Corona Labs recently announced a new major release of the Corona SDK platform, including a long list of fixes and features as well as iOS 10 support.
The release notes state that "In the current development cycle, our engineers have been working hard on addressing infrastructure and core improvements to Corona to make a more stable platform". This is really good news and I sure hope that it is as true as it is welcome. Making the core platform better in any way possible has to be the number one focus for Corona Labs at all times in my opinion.
But what probably caught most peoples' attention was the following paragraph about changes to the splash screen:
Ok, so what does this mean?
First of all, it means that the Corona free tier will continue to be free to use, but only if you don't mind doing some Corona marketing. If you don't pay $99/year, all your apps will display a splash screen promoting Corona for a few seconds.
I don't see a problem with this.
There's been some discussions about this in different forums across the net, for example at the Corona forums. As usual there are some people that expect the entire Internet to be free, claiming this to be a horrible decision by Corona Labs and that they'll stop using the platform etcetera. Seriously? As long as this stays to affecting only the splash screen, I don't mind giving Corona some additional marketing. In the end, more marketing will give more revenue to Corona Labs, who in turn can spend more money on resources for making an already great platform even better. And that's what every Corona developer wants, right? At least I know I do.
What I do mind a bit is the way this is being portraited as a feature, saying:
Finally, I just want to say that I hope that Corona Labs makes an effort to really make the splash screen shine! A crappy splash screen will not only have a negative impact for Corona Labs themselves, but also for every app displaying it. First impressions last.
But then again, there's always the possibility to disable the splash screen for only $99/year. This shouldn't be much of a problem for anyone serious about their game development.
The release notes state that "In the current development cycle, our engineers have been working hard on addressing infrastructure and core improvements to Corona to make a more stable platform". This is really good news and I sure hope that it is as true as it is welcome. Making the core platform better in any way possible has to be the number one focus for Corona Labs at all times in my opinion.
But what probably caught most peoples' attention was the following paragraph about changes to the splash screen:
"One of these features is new “splash screen” controls, a system which will drastically simplify splash screen implementation. Starting with this build, a default Corona-branded splash screen will appear briefly when the app starts. We continue to believe in keeping Corona free to use, but we also need to grow Corona. A few seconds of branding will help improve our brand awareness. For those who want to use their own branding, you can purchase a plugin from the Corona Marketplace for $99/year per user — this will let you use your own image for the splash screen or disable it completely. In summary, the splash screen feature will help us continue to build the best cross-platform 2D app development platform in the market."
Ok, so what does this mean?
First of all, it means that the Corona free tier will continue to be free to use, but only if you don't mind doing some Corona marketing. If you don't pay $99/year, all your apps will display a splash screen promoting Corona for a few seconds.
I don't see a problem with this.
There's been some discussions about this in different forums across the net, for example at the Corona forums. As usual there are some people that expect the entire Internet to be free, claiming this to be a horrible decision by Corona Labs and that they'll stop using the platform etcetera. Seriously? As long as this stays to affecting only the splash screen, I don't mind giving Corona some additional marketing. In the end, more marketing will give more revenue to Corona Labs, who in turn can spend more money on resources for making an already great platform even better. And that's what every Corona developer wants, right? At least I know I do.
What I do mind a bit is the way this is being portraited as a feature, saying:
One of these features is new “splash screen” controls, a system which will drastically simplify splash screen implementation.I don't know, maybe it is true that the splash screen implementation will also become easier with this, but I don't think there's any need to disguise it as feature like this...
Finally, I just want to say that I hope that Corona Labs makes an effort to really make the splash screen shine! A crappy splash screen will not only have a negative impact for Corona Labs themselves, but also for every app displaying it. First impressions last.
But then again, there's always the possibility to disable the splash screen for only $99/year. This shouldn't be much of a problem for anyone serious about their game development.
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