We started to work on a game maker tool, which will allow you to make 2D games with physics like GameMaker, GameEditor or GameSalad and will be able to export your game into LUA, so you can build it with Corona (for iOS and for Android).

It will be able to export your game for Windows7 phones as well.
The tool itself will be windows only.
Release date of the beta is unknown yet and it will still last a few months, because we work on it in our spare time, but we are coming along very well.

The tool will be free of charge and you can develop and test your game with it as long as you wish.

The exporting modul will cost money.
Our target price range will be somewhere between $99 - $199

What is the highest price, you would pay for such a thing?
Is there even an interest for such a thing?

For me personally it depends what you can actually control and make with your editor. Corona with Lua is pretty simple if you've gone down the path of Objective C. but there will be interest from the Game salad crowd. I think you'll have to bullet point your specific features you intend to offer...

The idea does sound exciting though but you have te remember if you market your product toward iOS developers they are probably invested in apple at $99 just for iOS and again for the mac app store then you have the subscription to Corona. So you must offer something very special to take a further $99+ off developers.

But aren't most Corona users MAC?

make it an Adobe AIR app, then we can all use it ;)

The project is in the starting phase, although we already have an actual application. If it is getting near to alpha/beta, we will announce it in more detail.

We actually really target the GameSalad crowd and people, who want to make games, but can't or don't want to code. Because Corona is a powerful software already, we think, it is the best base to build on.

I think $99 is a small price if you can build your project for 3 platforms with a single button click. I have a few really crappy apps on the appstore beside my well selling apps and even they have made a few hundred dollars within a year, so I think, the investment is not so big.

All who can not afford a few hundred dollars to start a carrieer, shouldn't even think about it :-P

Nothing against fourteen years olds (who are mostly the ones, who are scared by even 99 dollars), but really... do we need them on the appstore with their flashlight apps?

As for the "corona users are mac users" topic: I am a windows user and I hate everything apple does or sells, but I also bought 2 ipads, 2 iphones, a macbook and all the subscriptions.

I think I invested a few ten thousand dollars into iPhone development already, so I really don't care about people who have no windows.

If you want to use the software, you'd better get a windows from somewhere :-P

We have no clue about adobe air and we have no intention to learn it :-)

Maybe that all sounds rude, but I don't mean it in a rude way at all. I just state the facts :-)

@Hunnenkoenig,

re:"Nothing against fourteen years olds (who are mostly the ones, who are scared by even 99 dollars), but really... do we need them on the appstore with their flashlight apps?"

Just an observation but I feel this statement is wrong on so many levels, whether you meant it or not, it alienates young developers in that age bracket.

I suggest you get a professional PR person.

Good luck.

@luna:
In my language we have a saying: "if it's not your shirt, dont put it on"
That means: if you think, it's not about you, then don't get offended.

I don't need a PR person.
It's not about me, it's about the tool.

If it's good you buy it, if not, then you don't. So simple. I don't want to become rich by selling only this tool.
Peace.

How do we develop and test our game without the exporting module? Surely we need the Lua files for it to run in Corona, and you can't protect these (unless you have an obfuscator i guess) Does it have it's own internal version of the Corona methods? does the performance match up between the 2 environments?

thanks
j

Nothing against fourteen years olds (who are mostly the ones, who are scared by even 99 dollars), but really... do we need them on the appstore with their flashlight apps?

Hey... I don't make any flashlight apps. Also, I'm not scared by 99 dollars. If someone threw $99 at me, I'd run after it, not run away scared. :-)

THAT is a mature reply... From a 14 years old.
Some people could learn...

-------

You will be able to test your game on windows without lua and corona.
There will be no possibility to test it on your device until you bought the export modul, but we will try to find a solution...

so how will we know that you the performance on your program is achievable on the device for instance?

i would advise at least therefore that you put out some convincing free demos or minigames on the appstore made with your engine, so we can see it that way

even better would be to create a "player" app that can load our level files that we have built with your tool (if you take that approach of externalising rules into XML files etc like gamesalad does)

what is your planned feature set? will you be including your own versions of systems like Lime and ParticleCandy?

thanks
j

As I said, we are at the beginning of development. To be honest, we didn't think about testing yet because we want to make the tool first as good as possible, but it is very good that you bring up these topics.

We of course will be able to test the performance without having to buy our own plugin ( :-p ) so we will make sure that you will be safe.

Anyway... We will think about different ways, how it will be most userfriendly.

As for the features: our plan is to make something, like the above mentioned tools, based on corona.

I can't tell more about it because we have only a scene editor at the moment and we are integrating physics and all the other stuff piece by piece.

Just wondering, are you rebuilding Corona? You said that "you can test your game on windows without lua and corona"

That would be interesting...

who needs windows?

yes I am a mac fanboy! >:)

just joking... I play black ops on windows pc :D

I think $99 is a small price if you can build your project for 3 platforms with a single button click.

Corona already does that "after" you have appropriate code. To be honest, if you cannot code some of the basic stuff in lua, you shouldn't be using corona and we really don't need to pay additional $99 for something that most corona users can already code. Just my thought.

What is the highest price, you would pay for such a thing?
Is there even an interest for such a thing?

Answer: $0 (because its windows only..... :D ) and No (because its windows only.... >:D)

cheers and be eh... more happy! :D

PS - yes I admit it... I am a mac fanboy ^______^

We don*t care about Mac or Windows version, we can pay $1000 USD or more for a software or service which can input origin (or some little modification) lua source code, project was created with and running well by corona and create an output as WP7 game.

huh? o.O;;;

is WP7 = windows phone? (O).(O);;;;

so spending $1000 is a good thing.... right?

Just wondering, are you rebuilding Corona? You said that "you can test your game on windows without lua and corona"

The initial idea was to build a completely independent engine which can do all the stuff corona can and then simply translate the code to LUA. So I think, the answer is yes.

Now we are thinking about the possibility that it can also function as an own app making tool similar to Corona and GameSalad with our own app building server.

We will see, what we can accomplish more efficient. Translating the code from our engine to LUA for Corona users is still an option.

But as I said, it won't happen very quick because we have other projects which have higher priorities at the moment, because they are almost finsihed.

I am working on an editor on the device itself. So you can add objects on the device and position them the way you want. Here's a read on some features and details here