{"data":{"slug":"solar2d","name":"Solar2D","tagline":"MIT free 2D engine for mobile games and apps (ex Corona SDK)","category":"libraries","categoryName":"Libraries","url":"https://solar2d.com","github":"https://github.com/coronalabs/corona","pricing":"open-source","hook":"Solar2D, formerly Corona SDK, is a free and open-source cross-platform 2D framework for making games and apps in Lua, publishing to iOS, Android, desktop, HTML5 and connected TVs.","whatsGood":"MIT (coronalabs/corona), build 3736 (2026-10-12). One project publishes to iPhone and iPad, Android, Amazon Fire, Mac, Windows, Linux, HTML5, Apple TV and Android TV. Lua is easy to learn, a desktop simulator speeds up iteration, and plugins cover ads, analytics and in-app purchases. ★~2.9k.","theCatch":"The community is small and much of it remembers the Corona era, so newer tutorials are scarce. Lua is a niche language for many teams. 3D is out of scope.","verdict":"A fast, free path to simple 2D mobile games if you like Lua.","addedAt":"2026-10-18","featured":false,"domain":"Libraries","subSpecialty":"Libraries","subcategory":"Runtimes & Frameworks","tags":["sdk","desktop-app","self-host","permissive","active"],"capabilities":["sdk"],"surfaces":["SDK","Self-host"],"ecosystem":["Node.js"],"licenseModel":"OSS/MIT","githubStars":2893,"starsPerWeek":7,"access":"free","archived":false,"repo":{"createdAt":"2018-12-29","pushedAt":"2026-10-13","license":"MIT","archived":false,"checkedAt":"2026-10-19"}},"related":[{"slug":"hono","name":"Hono","tagline":"Tiny TypeScript web framework that runs on every runtime"},{"slug":"phaser","name":"Phaser","tagline":"MIT HTML5 2D game framework with scenes, physics, and tilemaps"},{"slug":"pixijs","name":"PixiJS","tagline":"MIT 2D WebGPU/WebGL renderer, not a game engine"},{"slug":"babylonjs","name":"Babylon.js","tagline":"Apache-2.0 3D engine for the web, now on v9"},{"slug":"playcanvas","name":"PlayCanvas","tagline":"MIT WebGL2/WebGPU engine plus an optional hosted Editor"}],"links":{"self":"/api/gems/solar2d","html":"/gems/solar2d","markdown":"/gems/solar2d.md","category":"/api/gems?category=libraries","categoryPage":"/stacks/libraries"}}