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Corona SDK is a cross-platform framework for building games, general purpose apps, and business related apps for iOS, Android, Kindle, Windows Phone, macOS, Windows desktop, tvOS, and Android TV from a single Lua code base. Lua is a fast and easy-to-learn language.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Easy to learn
Corona SDK users write code in Lua, which can be picked up in under 10 minutes and the Corona docs give sample code for all APIs.
Pro Amazing learning curve
Corona does not throw photoshop-like madness full of buttons editor. You can go as fast as you want, learning and building game from ground up. Eventually, you'll learn how much corona is doing for you. But to start you don't have to master complex editor software. It's a great tool to learn to start game development if you want to learn how to program and make games. Your experience will be 100% transferable to any other Pro game engine.
Pro Corona Simulator
Corona SDK ships with Corona Simulator, which runs your game/app directly on your PC/Mac and updates every time you make changes.
It provides immediate feedback to your actions, you can see your changes right on the screen, without necessity to make build to device. Getting instant feedback really boosts tenfold prototyping and development speed.
Pro Built-in physics engine
Physics are commonly used for apps that involve a simulation of objects that move, collide, and interact under various physical forces like gravity. Corona makes it very easy to add physics to your apps, even if you've never worked with a physics engine before.
Pro Exceptional support
The Corona forums are full of helpful people and the documentation is always up-to-date with plenty of example code.
Cons
Con Making a device build requires internet connection
To build your app for the device (iOS/Android/AppleTV) Corona requires to fetch resources from online. This would include base application template and plugins. This allows not to perform local build or use Xcode or Android Studio to do a build. Even Large games/apps would build very fast with good internet connection.
Your code never leaves computed. Corona SDK would transfer some information to determine which plugins and pieces has to be transferred in order to make a final steps in build.
As a bonus - you get basically one button press to get from your Corona Simulator game to game on a device.
Con Reduced flexibility
Corona's reliance on high level functions for expensive computations means that if the API does not provide what a developer needs, then writing a function to achieve that in Lua will result in a big performance hit. Even though this reduces the complexity of the actual code, it also reduces the flexibility a developer has on building their game.
Con Isolated environment
It's not possible to use a device's native APIs unless Corona itself exposes them. This happens because all interfacing is done through Corona and Lua.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Pro Interactive and fast
1) simple coding
2) easy process of building apps with lot of plugins
3) awesome support from forum.
Con Very simple
I work for 4 years in the crown, made a few games on different platforms: Android, iOS, Steam. All good! The program is free. Applications weigh less than those of competitors and high performance.
Out of Date Pros + Cons
Con Closed source
Since you don't have access to the code, you can't make changes to the SDK. You even have to implement workarounds on issues that have long been reported, but never fixed.