No Jobs for SpriteKit developers?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by 8bitmfker, Sep 5, 2014.

  1. 8bitmfker

    8bitmfker Well-Known Member

    Sep 25, 2012
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    Poland
    Hi,

    I tried to recognize the job market for mobile game developers in my country. I have experience in Cocos2D-iphone and SpriteKit, but I found out that companies want to hire someone who can work with at least 2 platforms: Android and iOS using some multiplatform solution like Unity, Unreal, Cocos2d-x etc. I live in Poland, where Android devices are way more popular than iOS devices. Do you have similar experience in your countries? If I want to work in mobile gaming do I have to move to some multiplatform engine of framework like Unity or Cocos2D-x? Which platform do you recomend for 2D games?
     
  2. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    .

    There are plenty of multi-platform options cocos2d and unity are the most popular. If you are only interested in 2D then monkeyX is good too.

    Yes as a company you would be crazy to do a platform specific implementation of something when you can develop for multiple platforms at a similar cost!

    I would recommend a computer science degree (or something similar) so you can work anywhere in development.
     
  3. davilca

    davilca Active Member

    Aug 17, 2014
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    If you're independent, you can use and target whatever you want, but if you're going to work for others, you'll have to go multiplatform (usually iOS and Android). For now, I target iOS only, so the best solution for me is cocos2d-iphone (free and fast, coding with Objective-C, super easy). But if I had to go multiplatform, I'll choose cocos2d-x (C++, harder coding but very efficient, and a lot of platforms to target).

    If you prefer a visual environment, Unity and GameMaker would be better options. GameMaker looks easier for 2D, in my opinion, and soon they will release GameMaker Studio 2.0, that can be installed on Mac OS X (yay!). But how efficient are Unity and GameMaker export modules for iOS and Android? Who knows. I'm sure Unity does the export thing better than GameMaker, but Unity's interface looks like a 747 control panel, too complicated for 2D games.

    About devices, here, in Spain, Android wins by far. It's cheaper.
     
  4. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    Unity is ideal for 2D games, you make a game in a page of a script.

    You don't need the visual part of unity, but once you use it you will realise how powerful it is to have it. It is awesome for fast prototyping as well. I often make a working prototype of a game in a couple of train trips.
     
  5. OnlyJoe

    OnlyJoe Well-Known Member

    Sep 29, 2013
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    Auckland
    Here in New Zealand it seems that everyone is looking for Unity developers at the moment. But that is in the groups and conferences I attend, which are aimed more towards the indie crowd.
    If you want to work in the AAA games world as a developer, you need to just be a good and solid programmer. And that means you need to know a whole lot of languages, including C++ . But to be honest, learning a new programming language is pretty easy once you understand one. What is hard is all the different APIs and Libraries you have to learn.
     
  6. davilca

    davilca Active Member

    Aug 17, 2014
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    @Destined: Haven't used Unity, but read some tutorials on how to setup 2D games and it seems to be more complicated than it should be. A lot of superfluous and unneeded 3D stuff. But hey, maybe some day I'll give it a try.
     
  7. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    They have a 2D mode for the editor to remove things you don't need.

    Some of those things you might consider more than you need can make your life a lot easier once you know how to use them :) You have a lot more flexibility in unity than gamemaker, but of course being more limited is easier to use quickly.

    Also gamemaker isn't particularly good if you want to get a job.
     
  8. davilca

    davilca Active Member

    Aug 17, 2014
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    That's absolutely true, unfortunately.

    And yes, Unity is much more powerful, elegant and professional than GameMaker by far. If the goal is to get a job (and that's the case here), Unity is recommended. If the goal is to make a 2D game, both pieces of software work. In fact, any other 2D software can do the job. We're talking about Unity and GameMaker due to marketing, but there are more options (and better options if you want efficient 2D rendering on mobile, I suppose). To me, the most easier to use, the most you focus on what really matters: gameplay and content.

    3D stuff is superfluous on pure 2D games. A lot of 16-bit era games are still superb games, and they don't needed any 3D capability. But that's my personal opinion.
     
  9. GlennX

    GlennX Well-Known Member

    May 10, 2009
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    UK
    More people should consider using SDL2 if they'd like to stay low level while remaining portable. A friend just ported my native iOS game to Android using it in just a week. If I'd been using it for the iOS version the port would have taken a day or so. He, as an experiment, got a Linux version, running in under two hours. To be fair, the controls need a rethink (no multitouch for example) but when that's done, we should be able to get it on Mac in a day or so. Windows is slightly more of a big deal (D3D v OpenGL) but isn't too bad if you keep it in mind from the start and stick a simple wrapper around your index/vertex buffers and draw calls.
     

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