Hey, I'm Joseph and I'm 14, I got CoronaSDK to have some fun and attempt to make some apps using Lua, since I know Lua from a game called Roblox. But I wanna know if you really need a mac to make iOS apps? Or can you have windows and somehow do it? Thanks for any reply.

You need to have a Mac.

Hey Joseph,

You shall need a mac.

You will also need to pay $99 bucks to Apple.

You will also need to pay at least $200 a year to AnscaMobile to build apps to an iOS device (i.e., iPhone, iPad, iPod)

$300 minimum to get up and running to build to a device.

Now you are 14, so I imagine resources are limited.

Buy a mac - you could buy a mac mini used for several hundred dollars.

or

Build a "Hackintosh". I installed Snow leopard 10.6.7 on a dell laptop - the disc cost me 29 bucks and wasn't too difficult to do. I did this for about 6 months, I was able to build Corona SDK apps and build to my ipod/ipad/ etc

Yep, hope you have an umbrella because it's raining cold hard facts up in here :)

What you could do is if you are bright and can build a good app, and something that has appeal then you can have the "Ammo" to get your parents on board with game development and maybe they can help out with the fees. Parents see gaming as a waste of time, brain melting etc. I dealt with that all my life. I'm 36 now married and have a son, so its been a long time but I remember how hard it was when I was young with big ideas and everyone telling me no.

Anyway, ya longer answer than I was planning but thought I throw that out there :)

ps - I finally bought a macbook pro 15 inch i7 quad core with 8 gigs of ram today $1860! OUCH.

So total cost for me so far

1860 macbook pro
200 corona license
100 apple dev fee

2160 bucks out my pocket + all the tools you may want......money money money!

ng

@nicholas,

you are lucky that the costs as you estimate are only those. It is nice to know that you are 26 and might be able to offset these from your work, but the fact remains that the actual cost is the cost of the Hardware + Cost of Software + Cost of Utilities (power, water, phone, net) + Time for learning/Practice and all of that is the cost that is before you can even produce a single line of code as per your ideas.

Then it is the time it takes to get your pet project off the ground, os if that is 3 months, count that in terms of hours spend by ah hourly rate that you would charge to gen an idea of the total cost of making a FREE or paid game on the App store.

Who says making games is Cheap ;)

cheers,

?:)

Yea, there are those other costs too, if you want to get technical :)

For those of us who have families, it's a challenge to find the time to develop. I mean hell it's 1am right now and I'm coding away on my 1st game. It's not the first game I made (I have 48 prototypes, 17 that I want to make, 1 that I am focusing on right now) but it's the first game I want to release to the app store.

I was about done with my game, then I played through it, then I got pissed off and started over again. I don't know why but I just felt I could do better. Then I started again, got nearly finished and decided to overhaul the interface, then I got mad.....again and decided F this and took a week off. Then I started over...

Zoom ahead 3 weeks later, and here I am again I started over a few days ago and I think I finally got my game play to where I want it. My focus was on gameplay, gameplay, gameplay. I don't want some super shiny polished looking game that plays like crap. I want the opposite :)

I am sure I am not the only one who has written and re written the game, several times - given up trashed it, started over, etc. The problem is I started in June 2011, never programmed anything and the more I learn, the more I want to change things around!

......Man I just typed a lot, and I got super tired all of the sudden!! This game development stuff is fun, but it wears you out :)

ng

+1 for perseverance
+10 for dedication
+100 for not chucking it out and still going at it

?:)

@OZapps.

Thanks! Yea, feels like -1000 points, then +100 always moving forward.....until I move backwards lol. Haha.

@joe_guti093

You will have your own crazy moments of "YEA IM READY TO RELEASE" then "SCREW THIS IM STARTING OVER"

Welcome my friend WELCOME TO GAME DEVELOPMENT!

Mwuahahahahahahaha.

ng

deleting a double post won't let me delete the post...sorry!