Here’s a simple, unfinished, Corona game. It shows how to:

• use a sprite sheet for animation
• use tweening to move things
• play audio
• handle touch events

Why

As a Flex and Flash Architect, you’re probably wondering why I’m even bothering with Lua, specifically Corona.  A few reasons.

First, you should try to learn at least one new programming language a year.  Creating even just a few prototypes is enough as it forces you to write code and learn about the platform.

Second, there is a lot of hype around Corona, so I wanted to learn for myself the facts.

Third, if I were to release anything, apparently the market penetration far exceeds AIR.  I haven’t compared performance on iPhone yet, just the 2 Droids I have.  I like the prospect of re-using a large portion of my code vs. a pure native implementation.  Speaking specifically for games here, not applications.

Fourth, a high level language like Lua is a nice break from ActionScript 3.

Fifth, I like to see how others create games.  It reminds me A LOT of the Flash Lite community.  They tend to create a lot of small games.  Some aren’t very sophisticated, but their quick ability to port to different platforms was the key to their sale.

Code

Just unzip the folder, and open main.lua in Corona.  Here’s my Lua for ActionScript Developer’s guide to help, and here’s the main Lua documentation.

Balloon Pop – ZIP