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So, I'm currently looking for an engine for 2D. I've tried Cocos2D but it's iOS only and I wouldn't like to rewrite everything into another language for Android (so, e.g. Java port of Cocos2d for Android is not an option). Instead, I want to write the code once and with least hassle deploy it on iOS, Android and possibly Windows Phone 7. I have both Mac and Windows.
Just to be more detailed, here are my requirements to the engine:
must be cross-platform
must be efficient
should be C++, Java, C# or Objective C since I'm comfortable with them and NOT Flash, Javascript, HTML5 since I am not a web developer
must have a large community, tutorials, additional libraries which cover most of the stuff you'd have when developing on iOS or Android directly (in-app billing, facebook etc.)
the final delivered package must be not too large
the engine can be free, but I also wouldn't mind paying a reasonable price
I've found the following engines:
Marmalade (and IwGame engine on top of it) - C++, found overall very positive reviews of Marmalade but not sure about IwGame. EDIT (March 2013): Looks like Marmalade SDK now includes Cocos2Dx and some in-built IDE which makes it much better (and costs $150 per year for indie dev which is ok with me).
Corona SDK - Lua (efficiency doubtful), also needs internet connection to compile code
Cocos2d-x - C++, received lots of reviews from developers, mostly positive and many think it's best for 2D
Particle code - Java+Eclipse, found no reviews or comments
Moai - Lua, coudn't find any reviews/opinions on it
Monkey engine - seems to have too few features
Haxenme - it's Flash, I've never used it and don't want to
use Unity3d but with 2D packages like 2D Toolkit
ports of SDL to Android (also here) and iOS - doesn't look to have much support or current development (?)
GLBasic - Basic language, I don't like it
playN - seems to be early in development (?)
Gamvas - HTML5, doesn't look like a mature engine to me
Ignifuga - Python, also doesn't look mature
ORX - not sure if it's still developed (?)
Construct 2 - reminds GameMaker, might be ok for rapid prototypes but definitely not for industry-level games
XNA and then port the game using ExEn (would need Mono Touch to port to iOS and Mono for Android to port to Android) - C#, and is probably more thought for folks coming from Microsoft products like xBox (I come from Android). Also, those Mono tools cost $800 in total for small developers
Impact - JavaScript, uses HTML5. I'm not much into JavaScript (e.g. preferred C# on Unity3d), also not sure about efficiency since it runs in the browser (?)
GameMaker - own scripting language GML and I actually remember this one as a tool for non-programmers. Has it actually grown into a real engine, I mean for serious development?
AppGameKit - C++, yet seems to be still pretty new. Haven't found any reviews on it
use Cocos2D and Objective C to develop for iOS only and then make an APK for Android out of it using Stella SDK. Has anyone done this? I'm pretty sure there will be limitations, and how about Google's in-app billing, AdMob and Facebook integration on Android?
Moscrif - JavaScript, looks like it's more for former web-developers
Starling - Flash 11, i'm not much into Flash
ND2D - not yet 1.0, does it have many features?
So, I'd be happy if you could comment from your experiences with the engines and suggest which one in the list (or anything else that I've missed) is the best for the described requirements. I also may be wrong with my first impressions about some of the engines.
I'm currently thinking of Marmalade+IwGame as the best option but since I don't have much info about Cocos2d-x and Particle code, I am not really sure about it.
Thank you!
I would like to do something similar. But I am not sure if my way is a good way...
In my plan, I would display the startup image and then make the program sleeps for 1 seconds and then display the main menu
Shall I use the sleep function to hold the screen for a second?
If I want to use flash image instead of static image? Is it also feasible? What's the usual way to do something like this ?
I am using some high resolution icons as images. However when they render on screen, all of them gets slightly pixelated and don't look good on screen. I tried it with different sizes of icons but it was of no use.
Can anyone suggest where i can be going wrong and what can be the best way to take care of these things. I am new to game programming so any help would be appreciated.
I've placed an image on the stage. This image is supposed to be a background. I've scaled this image up so it is definitely covers entire stage. When I test it in browser there are white margins on both left and right side of this image, that is, the image doesn't fill entire web. Could anyone please tell me how to fix it?
I posted the below question in the InDesign section as I'm using INDD to generate the SWF file to run in Flash. Nobody in InDesign has addressed. I'm wondering if I'm able to get the timeout function I'm looking for to work in an InDesign-generated SWF file or MUST I bring this into Flash.
I'm fairly new to Flash for Indd , but been using Indd for years. I have a SWF I've built, a simple page flip interactive Based on multistage objects and buttons. The doc is three pages. The first is the "attract screen" that invites users to it and gives a little information. It's the page I want the SWF to return to after 3 minutes of inactivity on page 2-3. Page two and three have the multistate objects and all the content of the interactive.
I'm having trouble figuring out how to have the SWF return to page one on its own.
I have an iframe embedded in my stage. That works great. However, I would like to trigger an animation on the stage from within my iframe code. Is that possible?
Hello! I'm working on an old-school-inspired game in my free time. It is to be an HTML5 game with all the backend and graphics done by me. I have some decent experience with both sides, so getting a prototype going shouldn't be too difficult. That said, I've run into a bit of a dilemma.
My terrain is all procedurally generated tiles, and I would like to have elevation figure into things. Something simple, like a limited range of 8 possible heights, is what I'm looking for.
However, I also am trying to keep a very "old-school" style of graphics.
Ideally, I'd like for my game to look and feel similar to an old Zelda or Pokemon title. (3/4 view) But this creates a lot of problems. I can't seem to find a pre-made tileset online that even begins to look correct with terrain height applied. I know that usually this is done the same way as grass region meeting up with a sand region, wherein you have special "edge" tiles. But I can't seem to make that work with more than 2 distinct levels of terrain, plus it would be thousands and thousands of possible transition types (grass meets grass 1 level above, grass meets grass 2 levels above, grass meets sand 1 level above, etc etc etc). This is not to mention the further-along programmatic problems of occlusion and pathfinding and such. (Most of which I would solve by allowing 90 degree rotations of the world)
As a secondary option, I would consider what is commonly called an "isometric" perspective for my game. That has a lot of problems of its own though. I do not like the typical "iso terrain," many games have used. (Example: http://i.stack.imgur.com/rzqj8.jpg) It seems too programmatic in nature. And while the "minecraft-style" of depicting each tile as a block has an appeal, I'd need way more terrain levels and such to provide any fidelity. Also, this style is not my strong suit, drawing wise.
So with all of that in mind, I'm a little stuck. I'd really like to find a middle ground, somewhere between an "Isometric minecraft" and Zelda, where rock walls are basically just a tile type and do not actually indicate height. I'd also really like to keep my 3/4 perspective. Something like this imagehttp://www.fondusis.com/images/dev/FondusisFringe2.png. Though if you know Tiled or any such editor you will realize this is basically a grid of paint-by-numbers, i really need to be able to rotate, and view these hills from the other side. But when I set out to create art for this, it all goes to hell.
Any experiences dealing with art assets of this type, or anything related, will be helpful. Just trying to wrap my head around this problem! Thanks for your time!!
