Transition.to() Based on Distance, Not Time

February 2, 2014 / Jay / Lua, Solar2D Tutorials

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[Updated Jul 30, 2020] Using transition.to() for animation is one of the most awesome things about Solar2D. It makes simple animation quick and easy. However, it’s based on time — move the object from Point A to Point B over a specified amount of time. Which means if you want to move something different distance […]

Wrapping an Object to the Other Side

October 29, 2013 / Jay / Featured, Game Development, Solar2D Tutorials, Video Tutorials

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I’m working on a puzzle game where the player can walk off the screen and wrap around to the other side. That effect is also see in arcade games like the classic Asteroids where the asteroids and space ship wrap around the screen.

animation, collision, physics, tables

Moving Multiple Objects in Solar2D

October 22, 2013 / Jay / Solar2D, Solar2D Tutorials, Video Tutorials

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[Updated August 4, 2020] There’s a cool tutorial video (and sample code) on the Three Ring Ranch video course site. It’s free (although requires you register on the site) and talks about managing display objects that are “mass created” and don’t have variable names attached to them. For example, in a loop like this:

Display Object Reference Points

July 9, 2013 / Jay / Featured, Solar2D, Solar2D Tutorials, Video Tutorials

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Every time you create a new display object (image, rect, circle, etc.) in Corona SDK a “reference point” is attached to that object behind the scenes. That point determines exactly how the object is positioned on the screen. Here’s a videos showing what that’s all about and then there’s a bunch of variables afterwards you […]

Free Game Development Crash Course

January 11, 2013 / Jay / Game Development, Solar2D, Solar2D Tutorials, Video Tutorials

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There’s a new video tutorial course for people just getting started with Corona SDK. It covers the basic concepts of animation, tap events, and audio. Which means it will show you enough for you to be able to make a simple game on your own. The course is free, although you do have to register […]

Drifting Text – A Utility Function

January 7, 2013 / Jay / Featured, Game Development, Solar2D, Solar2D Tutorials

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[Updated August 2, 2020] This is a utility function for Solar2D called makeDriftingText() that creates text on the screen that slowly drifts up (or down) and vanishes. You can use it when the guy in your game grabs a coin to show how many points it’s worth, you can show a message on screen when […]

animation, function, parameter

Lock/Unlock Game Levels in Solar2D

May 19, 2012 / Jay / Game Development, Lua, Solar2D, Solar2D Tutorials

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[Updated August 3, 2020] Reading the forums I see the same questions come up again and again – which is fine, because everybody’s new at the beginning. But there are some questions that frustrate me because while the question is valid, the thinking behind the question is based on assumptions that make me think the […]

director, levels, simplicity, storyboard

Billions of Stars (Part 2 of 2)

March 22, 2012 / Jay / Game Development, Members Only, Solar2D, Solar2D Tutorials, Video Tutorials

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(Click this link to see Part 1 of this tutorial) Here’s the bonus follow-up video for the Billions of Stars tutorial. In this part I add to the code so it’s more useful. You can also download the project files if you like so you can try it on your own computer.

graphics, touch

Billions of Stars

March 22, 2012 / Jay / Featured, Game Development, Solar2D, Solar2D Tutorials, Video Tutorials

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Corona SDK Tutorial for Displaying Multiple Objects

Everybody has to start somewhere and if you had to write code that was perfect none of us would be developing mobile games. Or any other kind of software, for that matter. 🙂 Fortunately, the most important thing is to WRITE SOME CODE and worry about making it perfect later. And while I won’t claim […]

graphics, tutorial

Look for Existing Columns in a SQLite Database Table

January 4, 2012 / Jay / Game Development, Game Tools, Lua, Solar2D, Solar2D Tutorials

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[Updated Jul 30, 2020] In getting ready to update Horse Crazy!, the “most reviled app in the world”, I needed to see if a column existed in the database. I want people to be able to name their horses and so I needed a column named ‘name” in the horses table. While I could just […]

database, sqlite