Hi i ve got a project to develop an education app for ipad and android as well so i m in the process of deciding which platform i will use so to do this just once. I dont really care about 3D graphics. I only care about easilly handle objects, text, audio, graphics, sound, video and internet connection with servers. I do not matter writing code (i m a programmer) but i m just trying to find the best way of doing this faster, easier and more reliable. Any advice/suggestion?
Is it safe to assume you mean "game engine" when you say "platform"? I have been using Unity for a few years and have been very happy. There are some flaws but the asset store tends to fill in most holes. Before I used Unity I tried Torque's iOS game engine and it was painful. A lot has changed since then so who knows. I haven't tried many other options but have looked at Corona and Loom (http://theengine.co). I've decided to stick with 3D so the main engines I would consider are Unity and Unreal. Although Unity excels in 3D development, there are sufficient tools available to make 2D games as well. Many hit 2D games have been made using Unity. If there is any additional info I can provide, please let me know.
the internet connection with servers brings up a lot of questions! As mentioned unity is robust and will handle pretty much anything mobile.
Yes i meant game engine you re right, my fault. I m aware of unity but i though that it was mostly good for 3D. I ll check it out. What i m looking more for, is something similar to Adobeflash or Toolbook so that i can easilly combine text, audio, graphics etc and create an educational game with videos, questions etc Thanks for letting me know. I ll check it out. Looks like Unity is the leader game engine around?
Corona works really great for cross-platform 2d or 2.5d development. Made a few games in it. Another option is to use HTML/JS/Canvas wrapped in an invisible browser. Canvas actually gets ok performance on iOS7.
What you describe can be done with Unity. Also take a look at their asset store. It's a mixed bag, half the time the assets I buy waste more time than they save. But the other half of the time they save me so much work or add functionality that I would have never taken the time to implement. Most of the assets are affordable and some are a really good deal for the money. Just like with Steam, watch for sales. https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com Some which may be useful for what you want to do: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/3937 https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/5332 https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/5020
We've been looking at Marmalade to create a 2D arcade game for IOS and then maybe other platforms later. Ideally we can use a game engine such as Cocos2D-x so we don't reinvent the wheel. However..I've seen that Unity3D has now added 2D support and I'm torn now which to use. It sounds like Unity is a more robust, mature product but at a higher cost. Essentially it would be great if both had good tutorials to show and prove their capability!
Unity has always been able to do 2D, it just got an improved 2D toolkit. It has a free version. It also has a tutorial/show off with the new 2D features in their blog http://blogs.unity3d.com/2013/11/12/unity-4-3-2d-game-development-overview/
True about being able to do 2D previously but it's great they've now added a workflow and tools to work better with 2D. Also true about the tutorial but tantalising they've indicated more is to come... We'll have to research more into seeing if the free version is suitable for our iOS game. Also what the options are for IAP/DLC and developing in a Windows environment. Can you develop in Windows and use an inexpensive Mac Mini to publish the final product? I digress though
Yes next update will overhaul the GUI system which a lot of people have been asking for a while. Personally my stuff I have been able to use the GUI system with no probs but a lot of people like NGUI which will be what the new GUI system is like. Yes but you won't be able to test the product on device without the mac mini (and you do need to test on device as much as you can throughout the process). You can make DLC for unity apps, that have methods to help with that. IAP isn't a problem but you might like to use a plugin rather than code it yourself. Personally I like unibill as that offers me the same IAP code for both android and iOS.
We used Corona Labs for Elevator Joe. Decent cross platform performance and good integration with ad services like Vungle. I can't comment on coding because I was the artist only, though my coding partner swears by it.
Out of interest, what assets did you find really useful? Any which will help 2D development? We don't want to reinvent the wheel, at the same time we also don't want to use something which we have to abandon as it's missing some key functionality or can't be added to.
IMO no key functionality is missing, but if you come to a problem during development then you might decide an asset is the quickest way to solve it. A lot of people like NGUI but I have found the built in GUI to be sufficient to make games. I also just bought (cause it was 40% off and I love vectrocity) http://starscenesoftware.com/spritetile.html this sprite tiling and collision system so I could play around with that style of game quickly.
I'm using NGUI and overall I like it. For mobile I think using a GUI which creates atlases is helpful for performance. I've heard good things about 2D Toolkit but I haven't tried it yet (I bought it when it was on sale though). Since my games are in 3D I would only use it to replace NGUI if I decide I like it better. http://u3d.as/content/unikron-software-ltd/2d-toolkit/1Wi