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Xna or Unity for first rpg?

General and Gameplay Programming Programming Unity

Started by Craig Gamez Charlton March 06, 2013 07:22 PM

6 comments, last by riuthamus 11 years, 1 month ago

Craig Gamez Charlton

103

Author

March 06, 2013 07:22 PM

Wanting to have a go at making a turn based style rpg game. Well just a little demo, see if it turns out good. Sort of similar to the Final Fantasy series. Anyway, I was wondering if using Xna (visual studio) or Unity3d, as I only have experience in those two. More so the Xna side. C# is the only language i know so far.

So anyone able to recommend which one, or are they both ideal for what i'm wanting to do.

Edit: Crap, just saw the beginner forums and posted in the wrong place, sorry about that!

kburkhart84

3,224

March 06, 2013 10:33 PM

I personally would go with Unity3d. Your C# works with Unity too, and supposedly XNA is dying.

Aside from that though...Unity as I understand it does more for you under the hood. You technically get somewhat less control, but things tend to be easier unless you really need to do something that it doesn't provide for. So...no more resource loading, etc... It is also a good thing to get into, for example because right now it can export and play on many platforms, including iOS and Android. XNA can't do any of that at this point, plus it won't in the future because it will no longer be developed. So, you get practice with something that appears to have a future, and has uses besides just windows. The main catch is going to be the price if you need the advanced features that don't come with the free version.

The other solution I'd mention that would be much easier if you were interested in 2d(as in with sprites) would be Game Maker. It also exports to mobile platforms, but in general isn't good for 3d things. But for 2d, it is great. And the scripting language has similarites to Java/script/C/Delphi, but it is very simple to use and fits 2d games well. Your C# would be enough to get started quick with the GML language if it were to interest you.

Bearhugger

1,276

March 07, 2013 02:16 AM

It really depends on your goal for this project, because XNA and Unity are completely different beasts. XNA is "only" a 3D and multimedia C# library, while Unity is a full-fledged 3D game engine that has already done the complicated software engineering work for you, so you just plug in your game logic and hit Play.

If you're looking for a good programming exercise, XNA would be the better choice because it doesn't come with an engine.

If, on the other hand, you're looking to test a game design concept, or actually release a commercial 3D game on multiple platforms, then yeah go with Unity unless you *really* want to program a game engine. (If you want to make a 2D game, I agree GameMaker would be better suited.)

Concerning XNA...

XNA has apparently been discontinued because Windows RT and Windows 8 "Metro" favors C++ programming, so yeah I would be careful before investing in a discontinued platform. (Maybe favor MonoGame.) However, if you know you want to use it, there are plenty of great games that have been successful using XNA, like Fez, Bastion, Breath of Death, etc. so it's a totally viable platform. Besides, looking at how things seem to be going, Windows 8 and Windows RT are likely to die long before XNA. ;)

Craig Gamez Charlton

103

Author

March 07, 2013 09:20 AM

Oh cool, thanks for the replies. I think the whole game is going to be 2D, top down like pokemon at first, then side scrolling when an encounter happens.

Is Unity 3D only you say? I'll give that game maker a look, see if there are any free versions/trials.

phayer

150

March 07, 2013 01:28 PM

I would rather say MonoGame or Unity. MonoGame is a "clone" of the XNA framework with the added features of support for Linux and OSX, and more to come in the year.. Atleast that is what they MonoGuys are promising.. But still, all the things pointed out above still stands in a MonoGame vs Unity "battle"..