I’ll have to sell a few apps first!). Almost everyone I’ve either worked with or am friends with in this sector has apple gear. 

M

Ok, peeps are going into a lot of detail on this so here goes:

Platform: MacBook Air + Thunderbolt display

IDE: Lua Glider (when at home or on the move), Notepad++ (when i’m sneaking my code into work when I shouldn’t be!)

Issue tracking/project management: CloudForge/TeamForge (highly recommended if you can’t afford Atlassian JIRA)

Version control: SVN via TeamForge

Graphics: Adobe CS6

Rich

I’m using…

Sublime Text 2 - it’s the most awesome editor out there!

MacMini - Apple is the best!

Pixelmator - WAY cheaper than Adobe products, but still very powerful and easy to use

Sketch - Same here

Starbucks French Roast - A useful addition to your coding assets

  • C

Working in a Windows based OS(it sucks, but I don’t have any choice, mac is to pricey)

On IDE, I’m using Outlaw IDE the free version itself is good because the only limit is the 3 group, and you can only make 3 projects within that group.

Adobe Photoshop CS6

Jam

I am using 

  • a Macbook Air for scripting, programming and deploying of my builds

  • Outlaw IDE for Mac (my favourite one)

  • Notepad++ on my PC

  • SmartGit on both machines (this is important for my workspace!)

  • Pixelmator 

  • Adobe Creative Suite CS3

  • Corona SDK Pro

My company is working on several titles on different platforms so it is fair to mention that we are using more tools/SDKs than just Corona :wink:

Max

Wow thanks guys, it’s really cool to for myself and others too to see what exactly is being put into use out there. I’m learning all this at a university course, it’s one thing to be taught academically and to see what they’re using in a educational environment, it’s another thing to see what’s actually being used in business/personal environment. I hope more people comment!

  • M -  :slight_smile:

Hi Max, 

What other SDK’s are you using and why?

  • M - 

@Michael:

Well, Corona is used for mobile 2D Games. Sometimes if we want to port our games/apps to Windows/Mac as well then we use Löve2D. It uses LUA so we can easily make it work with this engine, too. 

For 2.5D, 3D games we are currently working with Unity3D. There may be better 3D engines out there like CryEngine but our developers feel more familiar with Unity :wink: The current project is far away from being finished so I can not provide you with further information unfortunately :frowning:

Hopefully I am able to participate in the next Graphics 2.0  test… I would like to use Corona for 2.5D games, too.

But our current  mobile game made with Corona SDK is in Alpha stage and will be announced very soon…

I did not find a better 2D engine than Corona that fits my needs (ease of use, lightweight etc). 

And just a quick note: I´ve started with Corona and my projects have given me a job in a very big German game company  :wink:

Max

I’m on a 2011 Macbook Pro. No extras (monitor, mouse etc). I like to move around and don’t want to get used to things that tie me down :slight_smile:

IDE: Glider

Version Control: Mercurial + Bitbucket.org

Todo list: www.trello.com

Graphics: Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks

GoodSync to keep 2 instances of my game synchronised to have open simultaneously (when testing multiplayer). 

I’m working on server side component for my game as well, using Python and MongoDB with Netbeans IDE for that. 

Testing devices: iPhone 5, iPhone 4, iPad 1, Samsung Note 1, Samsung Nexus 7

Thanks for sharing Max, don’t worry I won’t ask too many questions! So Corona is definitely the way to go then. There are so many opportunities it seems when you really get to grips with it! Congrats on your job with the game company!!! Let me know when the new game’s announced I’d love to see what you guys have achieved with Corona (Success stories are always inspiring!). I have an interest in Unity but I’m afraid that route would involved dragging my wallet kicking and screaming. Not quite there yet ;) 

I hadn’t heard of Love2D yet, that’s interesting!

  • M - 

You’re a fellow traveller then! Same here, light as possible but as powerful as possible! There are so many software names popping up on this thread I hadn’t heard before. I think it’s handy to let people know there are so many great tools out there, it’s easy to get a bit lost! Cheers for sharing!

M

Mac does get quite pricy :frowning: good motivation to build successful apps! Thanks for sharing!

M

I’m hearing about so many cool pieces of software through this thread! Awesome! Cheers for sharing C, I’d love to eventually check out the mac route of things…

Hey Rich thanks for sharing! Always good to get cheaper recommendations for those starting out! Programming/Development can get pretty expensive especially if you’re just starting out it seems!

M

2009 13" MacBook Pro with OS-X 10.8, 4GB of RAM and never a big enough hard drive with a 24" external monitor.

Adobe Photoshop CS5

Sublime Text 2

It seems everyone’s using mac! Guess it’s the way to go? Thanks Rob!

M

The problem with Windows is you can’t build for Apple’s iOS.  A Mac is required for that.  But that said, even doing web development, mysql development or anything short of needing to run Microsoft’s development environment, the Mac is generally a better tool.  You can run Apache, PHP and MySQL locally (Apache and PHP ship with the OS).  The editing tools, and things like Photoshop run like a champ on Macs.  Even if I wasn’t building iOS apps, I would either be using Linux or a Mac to program on.

Well it depends on your target platform(s). If you are just going for android then you do not need a Mac at all.
But since you are able to build for both worlds on Mac many developers choose this OS :wink: