Hi, so i have a this great idea for a game that i will be trying to make using Corona, a 2D turn-based war game with Tanks,Jets,Soldiers, and maybe also ships. Will this be hard to make? as this is my first time using Corona.
We can’t answer that without info like:
- Have you ever programmed before? If so, what languages and for how long?
- Do you know LUA?
- Are you artistically skilled, or will you be getting the art somewhere else?
- Same question for audio (music and sound effects)?
- How much math have you had? Trigonometry, Geometry, Calculus?
- Have you had formal schooling in Physics?
- Have you ever made a game using an engine or SDK?
- How familiar with 2D concepts are you?
- Tell us more about your game idea. The idea is intriguing, but short on details.
For someone who answered YES to the above questions and gave multiple examples for language, engines/sdks, and math, the answer would probably be, “Easy to middling challenging.”
For a brand new developer, without much grounding in the above, the answer could be, “Quite hard.”
So, if you’re new I first suggest making simple test benches, examples, and prototypes of game parts. Build some experience solving small problems with Corona, then approach your bigger idea. You’re much more likely to be successful that way.
-Ed
I would say it is pretty hard especially with multiplayer.Have you done “Hello World” yet?
If not you should check that out.
see roaminggamer answer.
The short answer Yes - but it will be full of interesting and varied challenges!
T.
Should be no problem as long as you skip the ships! 
But in all seriousness you should make something really simple for your first project. Good luck!
Nope, i haven’t programmed before, but i do know a little about Lua, because i been playing this other game for quite some time, and it allows for people too easily edit/extend it using Lua, so yea i know a little about Lua, i know how to create functions, make variables. I’m not much artistically skilled but i can probably manage that, as for math i already went through Geometry and Trigonometry(still got some things to learn more about Trigonometry tho), but i still don’t know what Calculus is :(, i didn’t have schooling in Physics yet. I have never made a game using an engine or an SDK.
As for my game idea, i still haven’t decided whether it should be a WW2 Turn-based strategy game or a Modern War type of turn-based game. 2-3 player’s can take turns in moving there units, capturing/building factories to produce units and sending them off to battle, something similar to this game.
World conqueror is an awesome game.
You don’t need physic for this game. You don’t need too difficult math as well, + - x / to calculate dmg and x,y for position of the units.
I recommend playing against AI or 2-3 player using the same device. You can add multiplayer later on.
Besides learning the basic of Corona, biggest challenge for this game is probably AI and game balance.
Yea World Conqueror is an awesome game indeed 
The hard thing that’s gonna be probably is making the menus, menu buttons and map selection menu, but i think i can easily learn that
In my opinion, this idea is way too complex for a first app for someone who has never programmed before.
I would start with something much smaller and more manageable, like a simple puzzle game or an endless scroller, to learn the usage of Corona SDK and the Lua language. Once you’ve done that, you’ll have a much better understanding of the time investment involved in creating something complex like a turn-based strategy game with AI and/or multiplayer.
Hmm…but i still have more ideas, what do you guys think is gonna be harder to make:
-
A turn based-strategy game
-
Tower Defense game
-
A top-down shooter kinda like SAS Zombie Assault 3
So, what’s gonna be harder type of game to make? I like all of those ideas but i don’t know which of those is gonna be the easiest/hardest to create 
What is your end goal (choose one):
- Learn something.
- Make money.
- Show something off to friends and family.
As long as the answer is 1 or 3, go with any of the above ideas. If the answer is #2, you’ve got the wrong focus. You can’t (except by sheer getting struck by lightning chance) expect to make any money on a game if you’re just learning to make games. In fact I wouldn’t even expect to finish the game.
If you’re a lone wolf (single indie developer), you’ve got to narrow your goals till you learn a lot. For example that game ‘SAS Zombie Assault 3’. To make something like that… way out of the range of possibility for any but the most experienced and rarest of ‘single developers’. I’ve got over 30 years of programming experience, 13 years working part- [then] full-time in game dev, … list goes on, and I could not make that game alone. Even purely copying the existing one. (When I say copy I mean duplicate all elements on my own, not actually stealing assets. The mechanics and much of the art I could actually do, but some elements of sound+music (especially) and art are beyond me.)
If you want to make a first game, I’d suggest something like:
- Tic-Tac-Toe
- A Whack-a-Mole
- A basic connect-3
- A simple card game
- etc.
I’ll tell you what. Go here: http://roaminggamer.com/makegames/ and choose one of the simpler games then e-mail me at roaminggamer < at > gmail < dot > com and tell me which one you’ve selected. I’ll e-mail it to you and you can give it a look.
-Ed
1 & 3 (but mostly 3 :lol: )
I think i’ll try to learn to make that game, “A basic connect 3” :D, i will try first to make a simple game for now :).Thx guys for answering and helping me out.
Reading all of this I would personally say: start smaller!
Try making a very simple game, but with all menus in there, without multiplayer, with some modules. I’m a good programmer and artist myself (in my view), and my first game still took me a year to complete.
Good deal. Best of luck to you and be sure to post in the forums if you get stuck. If you’re using the code from that link, be aware it is somewhat dated. It was written for Graphics 1.0 Corona and uses the ‘compatibility’ switch in config.lua to enable oldStyle:
- setFillColor()
- setStrokeColor()
- setTextColor()
- and a few other calls.
Other than that, it should be similar to Graphics 2.0 code. In fact, it has a small section in main.lua (line 305+) where you can enable some shader goodness.
Back again! I just updated the code on the repository so it is fully Graphics 2.0 compatible. Please get it again if you already downloaded it.
Cheers,
Ed
Thank you.
Though i’m curious, what if i want to create a game similar to this. Is it possible that I (a newbie to Corona) can create a similar game like that?
<louiehedin_51>: I suspect you’re asking for people to tell you this will be easy, but it won’t be. Asking the question in slightly different ways will not result in a different answer.
I’ve written tens of thousands of lines of code in Corona for a non-game app, and answered hundreds of questions here on the forums, but I still don’t know how I would build your 2D turn-based war game. Maybe make sure my best friend was a talented artist, and use physics bodies (including static ones) for all the tanks, jets, soldiers, obstacles, etc.? I don’t know. But I do know I would read the tutorials and, especially, any sample game code posted here.
You should go ahead with your project, but keep it simple and one screen to start. Make your code modular so you can re-use it for multiple levels. And definitely take Ed up on his generous offer!
Everyone here in the community wants you to be successful. Working with Corona is fun, engaging and you can do a lot. From the link above, there is very little reason that either Air Patirots or the zombie game could not be built with Corona SDK. Most of the war game is also possible. With them only showing half screens on the tanks shooting at each other, you probably could fake enough depth with Graphics 2.0’s 2.5D to pull that off.
But that said. The war game will be the hardest because it also involves programming a game server to manage the multi-player aspects. A fairly simple tower defense game that I’m working on is over 6000 lines of code spanning 33 .lua files. It requires a lot of work. When I first started with Corona SDK several years ago, I came in with the same intentions you did (though I came packing 30 years of programming experience…). I took a war game that I wrote way back in 1984 and was trying to learn Objective C (Had it mostly playable too) when I found Corona SDK. I had the core game working in an afternoon with mockup art. There I ran into my first problem. It played way too fast. I had to scrap the idea. I went through the “Lets make a pop the balloon game” phase, which almost every new Corona ends up tackling. With those two great learning projects, but utterly not deployable, went off and built a cross between Space Invaders, Galaxa and Asteroids. The basic game play was done over a couple of weekend afternoons. Then reality hit. It was about 4 months before I could launch it.
Why? Because there is more to a game than game play. Achievements, high scores, store setup, help screens, pausing the game, etc. take a lot of work and time. Polish takes time. The games you have selected have a lot of moving parts, a lot of graphics to setup, particle effects, and so on. This is not a good learning project.
Start small, expect to build a few things that will fail. Learn and keep learning. When you finally deploy, it is great feeling.
Rob
Okay, i think i’ll make my game idea a bit smaller, i think i’ll scrap the multiplayer idea for now as it’s gonna be a bit too complicated for me, i’ll make my game just single-player for now. Thx guys for answering and giving me tips,hints and help.