2D game development for iphone on windows possible?

[John]

I wanted to get a start in game development for the Iphone/ipod touch. Having not enough I was shocked to learn that there is apparently no way to do so on a windows machine. I can't get a mac. The tools would be expensive enough already.

Unity, the iphone SDK and everything I saw does not work on Windows. It's a damn shame. At least for me. So is there nothing I could use? Does everything depend on the iphone SDK?

I am only looking for a way to make 2d games. Nothing 3d.

Edit: And can you use Unity to make proper 2d games anyway? I only find a tutorial on their side which explains how to do a 3d game in sideview and they call that 2d. I mean a game with sprites only tho, no 3d objects. Everything drawn.

[AxelF]

You dont need to buy a Mac, but you have to buy a copy of MacOS X. Costs ~100$. Then spent some time reading on that page and start developing.
I did it that way and my Mac Mini is now a Linux Backup Server.

[John]

Thanks for the info AxelF!

A question I have tho: I thought these "hackintosh" things only work with hacked copies of the os which you get from a torrent? I didn't want to download anything illegally so it would be awesome if I could just spend 100 dollar on it.

I am currently running a machine with an amd cpu tho (x2 6000+) and Windows Vista. Would that work?

[AxelF]

Thats the easy and, of course, illegal way - but there are (legal because based on FreeBSD) tools for creating a hackingtosh DVD based on your original. Its tricky but its works.
But because we dont want to break any rules in this board lets stop this discussion here. Good luck.

[Thorero]

Actually discussing illegal activitys is okay, providing how-to's isn't.

[jonaswills]

The developer of Besiegement did it *mostly* on windows by creating a wrapper, check it out:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...on-windows.ars

[deadweight]

Legal way to do it... purchase OSX and install it on a VMware image on a really strong PC. I know at least one person who's running a Mac on a PC this way with decent results. Virtual PC images are by nature slower than usual, so prepare to excercise gobs of patience.

HTH *thumbsup*

[kenlem]

Unity can be used for 2D games. There was a recent 2D Zombie game in the top 25 list for about a month that was done with Unity. It's certainly possible.

As for using a PC instead of a Mac, it's is possible but that just seems to add another level of hassle factor. Honestly, if you think you're clever enough to write a decent game, you're probably clever enough to come up with the cash for a Mac Mini.

[ciretose]

I would agree with kenlem - personally, it seems like more of a hassle.

I have a few friends who wanted to develop for the iPhone but didn't want to "pay the Mac premium". Then they discovered you can get a refurb Mini from Apple's website for around $400 (for example, there is currently a Refurbished Mac mini 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo for $419), which is what they did and they're doing just fine. You don't need a "premium" Mac to develop iPhone apps.

One guy tried to go the VM route and gave up and just bought a mini.

[GlennX]

Originally Posted by jonaswills

The developer of Besiegement did it *mostly* on windows by creating a wrapper, check it out:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...on-windows.ars

That's kind of what i've done: Ground Effect Dev

It's a great way to work.