Blue Bilby

TW Podcast update – More videos

Jason Oakley — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:30:07 +0000

Today, I’ve made some changes to the website which displays the embedded Tech Webcast YouTube video.

Previously, it’d show whichever was the latest video in the account — even if it wasn’t a Tech Webcast episode.

Now, it will display only the latest Tech Webcast episode:

You will also note the all-important “More Videos »” link at the bottom of the screen. Click this to view the last four YouTube videos uploaded to the account.

There’s a link at the bottom of that page to go back to the latest Tech Webcast show!

Sample code for Corona WebPopups

Jason Oakley — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:52:55 +0000

Below, I’ve created a small demonstration for creating WebPopups using the Ansca Corona SDK. Note that there’s a workaround in case the website shown has audio. My TW Podcast app displays embedded YouTube videos and if the workaround isn’t used, the audio continues to play even if you return to the main menu.

Source code

module(..., package.seeall)
-- Sample code for displaying a WebPopup --
--  Extra code for WebPopup workarounds  --
--  Scenes managed with Corona Director  --
new = function ( params )
-- Create the mainGroup to add objects to --
mainGroup = display.newGroup()
-- Create the navbar at the top of the screen --
--     to return to the main menu screen.     --
local NavbarImage = display.newImageRect( "navBar.png", 320, 48 )
NavbarImage.x = 160
NavbarImage.y = 24
-- Add the image to the mainGroup --
mainGroup:insert( NavbarImage )
-- Function to call to test if we have  --
-- a Network connection thru 3G or WiFi --
local function testNetworkConnection()
local google = require('socket').connect('google.com', 80)
if google == nil then
return false
end
google:close()
return true
end
-- Function return to mainmenu.lua --
local function toMenu( event )
-- First, close our webpopup --
native.cancelWebPopup()
-- Return to the mainmenu.lua file --
--           with animation         --
director:changeScene( "mainmenu", "moveFromLeft" )
end
-- If Navbar button pressed, head back to menu
local bt01t = function ( event )
if event.phase == "ended" then
native.cancelWebPopup()
local options = { hasBackground=false, baseUrl=system.ResourceDirectory, urlRequest=listener }
--   Workaround for Webpopup, otherwise audio   --
-- continues to play if there's any on the site --
--  blankit.html is a simple blank html file.   --
native.showWebPopup( 0, 48, 320, 432,"blankit.html", options)
-- Give it a half second to display. Won't be noticed --
timer.performWithDelay(500, toMenu )
end
end
-- Add a listener to the button to call our function "touch" --
NavbarImage:addEventListener("touch",bt01t)
-- If network exists, pop up page --
if testNetworkConnection() == true then
native.showWebPopup( 0, 48, 320, 432,"http://BlueBilby.com/",{urlRequest=listener} )
-- If no network connection detected, create an alert  --
-- and advise the user to turn on a network connection --
else native.showAlert( "Warning!", "No network detected. Please connect to 3G or Wifi.", { "OK", }, toMenu )
end
------------------
-- MUST return a display.newGroup()
------------------
return mainGroup
end

Tech Webcast app – TW Podcast

Jason Oakley — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:23:10 +0000

It’s finally done!

The Tech Webcast app “TW Podcast“ is completed!

If you buy the app, you will find a NEWS section which will feature contests and giveaways only available to you!

The app is Universal for iOS in that you purchase it once and it will work on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad with automatic scaling.

The app costs US$0.99c in the App Store. Well worth it for the new features.

Click the screenshot below to view detailed information about the new app and find a link to buy it!

TW Podcast Screenshot

Join the forum discussion on this post

Oz-Apps: Corona Code Generator

Jason Oakley — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:45:45 +0000

If writing code is a bit confusing for you, even when using Lua then you need to check out the Corona Code Generator by Oz-Apps.

It will generate code for you based on the few choices you make from the GUI front end. The code is generated ready to copy and paste into your apps.

The main options available are
1. The option to declare your variable and functions as Local
2. Handle touch events for
a. touch_began
b. touch_moved
c. touch_ended
d. touch_cancelled
3. Assign the object to a parent group which holds the display object
4. Create a parent Group to hold the object
5. The parameters required by the object, generally

position is x and y
dimension is width and height

6. In case of Vector and Text object, there is a function for selecting the colour

You can download the app from Oz-Apps

Oz-Apps Corona Code Generator

Tech Webcast interviews Carlos Icaza

Jason Oakley — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:15:08 +0000

Jason Oakley of Blue Bilby, Brad, Aaron and Tim interview Carlos Icaza, founder and CEO of Ansca Mobile. Ansca Mobile are the creators of the Corona SDK which allows developers to easily create applications in Lua for iPhone, iPad and Android.

MonkeyDead Studios – Lime for Corona

Jason Oakley — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:15:38 +0000

If you love the Tiled editor and want to use it to design levels for Ansca Corona’s Lua SDK, you can’t go past Lime by MonkeyDead Studios.

Lime lets you take level data created with Tiled and import it into the Corona SDK to create games. Lime is the easiest way to do this.

Lime is a Lua library created for the Corona ® SDK which allows you as a game developer to easily include tile maps created in Tiled within your game.

Not only can Tiled be used as a level editor you can also use its simple yet flexible Property features to allow a level designer to set up all kinds of game logic without the need for a programmer to change any code thus allowing easier gameplay tweaking.

Here’s a video showing how easy it is to create your first map:

Making your first map from Lime on Vimeo.

Lime does all the hard work decoding the Tiled data sets into levels and objects for you. You can add animation, physical objects and character control easily. Check the many tutorials on the Lime website, linked above.

You can purchase Lime now for only £20.

Karnak Games Corona SVG Level Builder

Jason Oakley — Tue, 31 May 2011 01:09:18 +0000

The Karnak Games SVG Level Builder lets you easily build levels for games which use the Ansca Mobile Corona SDK.

Download the free Inkscape application for Mac OS X, draw in your objects. Set their values and save the file. With a few lines in Corona LUA, you have most of your game done for you. All you have to do is write the code to animate and move your character around.

SVG Level Builder lets you create settings for Friction, Density, Physics and more for the images in your game. All of the settings can be created in XML right in Inkscape. You can also instantly see the results appear on your Corona Simulator!

If you love designing levels using the Tiled Map Editor application, you can do that as well, then export the level as an image and import directly into Inkscape for adding to your game! How easy is that? And they are all free applications!

From the Karnak Games website:

Corona SVG Level Builder is a set of libraries to be used in a Corona SDK game that allows you to create Corona SDK physics based games, levels and maps by just drawing in the free and open source vector drawing Inkscape. Everything you draw in Inkscape is automatically converted into Corona physics bodies or paths.

It supports almost every Inkscape tool, allowing the creation of simple (rectangles, ellipses) to very complex physics bodies and paths (bezier paths). Then you can set physical properties and attributes (density, friction, vertices, etc) direct into Inkscape, without ever programming them. It supports all Corona SDK physics properties.

Watch the video below to see how easy it is!

Karnak Games will also be releasing sample game code to help you start creating your own games. Examples coming soon include code to create:

A platformer game
A top-down racing game
A Tiny Wings clone.
A Bubble Ball clone.

The Ansca Corona SDK with Karnak Games SVG Level Builder make a powerful team. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to use them to create games for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices! If you purchase the SVG Level Builder now, you will get a discount rate of only USD $49.90! Hurry as it will soon be over $129! That’s great value!

With all of this, you don’t need the slow Game Salad to create your games easily. Ansca’s Corona plus the SVG Level Builder makes games almost too easy to create! Buy both and download them now and start making your games!

What is the Ansca Corona SDK?

Jason Oakley — Wed, 25 May 2011 01:41:34 +0000

Ansca Mobile’s Corona SDK is a platform for developing apps for iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads, Android devices and the Nook Color device.

With Ansca Mobile’s Corona SDK (hereafter referred to as ‘Corona’), you can easily and quickly develop your own games and other useful applications for mobile devices.

The Ansca staff and founders have a background in Adobe Flash and know how to create a system which is powerful for mobile devices, but as easy as — or in some cases much easier than — Flash.

Whereas with Objective-C (the language Apple’s devices use) you need many lines to accomplish your tasks, with Corona it’s optimised to a few lines of code .. or in some cases, only just one line of code!

Compare Objective-C to Corona on Ansca’s own site.

Corona uses the scripting language, Lua. You may think this will slow down your applications, but you’d be wrong. Lua is a very easy to use and yet powerful scripting language. Many popular games use Lua, such as : World of Warcraft. Lua is handy in that you can quickly create scripts to perform tasks. You can see examples of games written using Corona and Lua on Ansca’s Showcase page. There’s even example code for writing your own “Angry Birds” game and “Cut the rope”.

With Corona, you can spend less time trying to remember Memory Management, buffers and pointers and spend more time actually creating the games you want people to play. Corona makes it quick and easy to develop games. Take for example their YouTube videos on Creating a game in 8 minutes! The possibilities are endless.

As for myself, I’ve spent years lamenting how complex and tedious it is to program applications and games these days with available languages. Why should I need to write 10 – 20 lines of code to do something simple like display an image or play a sound? I want to concentrate on making my game as soon as I can without going to University to learn how to prevent buffer overflows and the like. I’m also too impatient for all of that. I soon came to the realisation that Lua on Corona is the perfect platform for developing my creations. Corona will let me do it quickly and easily and I can export a game for iPhone and Android with little effort. There’s even a version of Corona for Windows so you can make Android games there. In fact, many people purchase only the Windows version of Corona for most of their staff and only have one Mac OSX device for the final compilation to iOS compatible files. If you only wish to develop for Android then the Windows version is all you will ever need!

Did I mention that the Corona SDK has an unlimited trial period? I didn’t? Well, IT DOES! So what are you waiting for? Go and download it now and try it out for yourself! You won’t regret it!

Re-imagining the Blue Bilby website

Jason Oakley — Mon, 23 May 2011 02:53:28 +0000

I’ve decided that this website is going to be re-imagined.

This site will be promoting the Ansca Corona SDK with Tutorials, links and information. This is one hell of an iOS and Android SDK and it deserves your attention.

Firstly, I am going to get busy writing tutorials. Starting with simple games and finishing up with larger ones. I will publish a few in the Apple App Store to let you download and test them on your iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad / Android device. That way you will be able to see the performance when the app is actually running.

Secondly, I will be designing my own games and apps and will be promoting and discussing them on the Blue Bilby website.

I will still be working with Beta Testers. I intend to utilize the Test Flight system for beta testing my applications. It’s the easiest and most efficient way of beta testing iOS applications. There will still, of course, be beta testing on Android devices should you have one.

Welcome to the new, re-imagined Blue Bilby website. I hope you will join me and come along for the ride.

I believe Ansca’s Corona SDK is going gangbusters and will be getting bigger and better with every future release.

Tech Webcast v1.1 approved

Jason Oakley — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 04:44:06 +0000

Just over a week ago I updated the Tech Webcast app and submitted it to the App Store. This time, I received an email saying it doesn’t offer a lot of funcationality, but they will approve it anyway.
With v1.1 you will find a link on the Info page saying:
Play the latest Episode of Tech Webcast.

If you click this link, it connects to the Podcast site and downloads and plays the latest Tech Webcast episode on your iPhone / iPod Touch. This saves you subscribing as you can always listen to the newest show.

Of course, you can always click the “Download Tech Webcast Podcasts” icon and it opens the iTunes app in your iPhone so you can download the latest show there and listen using the built-in iPod application.