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What language should I choose?

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8 comments, last by levela13 11 years, 11 months ago
Hello gamedevs out there!

First of all, I have to admit that I'm totally new to game development. So please, don't eat me. rolleyes.gif

I know the basics of c# (handling files and data, structured arrays, kinda have some idea about classes and methods, but I ain't that sure about it yet.), because I had to use it on my matura exam. Well, and now, I would like to make a game. The main goal is that the game should run on the most popular platforms (Android, iOS mainly, but I'd be happy if it could be ran on web also). I've done some research, but I'm still not sure about which language I should choose.

XNA with MonoGame?
Java?
c++?

The game would be 2D, so if the engine doesn't support 3D then it's not a problem.

Thank you! happy.png
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I think the unity game engine can be used to make stuff to all of those platforms easily (?)


I havent touched it but you might want to check it out.

o3o

Yes Unity can work across a lot of very popular platforms and the developer can choose between C# (which I would tend to recommend from personal choice), their unique flavour of JavaScript (UnityScript) or Boo.

The desktop version of Unity is free to download, so well worth a go! (http://www.unity3d.com)
Rotorz Limited (http://www.rotorz.com)

Check out our latest game Munchy Bunny!
Editor Tool: Rotorz Tile System (for Unity 3D)

Hello gamedevs out there!

First of all, I have to admit that I'm totally new to game development. So please, don't eat me. rolleyes.gif

I know the basics of c# (handling files and data, structured arrays, kinda have some idea about classes and methods, but I ain't that sure about it yet.), because I had to use it on my matura exam. Well, and now, I would like to make a game. The main goal is that the game should run on the most popular platforms (Android, iOS mainly, but I'd be happy if it could be ran on web also). I've done some research, but I'm still not sure about which language I should choose.

XNA with MonoGame?
Java?
c++?

The game would be 2D, so if the engine doesn't support 3D then it's not a problem.

Thank you! happy.png


If you want your game to run on iOS it means you need Objective C and an Apple developer account or a web app which probably means HTML 5 and Java script. Judging from your target platforms Unity as others said is probably the best choice as they support iOS, Android, and Websites.
Patrick
Well, I've downloaded Unity3D, tried it out, and its really awesome.. but I think it would be overkill for my project (and expensive). My game would be a text-based rpg with a huge twist, so.. I don't know yet. I've looked into HTML5 and found Construct2 which is cool also, don't know yet wether I can get all my desired features working with it, but gonna look into that. If everything fails, XNA with Mono is still there. Thanks for the help, guys! :)
Since your game is a text-based RPG, then I would say you only need to make a website that has at least server-side scripting. iOS and Android have internet browsers, so this covers all 3 platforms. It eliminates the overhead you mentioned from Unity. Something like using HTML (4 would be fine), CSS, and PHP could work. This is just one option. XHTML could work, it is just a little bit stricter on tags from what I've seen. All tags have to be lowercase and the attributes need an equals sign (class="className").

I would say you could use Flash, but Apple doesn't play well with Flash.

EDIT: This may be a bit much if you are just doing a single-player RPG. A Java applet or a javascript/JQuery site could work out to be easier.
At your level of ability and experience, building something that will run on most platforms is incredibly likely to be a goal that is beyond you. You most probably just won't be able to do it. You'll be much better off investing your time in learning more about programming, building on the knowledge you already have, and getting more of the skills you need down solid first. Choose realistic and achievable objectives. Once you have a good command of one language under your belt (and since you've already got some C# continuing in that direction seems reasonable) then start looking to branch out.

Direct3D has need of instancing, but we do not. We have plenty of glVertexAttrib calls.

@Dragonsoulj Thanks mate!

@mhagain I agree with you, though the question of the topic is "What language should I choose?". My goal was to find the programming language which can be used for cross-platform games. Right now I think that the best choice is Java for me, because it runs on web, which can be cross-platform if the browser supports it. Guess I'll start learning it. Thanks for the help, guys! :)
@levela It looks like your decided, but here is something that I discovered yesterday in the Indie Developer group on FaceBook:

http://www.haxenme.org/ - NME targets iOS, Android, webOS,BlackBerry, Windows, Mac, Linux andFlash Player using your same code.

It looks pretty cool, I am going to have a play with this today.
Rotorz Limited (http://www.rotorz.com)

Check out our latest game Munchy Bunny!
Editor Tool: Rotorz Tile System (for Unity 3D)

@levela It looks like your decided, but here is something that I discovered yesterday in the Indie Developer group on FaceBook:

http://www.haxenme.org/ - NME targets iOS, Android, webOS,BlackBerry, Windows, Mac, Linux andFlash Player using your same code.

It looks pretty cool, I am going to have a play with this today.


This actually looks pretty cool! Will give it a go for sure! Ty!

This topic is closed to new replies.

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