Hello,

My company makes isometric games and I was looking at Corona and noticed that 2.5d was on the road map I have no problem using a 3rd party tool, however I heard about performance issues.

I am wondering if it would be feasible to develop our game(s) using the tools currently presented and then simply upgrade when the newer versions are completed? Petty much will the Corona stuff be compatible with 3rd party tools (such as Tiled/Lime)

And when do you guys expect roughly to have it fixed/finished? Would it be feasible for me to even consider Corona?

I am also wondering (I think I read somewhere) that 2.1 Android is not supported in new versions of Corona? So only 2.2 and higher will be supported? Roughly 65% of the phones from what I read. And is there a way to limit what phones can download your application on the Android marketplace? I've never developed for Android before.

Thanks!

- Steve

I answered a few of these for myself just running some tests.

1. I have not found any performance issues with isometric, so I have a complete screen of tiles and objects and getting 21 fps in the simulator. And this is rather horrible code atm. Mind you this doesn't have any kind of a movement or moving tiles yet so we will still have to add some stuff before I confirm.

2. You can restrict what versions of android your game is available, and it's only 2.2+.

Now I have a couple questions for Corona Staff.

1. Why does a "2d" engine not have good support for 2d images and sprites? having to spend $50 on another "addon" from another developer just to be able to manage sprites (which is a MAJOR part of a 2d game) seems weird to me. Also there is no shaders or proper vector or 2.5D image support?

2. Why is there an annoying popup everytime you open the simulator telling you how many days you've used a unlimited free trial and telling you to buy. Seems redundant (especially since unlike other SDK's there is no coding environment and things like CPM reload the simulator over and over again) to have a popup telling someone how many days of his "unlimited" trial and asking him to upgrade. This should only be presented if requested (menu item) or once they get ready to build a final version.

3. I understand daily builds being limited to subscribers but bug reports to? That's a terrible idea, since assuming a lot will be testing corona they are more likely to find bugs (because they are trying to see what it can do) then those who plan on building a game with it.

4. You guys should implement a coding issue/help/what ever area. Forums are a terrible method of getting coding help, which is why stackoverflow, etc were created. Perhaps a stackoverflow API site for corona (such as unity did with unityanswers).

Just friendly comments/questions.

- Steve

Hi there dubcanada :)

I'm a very new addition to the forum staff but I'll answer what I can for you.

1) When you say that Corona does not have "good support" for sprites, are you referring to a specific problem with using sprite sheets? For example, that you need to manually state the size of your sheet/images?

2) Most trial software will have something like this. When you're a subscriber this wont be a problem but until then it's not unlike any other trial.

3) I believe you should be able to submit a bug report here; http://developer.anscamobile.com/content/bug-submission
I could be mistaken as I am a paid subscriber, however having just checked with a non-paid account it appeared I could in fact submit a bug.

4) The forum is a good place to get help provided you post in the appropriate section; although there are already a number of community run sites dedicated to helping out with support as well.

I hope that answers your questions - please let me know if the bug form wont let you submit your bug, I'm happy to report it for you.

Peach :)

You do not need 2.5D functionality to create isometric worlds. Thats purely how you draw your artwork and calculate your math.