Archive for ‘Corona SDK’

The second day of Global Game Jam is drawing to a close. Most of the participants have filed out for the evening, but there are a few stragglers hanging around and working hard. The pizza is being consumed at a monumental pace and our cookie supply has been refilled.

The projects are due to be turned in tomorrow at 3:00 pm. We’re all feeling really optimistic about everything that we’re producing here and as soon as we’ve uploaded our projects to the GGJ website, we’ll post screenshots and summaries here on the blog.

Again, we’d like to thank Corona Labs for sponsoring (and feeding) us throughout this process over this weekend!

We’ve got a new team added!
So as it stands, we have three working titles coming out of ACU’s chapter of GGJ 2013:

Team 1: Post Apocalyptic 3D Puzzle game

Team 2: Fontastic

Team 3: Side Scrolling Alien Spoof

Each team has started a project file on the GGJ site and is working on making a site for the respective games. We have artists with their tablets, 3D modelers comparing their poly-counts, programmers checking each others code, and a writer running around from team to team taking pictures.

Also, we’re out of cookies.

Day 2 of Global Game Jam is well underway!

The two teams have been diligently working all morning and seem to be making great progress. We’ve already had a visit from an interviewer from The Optimist (ACU Newspaper) and have once more obliterated several boxes of pizza. (Thanks again, Corona Labs!)

The theme for Global Game Jam 2013 was revealed in an mp3 clip of  heartbeat. We’re anxious to see how both teams incorporate the theme into their respective games.

Day one of Global Game Jam has officially begun.

We have a theme, we have some teams beginning to form, and we have cookies.

I’ll be live-blogging the event for the rest of the weekend to bring you updates on the event as it progresses. Thanks again to Corona Labs for sponsoring us in this year’s GGJ!

ACU and the DET department will be hosting teams for the GGJ 2013!

The excitement begins Friday, January 25 at 5PM for the keynote and revealing of the theme.

Then the selection of teams and fun of game development begins, to conclude at 3PM on Sunday, January 27.

Corona Labs has graciously agreed to supply pizza, soda, snacks, and SWAG during the event, so that you can focus on making great games!

We are limiting our teams to ACU students.  We will work out of the Mabee Business Building (primarily on the 2nd & 3rd floor, centered around the 214 lab).  You can register for the event at http://globalgamejam.org/sites/2013/abilene-christian-university

Watch our new Intro to Mobile App Development Course Promo Video.

This spring we’ll be having an online Introduction to Mobile App Development Course.  The course is designed for current college students and advanced high school students  who wish to develop mobile applications.  Students will learn basic mobile development concepts that apply to multiple platforms.  The course includes a final project where the students are challenged to create a small application of their choice.

ACU students will be enrolling in the upcoming weeks, and applications for Dual-Credit students will be accepted on a space available basis until January 13th.

For more information, contact us at: SITC@acu.edu

If you haven’t been following the DET program and mobile app development courses at ACU, you might not be aware of how frequently our students and faculty are feature in the news.
Recently Dr. Burton was featured on the Corona Labs website, makers of the popular Corona SDK for mobile app and game development. You can see the full interview here:
http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2012/04/19/qa-with-dr-brian-g-burton-corona-ambassador/

Regularly we are asked which engines are used to teach game development as part of the Digital Entertainment major and minor.

While we use a host of products to create the content for the games (Photoshop, Gimp, Illustrator, Flash, Premier Pro, etc) we primarily use two engines for our classes:

For 2D/mobile projects the SDK of choice is Corona by Corona Labs.  We have found it easy to learn but powerful enough to handle the most intricate of projects.

For 3D projects we use Unity3D.  Again, easy to learn, wonderful pricing structure for the indie developer, and powerful enough to make the most intricate multi-player games, Unity was a natural choice for the DET program.

Digital Entertainment Technology
Software used in Major/Minor
Spring/Fall 2012

 In most situations you are able to select the software that you find most comfortable to use (or can afford).  There are times when we use several pieces of software from one category during a course so that students are able to become familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Modeling

Google Sketch-up (free)       PC/Mac
*3DS Max  (student edition is free http://students.autodesk.com)       PC
Maya (student edition is free http://students.autodesk.com)                PC/Mac
MudBox (student edition is free http://students.autodesk.com)          PC/Mac

 Texturing

*Adobe Photoshop    PC/Mac
*Adobe Flash                        PC/Mac
GIMP (free)               PC/Mac

Engines

*Corona SDK (unlimited trial is free http://www.CoronaLabs.com)        PC/Mac
*Unity3D (basic version is free http://www.unity3d.com)               PC/Mac
*UDK – Unreal Developers Kit (free http://www.udk.com)                    PC

Sound

Adobe Soundbooth  PC/Mac
Audacity  (free)         PC/Mac
Sony Acid Pro                        PC
GarageBand               Mac

Film

*Adobe Premier Pro       PC/Mac
*Final Cut                            Mac

Compiler

*Visual Studio            PC
*Eclipse IDE               PC/Mac
GCC (free)                  PC/Mac
*Java Developers Kit (JDK) free    PC/Mac
*Apple xCode                         Mac
Python IDLE  (free) PC/Mac

• *- Industry standard
• Bold – required software in one or more DET courses.

Corona Labs’ Corona SDK, which is used to develop mobile apps and games, was recently featured in inc magazine. (http://technology.inc.com/2011/09/15/anscas-simplisitic-mobile-app-publisher-rises-in-popularity/)

The popularity and ease of use of Corona is no surprise to DET and Mobile Computing students at ACU, they have been using it for over a year to develop apps and games for mobile devices.

The software is so popular that our own Dr. Brian Burton has even undertaken the project of writing an eTextbook on how to develop apps and game using Corona.
Corona allows someone who want to make an app to develop for both Apple and Android mobile devices at the same time, dramatically simplifying and reducing the time needed to develop an app.