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Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by minxomat on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @06:06AM (#23233174)
This is quite good news, to say the least. This is one of the most well-integrated, sensible engines and development environments I've ever used.

Can't wait to patch more native moonscript support into a fork :evil:

If you want to see an overview of a somewhat typical and polished mobile game done with Defold, here's a non-King dev showing off his work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK4pJ8A3YS4

Also, in relevant news, Corona (the other major Lua game engine[1]) is also being open-sourced, and renamed to Solar2D: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22326462

[1] with dev ecosystem of extensions, build services etc - without that Love2D might also qualify

Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by logimame on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @06:33AM (#23233342)
The Corona SDK always have a special place in my heart. I was in middle school when I've used it back then, and it tremendously helped in me learning programming at a young age.

Before, I would try to learn how to make games by dabbling with SDL/DirectX/Cocos2D/etc, but figured out that you can't really do much with these frameworks as a beginner than just copy-pasting code in the books and tutorials. I was really able to make "complete" apps once I've grabbed a no-nonsense batteries-included framework like Corona, and I would have wasted far more time on useless low-level stuff if I haven't stumbled upon it.

Oh, and about the unfortunate name they've decided with: who really knew that this coincidence would happen haha...

Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by 29athrowaway on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @01:07PM (#23237261)
Is MoonScript like CoffeeScript for Lua?

CoffeeScript development was one of the most regretful experiences I've had. Delimiters are optional even when invoking functions. A statement like f(g(h(x))) becomes painful to read. Plus, sometimes you want to use a function as a parameter, how do you reason about that? Welcome to the Twilight zone.

Whitespace in CoffeeScript has a meaning. In Python, that is the case too, but it only applies to statement blocks. In CoffeeScript, the situations you will find are just absurd, such as the fact that inconsistent indentation is allowed.

Code is written once, read many times. CoffeeScript emphasizes rapid writing not reading. In that sense, CoffeeScript is to JavaScript what Stenography is to Writing.

Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by vanderZwan on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @01:32PM (#23237614)
Yes, although my experience with Moonscript does not match yours with Coffeescript.

What I personally like a lot is how it makes it easier to write efficient Lua by because (for example) it makes local variables the default.

Also, FWIW the LuaRocks server is written in Moonscript, and that's a pretty important bit of Lua infrastructure I'd say.

[0] https://moonscript.org/reference/

[1] https://github.com/luarocks/luarocks-site

Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by minxomat on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @01:45PM (#23237799)
Not to mention itch.io, which is maybe more relevant to the topic of this thread.

Nitpick: The server is openresty (Nginx). The web-framework is Lapis, which is Lua and can be developed on with Lua or Moonscript.

Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by skocznymroczny on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @07:17AM (#23233600)
Is the name change related with coronavirus in any way? As in it's considered a negative brand right now?
Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by barbecue_sauce on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @07:35AM (#23233701)
Corona and Isis are two common branding gotos that will now be forever out-of-favor.

Also, you probably can't name anything COVID, but I think that's a less likely scenario.

Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by Loulybob on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @10:33AM (#23235289)
Tell that to Oxfordshire - plenty of companies still have Isis in the name (due to the local name for the Thames near Oxford being Isis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Isis)
Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by helldritch on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @01:39PM (#23237714)
Interesting, in the UK Corona seems to be doing quite well, anecdotally I'm noticing it popping up as an extra option on a lot of food delivery restaurants, and a lot of friends posting pictures of their bottles after work.

Perhaps this is purely attributable to the British sense of irony.

Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by airstrike on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @09:14AM (#23234487)
I do wonder what will happen to the beer...
Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by qz_ on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @10:01AM (#23234943)
It's already been renamed to Coronita here in the Netherlands
Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by freehunter on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @12:00PM (#23236332)
Are you sure that’s the reason why? I can buy both Corona and Coronita, the difference is the size of the bottle. -ita in Spanish means “little” so Coronita bottles are 210ml while a bottle of Corona is 330ml.
Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by ciceryadam on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @12:38PM (#23236915)
all while in colder beer drinking climates, the small beers are 330ml, and regular ones are 500ml :)
Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by vvillena on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @12:30PM (#23236804)
Corona probably already held the Coronita trademark, because that was how it was branded in Spain until recently, because the brand was held by a winery.

It would be fun to see them reverting the brand once again. What bad luck!

Re:Defold game engine source now available and free to use f... by minxomat on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @07:20AM (#23233617)
They did mention that in their blog post, yes.