So, what all did you try before falling in love with Gideros?

___ · July 2012

As the title says.

I'll start.

I started with Game Maker, but it was Windows only, and I wanted to develop on Mac.
Next was Game Salad, but it had too many limitations, couldn't add _any_ custom code.
Then came Stencyl. Was good, but later I found out we couldn't add custom code for iOS apps, only for Flash apps.
And finally Corona SDK. There were plenty of tutorials, but there was no way to do something they didn't have in their API, unless you bought an Enterprise license, which I read somewhere, was in the $xx,xxx range. And no offline compile capability

Your turn

GregBUG · July 2012

mmm...

(for my work, delphi, VB, VC)

for hobby
BlitzBasic, BlitzMax, Monkey, PureBasic,
Unity3D (free version) ...

EDIT... forgot Corona...

BTW only Gideros catch my love...

ahahah i like your signature!!!!

)

___ · July 2012

Oh yes, I also tried Unity. Just before Corona. It was solid, but too complex for 2D games, which I was trying to make.

And from my past experience, I've done PHP, Javascript, Ruby, Python, etc. Mostly web languages.

ahahah i like your signature!!!! )

Someone's comment here gave me that idea

ar2rsawseen · July 2012

@___ and I always thought they were minuses as ---.

Well as I come from web development background, I've tried many HMTL5 Mobile engine types, as for example PhoneGap.

Then moved to Titanium, because I already had knowledge of Javascript, and Titanium is pretty nice for apps (although recent updates really make me want to ditch it), but it's hard to adopt it for games. They still don't even have box2d engine for Android.

Then I've tried some native development, both Android and IOS. It took me a week to learn Objective C to develop full mobile game. Then I found out about Corona and switched to it, redeveloped app I created, and it took much less time.
I was really impressed, but some simple things took more that they should, especially managing scenes and layers, mostly from memory point of view (in this scenario Gideros SceneManager is pretty great lib).

Then simply in desperation for good crossplatform mobile gaming framework I shouted to Twitterverse, and it responded, that I should try Gideros. And that is where I stopped looking.

jack0088 · July 2012

Then I've tried some native development, both Android and IOS. It took me a week to learn Objective C to develop full mobile game. Then I found out about Corona and switched to it, redeveloped app I created, and it took much less time.

Why didn't you stick with the native Obj-C? What exactly was your reason to choose a "wrapper"-framework (sorry for this naming! honestly! :S but actually it is, isn't it? I LOVE Gideros btw. and so Lua!!!)

___ · July 2012

It took me a week to learn Objective C to develop full mobile game.

A week to learn Objective C AND make a full mobile game? :O

jack0088 · July 2012

It took me a week to learn Objective C to develop full mobile game.
A week to learn Objective C AND make a full mobile game? :O

xD +1

ar2rsawseen · July 2012

Sure, I have previous experience with c++ and adopting objective-C was not so hard. Some new concept to grasp yeah. But all in all there are a lot of great tutorials, most memorable are from http://www.raywenderlich.com/ and cocos2d was also a good framework I used from the start. Or else this would not be possible.

This game was my test game I was creating in every framework I tried.
And I didn't say it was a hard game. Something similar to what is in GameTemplate now only with game logic of dragging and dropping a ball on other box2d objects with a target to hit them all.

What bothered me most, that firstly it was only for IOS, secondly, I don't have my own Mac. I only borrowed it.

Thirdly I hate strictly type languages, they seem so verbose.

I love PHP, Javascript and lua, and would never want to work with strictly typed/low level ones. Many things could be done much faster if you use proper abstraction. And weakly typed languages provide such many ways to use them.

glennbjr · July 2012

Well I tried many of the other engines but I like Gideros the best. Here's my list: Cocos2d, jMonkekyEngine, Moai, Unity, Corona, libgdx, LOVE, PlayN and just working with plain java canvas/opengl. I may have missed a few but that doesn't really matter. What really does matter is Gideros performance is fast and is easy to work with. :x

jack0088 · July 2012

I've also tried a few. To mention some of them (chronologically):
1. LÖVE (Dropped because of absent iOS support. Also the community seemed to be odd at first. But the first impression counts, right?

)
2. Corona (because of that 14-year old boy developing "bubble ball"

)
3. Polycode (A veeery cool Framework. So logical and extremely cleverly elaborated, BUT as always .. no iOS support YET! No Lua documentation, just the C++ one. iOS support should come in future, if we can trust the developers twitter. Also its 3d and 2d oriented.)
4. Codea (aka Codify) ...

5. Gideros (And here I was mostly impressed by the possibilities and freedom. Lua is completely integrated - not just a cut-out version of it, like Corona did. Classes work just out of the box. Lovely community! Direct support from the developers @atilim and @gorkem. And so much more! That sold me :P

talis · July 2012

I tried;
1-Corona
Like it in the beginning so much because of simplicity. But ansca is so far away from their community, if you can get support as an individual you are the luckiest person in the world:D No ad-mob support and lastly and biggest no offline compile. Why the hell i wanna share my code with some other company. Yes I am paranoiac:)
2-Basic4Android
Really good sdk for android only. But i thought that if i will going to make application for android only i will use eclipse and java instead. So quit it also.
3-Marmalade
I installed it and uninstalled directly because of c++. I hate my c++ teacher back in the university

4-Java and Eclipse
I wrote 1 commercial and something like 20 free ad integrated applications which are still in google market. I like java.
5-Gideros
While searching some alternative to Corona i discovered Gideros. I am using it because i really love the community. I appreciate all company's developers, founders because they are so much active in the community. In addition it is totally free to try and offline builds:)
Lastly I kinda like the name and logo:D

___ · July 2012

1-Corona
Like it in the beginning so much because of simplicity. But ansca is so far away from their community, if you can get support as an individual you are the luckiest person in the world:D No ad-mob support and lastly and biggest no offline compile. Why the hell i wanna share my code with some other company. Yes I am paranoiac:)

Agreed. I had the exact same reasons.

And they want thousands of dollars (price not mentioned, but I read upwards of $40k somewhere) to be able to compile your own extensions.

My internet is not stable and online compilation was a huge blocker.

Community (support) is awesome here

techdojo · July 2012

I'll stick my $0.02 here,
I've been a programmer for eons, but for games in recent years, I used Gamemaker (still do occasionally), then I've used C/C++ (with some frameworks HGE mainly), then Java, then Corona, then and Codea

The main thing for me is I can't be arsed writing the low level engine code, I prefer to just work on the game logic / idea hence the above choices.

SPDApps · July 2012

i used game maker,stencyl,blitz max and dsgamemaker for 5 years before i found gideros didn't want to pay $$$ for corona

Mells · August 2012

I'm not a programmer but an artist/designer that wanted to create my own products and apps.
I first tried Corona -liked it and met great game developers - but I am not permanently online so I looked somewhere else (compile).
Also from my experience pros are less inclined to participate on the forums there.

Then I looked at Gideros, and saw that the team was very active here. Other developers here share and help a lot, discussions are interesting. Plus, I like the way that Gideros works (classes).

So I use Codea for fun (and more), Gideros for my next apps, but still interested in Corona third party apps (LevelHelper, Kwiksher).

nextgamevertex · August 2012

I try a lot of frameworks:
- Corona
- Libgdx
- Loon-simple
- The Starling Framework
- AndEngine
- Haxenme
- Cocos2d-x
- Gideros

And I buy Gideros license because i really love the community :x

Scouser · August 2012

I haven't used many frameworks as I come from a time when you had to do all the programming yourself, APIs & frameworks were still in the future

. I have dabbled with Java & Corona but my main background is in C & assembler on any processor you care to put in front of me

In my day job I am currently writing a disassembler for a CPU I've never seen before & I don't even have an instruction set for it.

ar2rsawseen · August 2012

So @Scouser are you one of those guys, who created/used IOS SDK before it was officially created and released?

Scouser · August 2012

Yeah, I used it on my Palm

GregBUG · August 2012

oh and i forgot a compiler called "Cobra" and i made some old skool demos!

___ · August 2012

I haven't used many frameworks as I come from a time when you had to do all the programming yourself, APIs & frameworks were still in the future . I have dabbled with Java & Corona but my main background is in C & assembler on any processor you care to put in front of me

In my day job I am currently writing a disassembler for a CPU I've never seen before & I don't even have an instruction set for it.

oh and i forgot a compiler called "Cobra" and i made some old skool demos!

You can are old

Anyone younger than me? (~19.5 years)

Teranth · August 2012

Hmm, it's a long list really.

I started with Qbasic back in the day, then moved to Pascal/Delphi,
I used Klick & Play, then Click and Create then Games Factory, and later Multimedia Fusion and of course Flash. I used and taught classes for Klick & Play, Games Factory and later on Game Maker which I liked quite a bit.

I have used Game Salad as well, but at the end of the day I like the simplicity of a simple language like LUA and the power to create what I want through code, so I tend to stay away from the RAD Visual Systems when I can

I like Gideros more then any other framework I have worked with for mobile applications, and it's nice that I can write code once and publish to multiple platforms--better once windows/mac are added.

SPDApps · August 2012

@___ im under 18

loves_oi · August 2012

Nothing. Gideros is my first lover

OZApps · August 2012

Yeah, I used it on my Palm

Now everyone uses it in their palm

techdojo · August 2012

Some of us have wives for that!

MikeHart · August 2012

I am actually not in love with it, but find it the best LUA driven mobile SDK so far. What brought me here was the unhappiness with the development of Corona and the motivation to get the word out for Gideros.

Here is a list of programming languages and tools I have used in the past:

3D GameStudio, Dark Basic, Dark Basic Pro, Blitz3D, Delphi (till V7), IBasic, IBasic Pro, EBasic, Visual Basic (till V6), GLBasic, Torque 2D, PowerBasic, Corona SDK, AGK.

These language and tools I use till this day for various apps/games:

Monkey, BlitzMax, Gideros Studio, Lazarus/FreePascal, C++, ABAP, thinBasic

niall_obrien · August 2012

I've been programming since I was seven (I'm now 29) and have used all sorts along the way. But I'm not going to make a long list at the risk of sounding like a teenager bragging about how many of each drink they got hammered on on a Saturday night.

Instead, I'll just say that the main tools I'm keeping my eye on currently are: Game Maker: Studio (still seems very buggy, quite expensive for extra mobile modules, Windows only), Corona SDK (very slow to integrate new features, still no desktop deployment), Unity3d (overkill for the majority of what I'd like to do, but extremely powerful and gets a bad reputation for being difficult to use, which is just untrue - their Javascript is just as easy as Lua. Deploys everywhere!) and of course Gideros (they seem to be moving quicker than Corona. Native extension support, Corona Enterprise offers this @ $2.5k/year).

Magnusviri · August 2012

I have been trying to break into game programming for like a decade but never could do it until recently. I've tried BlitzBasic and Torque 2D. I've also looked at ActionSctipt and lots of other stuff. Because I knew Objective-C from work (Mac sysadmin) I was able to finally make iOS games when the iPhone came out (but they aren't sprite based).

Last year I taught a DarkBasic game class (yes I learned it in order to teach the class) but I didn't like DarkBasic so I decided not to stick with it. I went looking for something else and I was either going to go with App Game Kit or Monkey.

The Game Creators (makers of DarkBasic and AGK) seemed so obsessed with making money (not such a bad goal, but they have a Microsoft-ish feel where they sell you enough to make you buy more to get done what you wanted). It (DarkBasic, I'm not sure about AGK) was only Windows. It also felt very amatuerish to me, which is ok for teaching, but I wasn't warm on the idea of making my own games with it.

Monkey actually looked very appealing to me. I think BlitzBasic is odd looking and the Monkey forum was only for customers who purchased Monkey, which wouldn't work at all for teaching kids.

cellphonegaming · August 2012

I'm not in love so to speak, I just got going with Gideros last month. My implementation is an apples to apples comparison. In my game I'm doing some complex box2d joints where I track the x y of touch, assign that to a table, then erase the touch in progress then call up the touch again to take action against groups inside groups being removed and moved around...etc.

I started working with Unity 3d, some MOAI. Tried craptastic game salad (that was lame), Love (really REALLY lame), some other things like appcelerator, run rev (live code) etc etc etc.

The #1 thing with Corona that's REALLY bothering me right now "object tunneling" (object passthrough). Additionally, I won't get any passthrough when I run a single level on it's own, but then when I add in a scene manager (director, or storyboard for those who care) everything changes, and I have to CONSTANTLY adjust iterations or physics etc etc.

Right now, I'm in the coding phase, still learning the API and doing "translation" of Corona to Gideros so I can get an idea of how the physics react on a physical build vs what I see in the simulator (which so far is MUCH different between the 2 on corona, depending on the "build" you use").

I'll check back in and let you know, it seems (Gideros) easy to work with, but since it's "newer" (I think?) some of what I am trying to do may or may not be possible.

Oh and there is that enterprise thing Corona does "External Libraries" I know this REALLY bothers a lot of people, including myself + no offline build (when I'm not in Wifi or if it's weak it takes F O R E V E R). Some of the "Fixes" for object passthrough was to do some kind of "stepping" for Box2d which fine tunes the "math rounding" box2d does. I've read end to end the Box2d guide and know it inside and out!

One last thing, I'm a new coder in general. June 2011, never ever coded anything before ever, so that makes it challenging but I am a datacenter architect and IT generalist who knows SQL, Oracle and stuff like that, but never did any .net or c# or whatever the hell you call it (although now I do).

Sooooooooo ya, and......$149 a year for BOTH iOS and Android vs $250 a year for Corona, that is attractive to. Sure the pro of 450 is more, but if you are pulling down 100k, I don't think you would mind that at all.

If it works out and I can get the performance and CONSISTENCY I need from a framework, then I'll make my choice and maybe I'll find "Love" In Gideros!

Phew, crap that was a longer post than I intended but it is what it is.

-Nick

Vallentain · August 2012

I tried Corona, which I kind of regret.
Corona is easy and simple, but I don't like how you can't really add anything special unless they add the the function to Corona. It's also more expensive than gideros and gideros comes with Texture Packer + Font Maker so it was a no-brainer for me to migrate to Gideros right after I saw the feature, lol.

Right now I'm still fooling around with Gideros, trying to make my first game. If Gideros supports web export like flash/html5 I'd fall in love for sure. :-)

I can code in php and as3. Also, I tried RPG Maker and Game Maker during my non-programming years. I've made a game in as3, so translation to Gideros was kind of easy

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