Free iPhone game engine?

[Forerunnerz]

I need to know if there is a free iPhone game engine out. UNITY is out of my budget atm. I need an engine that works good for 2D games.

[lazypeon]

Cocos2D for iPhone (http://code.google.com/p/cocos2d-iphone/)

[stitchemwords]

check out cocoa-2d: http://code.google.com/p/cocos2d-iphone/

[Forerunnerz]

Is the engine any good?

[lazypeon]

Yes, it's very good. I never programmed in Obj-C and I already have a great start on a game thanks to Cocos. I come from a mainly Java / Actionscript 3 background.

It has an active discussion board, and includes tons of examples. It has goodies like particle systems, transitions between scenes, etc... If you Google, you'll see it's highly recommended.

[Mew2468]

This is kind of a noob question, but...
How exactly does cocos2d work? :confused:

[Forerunnerz]

Thanks guys for the help. I downloaded Cocos. How do I run it? Does it only run on Mac. If so, it doesn't really matter because I'm getting a Mac in a couple of days but if it works on Windows I can begin practicing with this.

[lithiastudios]

Thanks guys for the help. I downloaded Cocos. How do I run it? Does it only run on Mac. If so, it doesn't really matter because I'm getting a Mac in a couple of days but if it works on Windows I can begin practicing with this.

Once you get your Mac, run through this tutorial.. a great step by step guide:

http://monoclestudios.com/cocos2d_whitepaper.html

[lazypeon]

Yeah, you need to wait for your Mac. The tutorial lithiastudios posted is well known in the Cocos community and is the best place to start. It's constantly updated to be current (they already updated the tutorial to match the latest Cocos 0.7 build).

Once you get your head around the tutorial (mainly just project setup), look in the Cocos demo folder and compile some demos. If you need help, the Cocos forum (at the Google Code page) is very active and helpful.

[Forerunnerz]

Okay sweet. But what file opens Coco's? Just curious.

[lazypeon]

Not sure what you mean exactly. You don't "open" Cocos. You load up xcode (the Mac IDE -- comparable to Visual Studio or Eclipse), and you add the Cocos library (a collection of .h and .m files) to your project. From there, you can use the library (the objects Cocos provides) in your code. It manages a lot of the 'boring' stuff for you.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, you can check out the Python version now (Cocos2D iPhone is a port of a Python library): http://cocos2d.org/

[sio2interactive]

If you guys are looking for a 3D game engine you should checkout the latest development on SIO2, there’s also more than a dozen commercial games that have been developed on it for more info checkout:

http://sio2interactive.com/GAMES.html

Here’s a quick list of the engine features:

Architecture
* Optimized File Format
* Unique Package Approach
* OpenGL ES v1.1 Compatible
* Written in pure C

Tool Chain
* Built around Blender (WYSIWYG)
* Exporter & Optimizer
* Auto Texture Bake Script
* Animation Exporter

Real Time Physic
* Rigid Body
* Collision Detection
* Soft Body
* Particle System
* Fog

Texturing
* Multi-Texturing
* Texture Filtering
* Anisotropic Filtering
* Transparent
* Semi-Transparent

Multimedia & Special Effects
* Ambient & FX Sound
* Real 3D Stereo & Surround
* Realtime MP3 Playback
* Realtime MPEG 4 Playback

Scene Management
* Fast Sorting & Culling System
* Event & Trigger System
* Scripting Support (Level & UI)
* Network Support (TCP/IP)
* Touch Screen & Accelerometer

Lighting & Shadow
* Per-Vertex
* Light Mapping
* Projected Shadow
* Projected Geometry

Animation
* Full IPO Support
* Hybrid Skeletal Animation
* Keyframe Animation

System Requirements
* Mac OS X v10.5.6
* iPhone SDK v2.2.1

You can use SIO2 for free or commercial product, please read the SIO2 license agreement ( /SIO2_SDK/src/license/sio2.txt ). Basically the only thing that we are asking is that you mention SIO2 and/or our website somewhere in your project if its made available to the public in order to keep the SIO2 project alive.

For more information on SIO2 please check our website for more information: http://sio2interactive.com/TECHNOLOGY.html

[Forerunnerz]

Not sure what you mean exactly. You don't "open" Cocos. You load up xcode (the Mac IDE -- comparable to Visual Studio or Eclipse), and you add the Cocos library (a collection of .h and .m files) to your project. From there, you can use the library (the objects Cocos provides) in your code. It manages a lot of the 'boring' stuff for you.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, you can check out the Python version now (Cocos2D iPhone is a port of a Python library): http://cocos2d.org/

Ah, thanks. I needed to know how to get it started. Thanks :).

If you guys are looking for a 3D game engine you should checkout the latest development on SIO2.

Hmm, looks good. Might use it when I get more advanced with SDK. Thanks. ;)

[xscea]

Check out the Bork3D Game Engine, http://bork3d.com

It's not free, but at $49 it's a lot cheaper than the other commercial options out there.

[f e a r l e s s]

Check out the Bork3D Game Engine, http://bork3d.com

It's not free, but at $49 it's a lot cheaper than the other commercial options out there.

That website is borked. Busted script. How do you trust their engine if they can't write (or copy&paste) a simple script.

[sio2interactive]

Might wanna check SIO2 3D Game Engine for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Find below a list of the current engine features and capabilities, the latest version can achieve to render around +/- 25k of polygon per FOV at +/- 30 fps on the latest generation of iPhone and iPod Touch.

Home:
http://sio2interactive.com

Forum:
http://sio2interactive.forumotion.net/

Wiki:
http://sio2interactive.wikidot.com/


In addition SIO2 include the following libraries and functionalities embedded in the core where most of them have been modified to operate directly in memory for better performance:

OpenAL: For 3D positional sounds (FX) and ambient music.
Theora: For realtime MPEG4 (ogv) playback.
Ogg: For MP3 style playback.
LUA: As the default scripting language that includes all the SIO2 API + all the OpenGL ES API, and uses SWIG to generate the necessary C wrapper. All OpenGL ES & OpenAL instructions are also available from LUA as well as the specific SIO2 API.
libJPEG: For fast JPEG decompression.
Zlib: To create and compress the SIO2 fileformat (.sio2)
libPNG: For fast PNG decompression.
Bullet: For Rigid & Soft Body physic, as well as for collision detection, collision feedback, custom sensors and collision triggers.


Architecture
* Optimized File Format
* Unique Package Approach
* OpenGL ES v1.1 Compatible
* Written in pure C

Tool Chain
* Built around Blender (WYSIWYG)
* Exporter & Optimizer
* Auto Texture Bake Script
* Animation Exporter

Real Time Physic
* Rigid Body
* Collision Detection
* Soft Body
* Particle System
* Fog

Texturing
* Multi-Texturing
* Texture Filtering
* Anisotropic Filtering
* Transparent
* Semi-Transparent
Multimedia & Special Effects
* Ambient & FX Sound
* Real 3D Stereo & Surround
* Realtime MP3 Playback
* Realtime MPEG 4 Playback

Scene Management
* Fast Sorting & Culling System
* Event & Trigger System
* Scripting Support (Level & UI)
* Network Support (TCP/IP)
* Touch Screen & Accelerometer

Lighting & Shadow
* Per-Vertex
* Light Mapping
* Projected Shadow
* Projected Geometry

Animation
* Full IPO Support
* Hybrid Skeletal Animation
* Keyframe Animation
System Requirements
* Mac OS X v10.5.7
* iPhone SDK v2.2.1+

You can use SIO2 for free or commercial product, please read the SIO2 license agreement ( /SIO2_SDK/src/license/sio2.txt ). Basically the only thing that we are asking is that you mention SIO2 and/or our website somewhere in your project if its made available to the public in order to keep the SIO2 project alive.
For more information on SIO2 please check our website for more information: TECHNOLOGY (http://sio2interactive.com/TECHNOLOGY.html)

[coolman]

Bullet: For Rigid & Soft Body physic, as well as for collision detection, collision feedback, custom sensors and collision triggers.

This is one of the best pyshics engines.

I'll test SIO2 engine with my next game, I think is worh the try.

[xscea]

That website is borked. Busted script. How do you trust their engine if they can't write (or copy&paste) a simple script.

Works for me. What script is busted? (I run the site btw)

Oh and coolman: the Bork3D engine uses bullet too.

[PixelthisMike]

Works for me. What script is busted? (I run the site btw)

It seems to be alright now but I too had issues with the site when I visited it about a week ago.

[xscea]

It seems to be alright now but I too had issues with the site when I visited it about a week ago.

Ah. I know what it was. You guys probably caught me in the middle of moving my DNS over to a different host. I moved "bork3d.com" but forgot to move "www.bork3d.com" until a few hours later and those animated images on the front page referenced www.

I can program, but I suck at DNS apparently. :-)