26 September 2014
From the Forum — Issue #39
Welcome to the latest installment of From the Forum. In this series, guest blogger Alex Jackson highlights outstanding threads from the Corona Forum. The goal is to bring attention to the most captivating, interesting, and thought-provoking discussions taking place in our very own backyard.
Please visit the forum to join these conversations or start your own!
1. Free plugins, but at what cost?
The app marketplace is volatile — I don’t think anyone needs a reminder of that. However, we need to remember that we’re all in this together, and the help that we provide to a new app developer can translate to good vibrations down the line.
To wit, our friends at Gremlin Interactive found that serving plugin juice to the Corona developer community at large isn’t worth the proverbial squeeze and, as such, have open-sourced their fantastic plugin library so that everyone can benefit from them. Unfortunately, this is not entirely good news, as the open-sourcing removes all support that Gremlin once provided. This is a shame since Gremlin has always provided stellar support, and it’s sad to see an intelligent, forthcoming developer abandon a great service.
In any case, check out the forum post to learn more about this decision by Gremlin and get the GitHub link for the plugin libraries. Happy coding!
2. Clean interface: what could be better?
Many games would benefit from some extra real estate on Android devices, since taking advantage of every single pixel is important in this business. One problem, however, is the giant navigation bar at the bottom of recent Android builds. This can really cramp our space and style!
I’ve seen my share of posts asking about methods to hide, remove, or otherwise disable this bar. While some devices have the “Immersive mode” whereby you can minimize the bar, Corona has gone ahead and made this process native! This is very useful for anyone developing landscape-oriented apps or games that should give their users the full experience.
Check out the original thread to find info on how to accomplish this near-Herculean feat:
3. Sizes for new iPhones
Consider this another PSA for the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The fine folks at Corona have updated their guide to address the new app icon sizes and the “launch images” necessary to force correct resolutions for your apps. The following forum post discusses the images needed and how they scale in the event that you don’t include them. If you’re targeting the new iPhones, be sure to check it out and ensure that you’ve set up everything correctly.
About Alex
Alex Jackson is an indie developer and the founder of Panc Software, specializing in retro-style gaming. He has created several mobile applications, enjoys long walks on the beach, pixel art, and reading the Corona forums. Contact him by email or follow him on Twitter: @pancsoftware. Check out his new game Crosstown Smash on iOS, Android, and Amazon devices!
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