From the Forum — Issue #89

12 September 2015

From the Forum — Issue #89

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. Notes from the underground

The new Amazon Underground market seems like a brave new world. This isn’t the place to discuss the differences with the way everything works (see here for more details), but it is a good place to decide if this program has any short-or-long term benefits for the wider Corona community. Amazon devices are a sea of users, and not all of us (myself included) are capitalizing on that market.

Cue the below thread. Another developer who states that they have successfully ported several games to the Amazon Underground platform chimes in with some sound advice and hard numbers that he has learned from his experiences. Head on down to the original thread to check it out.

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/58792-amazon-underground/

2. Particle goodness in all it’s forms

We all know Caleb P. He’s the mastermind behind the Dusk library, which makes developing your platform games, using Tiled, very easy. Caleb also created the popular Perspective library, which provides a user-configurable “camera” system for game projects.

Here, Caleb has developed a brand new particle system for Corona SDK. True, he created the very versatile CBE. Coming on the heels of these libraries is the brand new particle library Prism. Granted, he now has two particle modules in circulation for Corona SDK, but Caleb’s thought process is that he wanted to be able to start over from scratch, and make the changes and structural methodology he wanted from the outset.

Incorporating what he learned from his development journey, Prism is the product of that knowledge. Head on down to the original thread to learn more about Prism, and don’t forgot to let Caleb know you’re using it!

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/59078-prism-a-new-particle-effects-system/

3. Circular timers make counting fun!

I’m guilty of spending far too much time tweaking and modifying my graphical timer implementations. Getting the spin, color gradients and onComplete calls all to be just so is a nervous compulsion with me, and I think the first step is to  admit my problem.

That’s why I’m always happy to see new modules pop up. This one is a really cool circular countdown timer, useful for puzzle countdowns and other starter-related tasks. It’s simple, lightweight and extensible, so the fact that the developer made it available to the wider Corona community is quite a gift. Truck on over to the original thread to learn more about this module, and don’t forget to say thanks!

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/59074-circular-countdown-timer-code-you-might-find-it-useful-mit-license/

About Alex

Alex Jackson is an indie developer and the founder of Panc Interactive, 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: @pancinteractive. Check out his new game Segreta on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Amazon devices.