Spreading the word about Corona (Guest Post)

03 January 2013

Spreading the word about Corona (Guest Post)

Jerome Hollon is a Corona SDK developer that builds cross-platform mobile apps for clients. When asked to speak at a local hackerspace in Lexington, KY, Jerome shared his experience with the platform and wowed the audience by developing an Angry Birds clone with Corona SDK, in just one hour.

My Name is Jerome Hollon, founder of Hollon Consulting, which provides mobile app development for local companies. I am also a mailing list member of a local hackerspace called Collexion. In November, I was invited to present a workshop on mobile app development, specifically addressing the sticky problem of cross-platform development.

Originally an Android developer, I stumbled across Corona SDK after a client wanted to quickly release his app on both markets. A friend mentioned in passing that his company had been using Corona for cross-platform app development, and recommended that I check out the platform. To my surprise, I had his app rewritten using Corona SDK in less time than it took to originally develop the game. Since then, I’ve used Corona exclusively to develop mobile apps.

Due to my positive experience with Corona, when Collexion put out a call to form a Lua group, I offered to share my knowledge. They were enthusiastic and the next week’s meeting was reserved for me to teach Corona 101. The day rolled around for my workshop and I found myself at a somewhat chilly, unheated garage packed-full of interesting machines that collexion called home. Behind the CNC Router and next to the MakerBot was a table with an old projector, and some couches that had seen better days. I settled down in one of the folding chairs and setup the laptop and projector.

A group of developers arrived to the event, along with pizza. My workshop began shortly after the pizza vanished and I introduced the members of Collexion to the history of Corona and its features. I also shared what I’ve done with Corona, and why I love working with the platform. But that was the boring part. After the Corona introduction was done, everyone pulled out their laptop and got to work.

I had previously seen a presentation by Seb Lee-Delisle on building an Angry Birds clone from scratch in front of a live audience in around thirty minutes and was blown away. I knew if I wanted to impress them with Corona’s abilities, I needed to wow them with this same presentation. So for the next hour, we built an Angry Birds clone, told some tasteless jokes that reminded me of my high school, changed the gravitational constant of the universe (at least on our phones) and threw blue balls into blocks.

The developers went home that day, surprised by how easy and fast it was to get a game up and running for both phone OSes and inspired by the possibilities Corona offered . I can’t wait to see what this group of talented developers will create with Corona in the future.

-Jerome Hollon, Founder, Hollon Consulting