This section will focus on the installation and setup of Corona SDK. Students will:
- Install a code editor
- Setup a Corona SDK account
- Install the Corona SDK software
- Run a sample Corona application on their mobile device or emulator
- Start on a set of Lua practice exercises
Building programs on modern computers is super challenging. Even cellphones are richer in features and much more complex than the computers I learned to play and make games on. Luckily, there are tools that try their best to make writing games easier again. One of these toolsets is called the Corona SDK. SDK means Software Development Kit. One of the neat things about Corona is that it is cross platform meaning it can help you make games for multiple types of devices. So if you have an Android device or an iOS device, you can write your game once and have it run in both places.
There are many code editors in the world and everyone eventually picks a favorite. The simple editors are the best and the editor we'll be using, Brackets is far and away one of the simplest. Follow this link to download and install brackets.
Open Brackets and create a new file. If you want you can put some sample text in it like
print("Hello, kitty!")
then save it as test.lua. Make sure you pay attention to where you saved it.
Once you've saved it, find the file in Finder and select it with a single click.
Then press command + i to open the file info. Near the bottom of the info pane
is the "Open with" area. Select Brackets as the code editor and then push the
"Change All.." button.
Once Brackets is installed. Create a file and save it somewhere easy to keep
track of as test.lua. Now find that file in the File Explorer and right click
on it. Select "Open With > Choose Default Program" and make sure Brackets is the
default.
Go to the login and registration page for Corona Labs and create a new account. Make sure your password and email address are correct. You will need them. Once you've created an account, log in.
After you've logged in you can Download the Corona SDK
Follow the instructions given to install it for your platform.
You can download the code for the starter game from here and unzip the downloaded game into a folder.
Open the Corona Simulator. Once it's been opened, you will need to log into the
Simulator itself. Once you've done so, you can open the main.lua file from the
starting program. As soon as it opens, it will start playing. Check it out!
Android devices are free to develop for. Make sure the starter app is open in the Simulator and go to "File > Build > Android".
If Java is installed you'll see the build window for Android. Select an easy to remember folder for Corona to build the Android app into and press build.
Once the build is done, select "Reveal in Finder" or "Show in File Explorer" and copy the apk file to your Android device. This process is different for nearly every Android phone and may require help from the phone's owner or an instructor.
After the apk has been copied, you'll need to open it. Again, this process is different on almost every single Android device. If your phone did not come with a file browser application, you will need to get one. I trust this one alone because it is open source software. If Android raises an error about development applications, you can go into your settings and enable apps from outside Google Play. On Mac OS X, you may also need the Android File Transfer
Once it's installed, open it! You're all set!
Apple normally requires developers to pay a $99 fee and register certificates in order to build applications. We're going to trade the ability to put apps in the app store for the ease of sharing one developer certificate among all students.
Bring your iOS device to the lead instructor in order to have the developer profile installed. Once all the devices iOS devices have been registered, you'll get a USB drive with the developer certificate and provisioning profile.
To install the certificate, open the USB drive in Finder and double click on it. You may be asked to enter your password in order to open the keychain.
Copy the provisioning profile to ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/
The ~ represents your home folder, which has a house next to it in Finder's
sidebar.
Once you've done that, close and re-open the Corona Simulator and select the starter game from "Open recent" in the File menu. Then select File > Build > iOS
Leave all the options alone except for the Code Signing Identity. Select "iPhone Developer Steven Ragnarök ... [Coder Dojo SV]", then press the Build button.
When it's finished building you will get some warnings about not passing Apple's standards which you can ignore for now. Click the "Show in Finder..." option then drag the program to the iTunes icon on the dock. Once you've done this, you can connect your device to the computer using your USB cable and copy the app to your device using iTunes.
Lastly, test it out on the device!
By now you've got everything set up! You can peruse the game's source, which is
all in the main.lua file. You can also check out the annotated source
for the game if you're curious but the smart thing to do is check out the Lua
examples below.
Check out this sweet [introduction to Lua][intro]! [intro]: http://coderdojosv.github.io/mobile-games/section-00/docs/introduction.html
You can also test Lua in the browser. Try copying the exercises from here and pasting them in repl.it.