Do you have to rewrite Corona SDK apps for different devices?

Question

I am using the trial windows edition of Corona, but I want to develop for iOS - the windows version only supports android, so my question is will I have to rewrite any parts of my application for iOS based devices?

Answer 1

You will probably have to adjust parts of your application for the different platforms, but you won't have to do much because very little will change. Technically you can directly deploy unchanged an app created for Android onto iOS using Corona, but you will probably want to tweak a lot of things in the app in order to optimize for the different platform. For starters, you may want to incorporate iOS-specific features like GameCenter.

You didn't directly ask about it but I do want to clarify, you definitely should get a Mac if you intend to deploy onto iOS. Because Corona is a cross-platform development tool, sometimes people on Windows plan to just compile for iOS on a friend's machine. That is never a good idea, and you should always be able to directly deploy onto and test on the target hardware yourself.

Answer 2

If you are using any features exclusive to iOS (like Game Center) then you would have to modify that code accordingly, however that is the extent of any real modifications.

In config.lua you could specify the scaling, however "letterbox" is the default and usually works the best across all devices, so you can ignore this unless you would like to use a different scaling option.

In most cases the only thing you will need to do is add the correct icon files into your project folder as these vary depending on the target platform.

Answer 3

If you plan to write something for multiple platforms (say Win, iOS and Android), you almost always have to change a few thing between. Usually it means reducing poly's for the case of pushing out to iOS or Android and some features of Corona may not work for mobile platforms at all so you will have to do some research to determine what those are. I am sure if you check out their forums you will see similar questions.

I know they port to multiple mobile platforms (including iOS) but you will have to purchase a license to do it. Most SDK's are the same with this.

Answer 4

Short Answer: No you don't.

Corona SDK automatically converts the code into an iOS or an Android app.

Just find a mac, install Corona SDK on it, run your app, build for iOS, install the app on your device, and you're good to go.

But you probably have to add the scale = "letterbox" string in your config.lua file. This makes the app scale perfectly across iOS and Android devices.