This is a story some of you will have already heard but I feel it might be a good way to start a discussion. I have spoken with lots of you at length and yet I know how very few of you first discovered Corona and what prompted you to start developing.
This is the story of how I came to Corona.
I can’t tell you exactly when I realized I wanted to make iPhone apps because honestly, I don’t know. I had the idea to make mobile applications years ago before the iPhone, even before the iPod – back when snake was so popular on the Nokia 3310.
At some point I just woke up and decided, “OK, today I’m going to start learning how to make apps”.
I did some Googling and came across GameSalad – there were mixed reviews but it seemed like a gentle introduction, the community at that time was very strong and the interface reminded me of RPG Maker, which I loved as a kid.
I spent 6 months or so creating various apps, never publishing, just learning and creating things – then I got my first iPhone and paid for my Apple iOS developer license.
Over the next few months I published a handful of apps I had been working on and although I didn’t have any big hits my apps were overall well received. I enjoyed what I was doing and I was making some money in the process.
Fast forward to October 2010.
GameSalad announced plans for GameSalad Direct. For those of you who don’t know about this, it was a big deal. The idea was that developers would no longer be allowed to publish their own apps. They would give their apps to GameSalad who would then publish them under their own Apple account – and what did they offer in return for forcing you to give up your name? The opportunity to give them a cut of your profits.
That’s right – the idea was that they would take your name and your money.
As you might expect, this did not go well for GameSalad. People revolted and started jumping ship to other SDKs.
While all this was happening I wrote a blog post to express my disgust. This post was seen by a member of the Ansca team who responded to it and I decided if they were reaching out, I would too.
This is how I met Carlos Icaza.
I wrote to him talking about my disbelief at the situation, my concerns for the future and my desire to learn more about the Corona SDK. (At this stage I still had some doubts about how I would go learning something new very quickly – and I did need to find a new tool quickly.)
He responded to my email the same morning and by that evening I was muddling my way through a “Hello World” tutorial.
Over the next three weeks I learned more and more and actually managed to publish my first Corona made app. Three weeks from zero coding knowledge to one published game, complete with physics, accelerometer control and OpenFeint.
This was also the time period in which Techority was born.
Skip ahead to April 2011.
I’d been using Corona for 6 months and in that time I had become more and more involved with the community. I’m a big believer in community and I wanted to help other users, I wanted to meet other users and more than anything I wanted to make the Corona community an awesome place to be a part of. (Coincidentally that is still my goal today – nurture and help grow a friendly, involved, caring and helpful community.)
I got an offer to become a part of the Ansca Team and naturally I said yes. Actually I think it sounded a bit more like “zomgtotallyesyesyesathousandtimesyes!1!!one!” -but either way, I answered in the affirmative.
From that point in time there really was no looking back for me – I became more and more involved, I got to know the Ansca team and I had new ways in which I could help the community.
Finally, in October this year, I was able to go to Palo Alto and spend two weeks at Ansca HQ, (which you can read about on Techority if you wish,) and since then I have never been more certain that Corona SDK was the right choice. The Ansca team is devoted to constantly improving the SDK and making their developers happy and excited about what they do.
And that’s how I came to Corona.
What about you? How did you find your way to Corona?
Peach Pellen