What is the best iOS developer SDK?

[FletcherApps]

I have a decent background in basic and some javascript, but primarily I am an artist.

What is the best package to develop apps that has both drag and drop plus some decent coding? Someting similar to GameMaker? I read about Game Salad but a lot of people seem to complain that it is slow and limited, I looked at cocs2d but I don't know ObjC. Unity looks powerful, but can it do 2D games? Or iTorque?

Thanks guys!

[30BelowStudios]

Try Corona SDK, it is a good balance for non-programmers.

[unlit]

You can do 2d games with Unity. For example Snuggle Truck or Tumbledrop are made with Unity. This games are still 3d in the editor, but the camera is orthographic and doesn't rotate, so the player doesn't notice.

[racingspider]

Originally Posted by unlit

You can do 2d games with Unity. For example Snuggle Truck or Tumbledrop are made with Unity. This games are still 3d in the editor, but the camera is orthographic and doesn't rotate, so the player doesn't notice.

I'd second this. Unity uses scripts, which is a good way to ease into programming - and it is powerful.

Using an orthographic camera is a great way to do it. I'll have to give that a shot in my next game!

[Johan_Ribert]

+1 on Corona SDK. This 2d framwork is LUA based and LUA is really simple to learn.

[IndieApp]

+1 to Unity. It gives you quite a bit of overhead so you will probably experience a longer loading time than programming it in Obj-C in Xcode however if you don't have a great deal of programming experience then it's probably the way to go. Also you can use JS to write Unity applications so it sounds like it could be a good match for you

[mr_wexer]

The Marmalade SDK makes it very easy to port to other platforms once you've written your game for iPhone.

[30BelowStudios]

The good thing about Corona is that you can use it free right up until you are ready to publish to the App Store. This lets you test it out and see how you like it, even test on your device (need an Apple developer account though, $99/year).

I really want to play with Unity though. Can any Unity users tell me if I can make IOS games using Unity free? What are my limitations? I don't want to spend $400 before I can get a good feel for it.

[unlit]

There is a 30 day trial for UnityPro/iOSPro/AndroidPro included in Unity free.
You can test on your device, of course, but are not allowed to publish to the AppStore. Only limitation during the time is a "Unity trial" watermark in IOS builds, I think.

You can always convert your iPhone projects back to Mac/PC/Web whatever, nothing of your project is lost. So ideally you could work with Unity free for Mac for some days to get the Unity basics down and after you feel comfortable, you activate the trial for Unity Pro/IOS Pro/Android Pro, switch the target platform of your project and test on your device to enjoy the trial to its fullest extent.

[xenoclone]

I've done all my games in iTorque. It's not for rookies. You've got a combo of script, C++, and objective-c to work with. On the flip side, it has a great editor and a friendly, helpful community.