Corona Now Supports Windows Phone 8 via CoronaCards

Corona has announced support for Windows Phone 8 via its CoronaCards, which provides flexibility for developers using the Corona platform to develop for Windows Phone 8. CoronaCards is a version of the Corona platform (running the Corona Lua code) that can be embedded into any native app allowing developers to also hook in any native functionality via a native/Lua bridge.

Corona is offering an unlimited trial for CoronaCards for Windows Phone 8 and developers will need a Windows 8.1 machine, along with Visual Studio (of which there are free versions). Developers will be able to build Windows Phone 8 apps and games, which also run on Windows Phone 8.1 devices.

For existing Corona developers who utilize the Corona Simulator, building for Windows Phone 8 will largely stay the same. Corona will add Windows Phone skins to a daily build in the next few days and developers will be able to use the Corona Simulator to work on all Lua code and then do builds quickly inside Visual Studio and CoronaCards.

CoronaCards provides the ability to build an app natively or in another framework and then bring Corona into the mix. Developers include it in a project like any other SDK and can display CoronaCards in any configuration such as full screen, partial screen or transparent overlay. Since developers are using the same underlying platform, they can take advantage of almost all of Corona's 1000+ APIs. These include displaying OpenGL-accelerated graphics, audio, physics, animations and more.

CoronaCards now currently supports iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8 with HTML5 coming soon. Developers can also use CoronaCards within frameworks like Appcelerator, PhoneGap, Unity and Xamarin (and any other framework that allows developers to call native libraries).

All purchases of the Corona SDK Pro and Corona Enterprise will include a CoronaCards for Windows Phone 8 license. There are several games built with CoronaCards for Windows Phone 8 that are already in the Windows Phone app store including OmNomster, Basketball Superstar, Bloody Monsters, My Boo and Toilet Time.