2D Game Engine

[dannys95]

Hey guys. As I have said I wish to become a dev. Problem is I don't have my Mac yet. So does anyone know a good 2D iPhone game engine for Windows? It does not need to be amazing; just somewhere to learn and practice coding. Thanks!

[dannys95]

Anyone? I was hoping to do some work tonight

[lithiastudios]

Originally Posted by dannys95

Anyone? I was hoping to do some work tonight

There isn't much at the moment. There's Unity, which is a commercial engine and is geared toward 3D, although 2D is possible.

There's cocos2d, which looks like it runs on Windows as well as the iPhone:

http://cocos2d.org/download.html

The caveat with cocos2d is that it is based on Python, and the Cocos2D iphone version is based on Objective-C. But the main concepts behind cocos2d would carry over to the iphone version.

[PointOfLight]

If I understand correctly, you want an engine that will let you develop the game on Windows and then compile it to the iPhone, right? If that's the case, I don't think such a thing exists. The closest that I've heard of is something called Win Toolchain, which I believe is just a setup that will allow you to take gcc code and compile it to an iPhone Application. Unfortunately, these type of applications won't run on an actual iPhone unless it's jailbroken. As lithiastudios mentioned, your best bet is probably going to be the Unity Engine, though I don't know how compatible the Windows and iPhone versions are. Garage Games has a 2D development toolkit for the iPhone, but I believe it only runs on a Mac, and in that case I'm pretty sure the Windows and iPhone tools are not compatible. I've been itching to get into iPhone game development as well, but the sad reality is that it appears to be basically impossible unless you have a Mac. I hope someone will come along and prove this wrong, but I don't think it's going to happen.

[brewstermax]

Originally Posted by lithiastudios

There isn't much at the moment. There's Unity, which is a commercial engine and is geared toward 3D, although 2D is possible.

There's cocos2d, which looks like it runs on Windows as well as the iPhone:

http://cocos2d.org/download.html

The caveat with cocos2d is that it is based on Python, and the Cocos2D iphone version is based on Objective-C. But the main concepts behind cocos2d would carry over to the iphone version.

You are trying to get him to try and learn Python, when he has no coding experience. Not a good idea. Danny, you may want to download some of these and the documentation and learn like that. You can write some sample code that you can carry over, but it isn't possible right now.

[PointOfLight]

Are you looking to learn coding in general, or specific to the iPhone? If you just need to get your feet wet in the realm of programming as a whole, I agree with brewstermax: the express versions of Visual Studio are a good place to start. You could also try this: http://www.yoyogames.com/make. It's a program called Game Maker. It's free (or at least used to be) and lets you create games just visually or with code if you choose to do so. I'd suggest using the "with code" option, since drag and drop development won't do you any good when you get to the iPhone.

[PointOfLight]

Just for kicks I decided to check out the Garage Games web site again (it's been a while), and I learned something quite interesting. Apparently their 2D product, Torque Game Builder (TGB), can create cross-platform output, including both Windows and iPhone! I'm sure there's a bit more to it than that, but you might want to check it out. They have a demo of TGB that you can play with as well.

[dannys95]

Thanks for all the help! But I give up on being a dev. I can't code for life. Thanks for helping anyways

[brewstermax]

Originally Posted by dannys95

Thanks for all the help! But I give up on being a dev. I can't code for life. Thanks for helping anyways

Wow, do you give up on everything. You fail. At least try.

[PointOfLight]

Personally, if he's willing to throw in the towel that quickly then it's probably best not to encourage him. He clearly doesn't really want to do this if he doesn't want to put in a little effort.