December 2010
42 posts
2 tags
BeebeGames Class 1.6 Released →
Per user request, added event.name and event.count parameters to listeners passed to the performAfterDelay() function.
3 tags
Top 5 Things the iPhone Has Given the World →
Great read from PC World (ironically, since it’s about Apple):
In addition to making shareware trendy, the App Store did something much more important: It turned the cell phone into a computing platform.
Suddenly, cell phones could do just about anything, even if that usually equates to playing games. As Apple advertised, if you can find a task, there’s likely “an app...
5 tags
Useful Circular Movement Tutorial →
The tutorial is for ActionScript, but the logic can be easily converted to Lua. Circular movement is kind of confusing, but useful for many animations in games. I might consider adding a related function to the BeebeGames Class eventually.
3 tags
Outstanding Collision Filters Chart →
Special thanks to Brent Sorrentino of Ignis Design LLC for this amazing resource.
Collision filters (a Box2D concept) is something that I have always been pretty confused about when it came to setting up new ones and how it all worked. The chart that Brent provided (back in October!) makes the whole thing a billion times simpler.
The page shows an example chart with step-by-step “how...
2 tags
BeebeGames Class 1.5 Released →
If you downloaded this class previously, this update is a MUST. It fixes a major bug that pretty much rendered the entire module useless if you used physics. Don’t worry, all of your previous code should work. I try my best to make each update backwards compatible so you’re not having to modify your code as you download new updates.
Here are a few more changes/fixes:
Better...
2 tags
BeebeGames Class Version 1.4 Released →
A very small update that adds an onStart parameter to the doTransition method.
5 tags
BeebeGames Class 1.3 Released →
In additions to new things added in 1.2 today, this version includes a table that holds all active timers (timers that haven’t been canceled) as well as functions to pause, resume, and cancel all timers with one line respectively.
Also, I just published a tutorial on how to take advantage of all new additions in 1.2 and 1.3.
6 tags
How to Use the New Time Functions
Combined, the BeebeGames Class version 1.2 and 1.3 features 6 new time-related functions, one of which being a complete replacement for the built-in timer.performWithDelay() as well as a—much requested—table that holds all active timers.
Before we get started on anything, you’ll want to import the beebegames.lua module into your project and localize the functions you’ll...
2 tags
BeebeGames Class Version 1.2 Released →
Added functions that deal with time. Here’s a short rundown:
resetTimeCounter()
getTimeCounted()
performAfterDelay()
In case you’re wondering, the performAfterDelay() function is a complete replacement for the existing timer.performWithDelay() function that now supports pausing and resuming!
I plan on publishing a tutorial that covers the new additions sometime today, so stay...
5 tags
Holidazed is Ansca's App of the Week →
Congratulations to reallyMedia for the awesome job! Very interesting, especially since our next game, Antsy Pantsy, will also be a side-scrolling platformer.
1 tag
BeebeGames Class Updated to 1.1 - Fixes Bug →
Quick update that fixes a bug where the text size argument in newRetinaText() wasn’t working correctly. No new features added this time around, but the next update should have some.
4 tags
Exciting Announcement from Ansca Mobile →
According to co-founder Carlos Icaza, great things are in store for the Corona SDK in 2011. And to top things off with a side note, the communication from Ansca Mobile to the developers using their product is outstanding, and even then, they’re still striving to make it better with some of the new things coming.
4 tags
Lua is 24% Faster Than UnrealScript →
Nothing new, but something I found that was very interesting (and uplifting):
Lua is performing at around 1/7th the speed of C++ for n=1000 and 1/40th for n=7000. It is about 24% faster than UnrealScript.
Once again, great decision on Ansca Mobile’s part for choosing Lua as the language to interface with the Corona SDK.
3 tags
BeebeGames Class: newRetinaText() Tutorial
When I finally got an iPod touch 4 and began making our games compatible with the new retina displays, everything looked amazing. Everything except text, that is. The graphics were really sharp, but any text created using display.newText() came out looking blurry because as-is, it’s not yet optimized for the retina display.
I discovered a workaround, which required significantly more...
5 tags
Introduction to beebegames.newObject()
Yesterday, I released the BeebeGames Class, so today I’m going to describe how to use one of the main features, and that’s the newObject() function. In a nutshell, here’s what it does:
the newObject() function replaces display.newImage, display.newImageRect, AND movieclip.newAnim for those who want to get an image object on the screen, positioned, and into a group with just...
2 tags
Search Added to the Sidebar
Recently, I realized a few things:
My blog’s getting bigger, and the content is growing.
The search feature in the Tumblr Archives page for this blog is broken.
As a result, I added a new search feature to the sidebar (see it on the right?).
It works great. By default, it’ll search through the posts on my blog, but you can click the ‘Network’ tab (after you do a...
4 tags
Added Social Buttons to Each Post
Notice, now there’s a Facebook, Twitter, and Email This button at the bottom of each post.
Special thanks to Biffy for the idea :-)
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BeebeGames Class for Corona SDK
No, I’m not talking about an actual “class” where you sit down and learn something, rather, the BeebeGames Class is a module you can import into your projects to take advantage of additional functionality.
You can download it from the Corona Code Exchange.
A Closer Look
So what does it do? Well, it does many things, but the main highlights include:
newObject() function...
3 tags
Inheritance In Lua →
Very useful resource from Adam Bucketz (Zombies Ala Mode) that I’ll definitely take a closer look at very soon.
UPDATE: The article is very small, but extremely valuable. Everything else I’ve read about this online was too confusing to understand, but Adam breaks it all down in a very consumable way.
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Biffy's Graphics = Amazing Work
Biffy’s graphics are amazing, and getting better and better.
I can’t get over how nice the graphics in our latest Corona sample app, Martian Control, are. It makes me kinda jealous that we’re not submitting it to the app store as one of our own :-(
She worked hard for hours yesterday, and got the UFO’s and all the little subtleties of the game graphics just right to...
