Hello all.. I am the other spartacus and I'm declaring my noobness to all... Please be gentle. I've been banging my brain with xcode for a few weeks now (in what little spare time I have) doing a basic tutorial by Ray Wenderlich. It's called 'BullsEye'. Actually I'm kinda stuck on it at the moment, but that's another story.

I've also been doing some research and have discovered that there are other ways to make games. I've checked out iTorque 2D amongst others and was wondering what you guys might think about it. Coding is difficult for me as I am not from a codey background (I work as a gardener).. I was wondering whether using iTorque 2D was a good idea. It appears to be less hard core corey and easier in general. I would like to eventually become more codey myself, but feel that this app might bring me closer to it sooner.

Oh, and do you think that it's actually possible to make a game that's comparable in the way it works to something like Tiny Wings (creativity aside) using iTorque2D?

I'd be grateful for any feedback.. Thanks..

Thanks Daark.. you sound wisen, like Yoda. I've bought a book through Amazon called 'Programming in Objective-C - fourth edition' by Stephen G Kochan. From my research, this seemed to be the book to get for beginners. I haven't been sure how to go. But after what you've said, it seems to be a good idea to just knuckle down and plough through the book and then focus on games later. Kinda like crawling before walking? I'm guessing that you don't really think that things like iTorque 2D are a good idea.. like cheating? And in the long run, not such a good idea as you're dependant on crutches that don't allow for much creative programming.. would that be a correct way of seeing it?

I'm guessing that you don't really think that things like iTorque 2D are a good idea.. like cheating? And in the long run, not such a good idea as you're dependant on crutches that don't allow for much creative programming.. would that be a correct way of seeing it?

Use existing libraries whenever it makes sense.

A game like Tiny Wings is a bad fit for iTorque2D and other engines.

The game engine is good for complex games. It has some overhead, but a good engine can reduce a team's efforts by several work-months or even work-years; spending a few weeks of effort instead of years of effort is a good trade.

Tiny Wings and similar games are essentially a sine wave ground height functions, and two variables for a sprite's height and velocity. It is a very simple game. Most experienced programmers could write a clone of the game in a week or less.

The overhead of using the engine far outweighs the effort of creating that type of game from scratch.

Hey man, what you want is certainly doable. However, Obj-C can be a little scary at first. I know the feeling of just wanting to get going with writing your first game (that was only a 5-6 months ago for me), but the others here are right...it would suit you very well to pick up a few fundamentals of programming in general. I'm still a very new computer science student myself, but I'm finding more and more that the seemingly trivial exercises I did over and over...and over in coding class dampen the learning curve for game programming quite a bit.

My school uses C# for introductory teaching purposes, and rightfully so...it's quite approachable. It's also the language that Windows and Xbox games speak. ;) I've dabbled a bit into Xcode and some Obj-C and it takes a little getting used to. But here's the encouraging part...once you understand the fundamentals of writing code in general (objects, modularity, etc), each language/environment's little quirks will be SO much less of a setback. A little digging around in the documentation or on google and you'll be sailing in the new language like you were born to use it!

In conclusion, learn C (almost identical syntax to Obj-C) and read about general logic...then go from there. Best of luck to you...game programming is an absolute blast and there are so many resources out there ripe for the picking.

Thanks for the advice guys.. I'll be shoving my head into my objective c book I think.. It seems like the smartest course to take - though I suspect not the shortest..