Book Image

Corona SDK Mobile Game Development: Beginner's Guide

Book Image

Corona SDK Mobile Game Development: Beginner's Guide

Overview of this book

Corona SDK is the fastest and easiest way to create commercially successful cross platform mobile games. Just ask Robert Nay, a 14 year old who created Bubble Ball - downloaded three million times, famously knocking Angry Birds off the top spot. You don't need to be a programming veteran to create games using Corona. Corona SDK is the number one tool for creating fun, simple blockbuster games. Assuming no experience at all with programming or game development you will learn the basic foundations of Lua and Corona right through to creating several monetized games deployable to Android and Apple stores. You will begin with a crash course in Lua, the programming language underpinning the Corona SDK tool. After downloading and installing Corona and writing some simple code you will dive straight into game development. You will start by creating a simple breakout game with controls optimized for mobile. You will build on this by creating two more games incorporating different features such as falling physics. The book ends with a tutorial on social network integration, implementing in app purchase and most important of all monetizing and shipping your game to the Android and App stores.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Corona SDK Mobile Game Development Beginner's Guide
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface

Understanding memory efficiency


As you develop your application, you should always consider how your design choices affect the performance of your application. Device memory still has its constraints even though there are improvements in computing power and memory. Performance and optimization within the device will not only achieve faster response times, but also help minimize memory usage and maximize battery life.

Memory is an important resource on mobile devices. When too much memory is being consumed, devices may force quit your application when you least expect it. Here are some things to be aware of while developing:

  • Eliminate memory leaks: Allowing leaks to exist means extra used memory in your application that takes up valuable space. Even though Lua does automatic memory management, memory leaks can still occur in your code. For example, when you introduce global variables into your application, it is your job to tell Lua when they are not needed anymore so memory can be freed....