Is The Corona SDK Just For Gaming?

10 May 2012

Is The Corona SDK Just For Gaming?


Corona Geek

After the Mobile Introduction to Corona webinar today, someone emailed me to ask if the Corona SDK was only for developing game apps.

As an outside observer who is new to Corona, here’s my opinion on the subject.

I think gaming is a big topic for mobile developers and Corona does a lot of heavy lifting for the developer in that space. That said, all the elements for creating non-game apps is there in the API. Depending on what someone is trying to do, there may be some things missing. It would be nearly impossible for to include support for everything that someone might want to do. But, overall reading and writing files, database management, XML file management using JSON, networking, push notification, etc. are there to build other non-game apps.

So I think the real question is, what do you want Corona to do for you?

Charles McKever
CoronaGeek

Tags:
Charles McKeever
[email protected]

Charles McKeever is a life long computer geek who enjoys exploring technologies to understand how they work, how they can be smashed together, and how they can be used to fuel entrepreneurial endeavors.

5 Comments
  • Charles McKeever
    Posted at 17:25h, 10 May

    I think it makes sense for Ansca Mobile to focus on the hotest topic in mobile development. It’s not only financially the best place to focus resources, but it’s also the place where most developers need the most help. A lot of creative people would never be able to put together all the code to make game physics happen, but just about anyone can figure out how to connect a form to a database to store and retrieve data.

  • Curved Light Solutions
    Posted at 12:34h, 28 August

    You neglect to hit on the BIGGEST thing missing for non-game apps. A robust cross-platform set of UI widgets. What they currently have is very lacking.

    • charlesmckeever
      Posted at 13:30h, 28 August

      I’m still building up my Corona muscles, so I can imagine there are gaps I’m not aware of. Can you think of any specific examples that might help illustrate the point?

      • Curved Light Solutions
        Posted at 16:28h, 30 August

        They have a decent set of iOS widgets, there is a lack of parity with what is offered for Android ( at lease in the public release), I actually purchased a nice 3rd party library for Corona called Widget Candy. It has parity between iOS and Android and all widgets look the same on both platforms. In addition you can skin it to look like the native OS.

        • charlesmckeever
          Posted at 10:50h, 31 August

          I see. Thank you for the Widget Candy reference. I will have to review their library in more depth. I’ve used some of the common third party libraries for other things like Director, but I’m trying to stay close to the Corona API. Do you use a lot of third party libraries, or just this one?

Post A Comment