2D Gaming Development / CocosSharp
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Have you checked out unity? It is free up to a certain level (<$100k), and they have a 2D toolkit that may be downloaded for free. Also, I'm not sure if you are going cross-platform that you can stay entirely on the PC when it comes to apple. I believe you need a MAC to compile the code. You can still use VS on the PC, but it needs to send it to XCODE for compilation (at least that's how it works based on my limited Xamarin experience).
Yes, I considered Unity first. Its too much for what I'm doing.
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Eric Lynch wrote:
Anything else you'd recommend?
Unity. You can code in C#.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
Yes, I considered Unity first. Its too much for what I'm doing.
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Definitely Unity (using the 2D parts). Works great on the PC and uses c#.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
Yes, I considered Unity first. Its too much for what I'm doing.
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Yes, I considered Unity first. Its too much for what I'm doing.
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Eric Lynch wrote:
Its too much for what I'm doing.
Really? It's pretty much a goto standard for simple games.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
I hear you. Its certainly difficult (I'd say impossible) to mistake its popularity :)
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I hear you. Its certainly difficult (I'd say impossible) to mistake its popularity :)
Eric Lynch wrote:
o mistake its popularity
My point was, it is what lots of people use for simple gaming. So, if it's too much for you, I'm not sure what else would be simpler than Unity.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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I have an idea for a simple 2D game and am thinking about trying to go cross-platform. Let me start with, I considered Unity first. For various reasons, not interested in advice about it. To stay in VS/C# land and save money, I'm considering using CocosSharp. I'm usually reluctant to invite opinions, but I could use some advice here. My biggest concern is that the last update (of CocosSharp) on GitHub is comparatively old. Is CocosSharp still a viable alternative? Or, am I about to use an already extinct dinosaur? Anything else you'd recommend? Again, my focus is free/cheap, simple, 2D. In an ideal world, VS/C#, so I can stay comfy on my PC. Though, I'm flexible on that goal. Most of the other options I saw out there seemed expensive, complicated, and/or 3D oriented. UPDATE: I'll leave the thread open for continued Unity cheerleading, since this seems to be the only opinion out there. Sigh...not sure of the purpose of repeatedly posting "use Unity", but too each their own :) Regarding the original topic, since I'm leery of CocosSharp's continued support, I've decided to experiment with MonoGame instead.
LOL, Use Unity!! Everyone is using it, C#, 2d ...
I'd rather be phishing!
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I have an idea for a simple 2D game and am thinking about trying to go cross-platform. Let me start with, I considered Unity first. For various reasons, not interested in advice about it. To stay in VS/C# land and save money, I'm considering using CocosSharp. I'm usually reluctant to invite opinions, but I could use some advice here. My biggest concern is that the last update (of CocosSharp) on GitHub is comparatively old. Is CocosSharp still a viable alternative? Or, am I about to use an already extinct dinosaur? Anything else you'd recommend? Again, my focus is free/cheap, simple, 2D. In an ideal world, VS/C#, so I can stay comfy on my PC. Though, I'm flexible on that goal. Most of the other options I saw out there seemed expensive, complicated, and/or 3D oriented. UPDATE: I'll leave the thread open for continued Unity cheerleading, since this seems to be the only opinion out there. Sigh...not sure of the purpose of repeatedly posting "use Unity", but too each their own :) Regarding the original topic, since I'm leery of CocosSharp's continued support, I've decided to experiment with MonoGame instead.
For 2D I say HTML5 / Canvas. You get _everywhere_ deployment. Your friends don't have to do any install, just point at your game's URL. I think you'll find HTML5 Canvas very cool and easy to use : yes it is JavaScript (don't be hatin'). :rolleyes: Here is an absolutely fantastic book with tons of samples that will amaze you: HTML5 Canvas: Native Interactivity and Animation for the Web [^] Here's a very lame example of an HTML5 Canvas thing I built: Robot Dots[^] The amazing thing (IMHO) is that the code is less than 300 lines of JavaScript.:cool: I wrote it all up in an article here on CP: HTML5 Canvas : Clean JavaScript & Code Organization Allows Faster Dev, Easier Extensibility[^] At least I've provided you with one alternate view to !!!!UNITY!!! :laugh: EDIT Also, see my SignalR example which implements HTML5 / Canvas to move pawns on a grid. Beginner's Guide to Using SignalR via ASP.NET[^] There are some interesting HTML5 / CANVAS concepts there.
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For 2D I say HTML5 / Canvas. You get _everywhere_ deployment. Your friends don't have to do any install, just point at your game's URL. I think you'll find HTML5 Canvas very cool and easy to use : yes it is JavaScript (don't be hatin'). :rolleyes: Here is an absolutely fantastic book with tons of samples that will amaze you: HTML5 Canvas: Native Interactivity and Animation for the Web [^] Here's a very lame example of an HTML5 Canvas thing I built: Robot Dots[^] The amazing thing (IMHO) is that the code is less than 300 lines of JavaScript.:cool: I wrote it all up in an article here on CP: HTML5 Canvas : Clean JavaScript & Code Organization Allows Faster Dev, Easier Extensibility[^] At least I've provided you with one alternate view to !!!!UNITY!!! :laugh: EDIT Also, see my SignalR example which implements HTML5 / Canvas to move pawns on a grid. Beginner's Guide to Using SignalR via ASP.NET[^] There are some interesting HTML5 / CANVAS concepts there.
Thank you (and an upvote) for the first non-Unity option. I was starting to have flashbacks to the Borg from TNG: "You will use Unity. You will be assimilated. Resistant is futile." :) HTML5 / Canvas looks like a potentially interesting fit for a different project (currently on the back burner). For now, I think I'm sticking with MonoGame for this project.
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I have an idea for a simple 2D game and am thinking about trying to go cross-platform. Let me start with, I considered Unity first. For various reasons, not interested in advice about it. To stay in VS/C# land and save money, I'm considering using CocosSharp. I'm usually reluctant to invite opinions, but I could use some advice here. My biggest concern is that the last update (of CocosSharp) on GitHub is comparatively old. Is CocosSharp still a viable alternative? Or, am I about to use an already extinct dinosaur? Anything else you'd recommend? Again, my focus is free/cheap, simple, 2D. In an ideal world, VS/C#, so I can stay comfy on my PC. Though, I'm flexible on that goal. Most of the other options I saw out there seemed expensive, complicated, and/or 3D oriented. UPDATE: I'll leave the thread open for continued Unity cheerleading, since this seems to be the only opinion out there. Sigh...not sure of the purpose of repeatedly posting "use Unity", but too each their own :) Regarding the original topic, since I'm leery of CocosSharp's continued support, I've decided to experiment with MonoGame instead.
Probably not what you are interested in, mostly because it doesn't stick with your parameters but I wanted to throw it out there for future readers, if nothing else. Embarcadero[^] has recently created a community version of their RAD studio. It is C++ and Delphi and not C# but it is free until you earn $5000.00 and seems fairly easy and straight forward. They have a boot camp with several 2d games and source that you can play with, along with a high level explanation. Lots more tuts and stuff for Delphi and it is an easy language, but C++ is my fav. My thoughts are to create a really simple app for my grandson (who is 2) to play on a windows touchscreen and then to port it to Android and IOS with the same code. If it works and is easy enough then I'll try something more complicated and eventually purchase it, but only after it has paid for itself. Delphi Community Edition[^] | C++ Builder Community Edition[^] | Embarcadero Bootcamp[^] Anyway, just some thoughts I had. :-D
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often times better than master of one.
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I have an idea for a simple 2D game and am thinking about trying to go cross-platform. Let me start with, I considered Unity first. For various reasons, not interested in advice about it. To stay in VS/C# land and save money, I'm considering using CocosSharp. I'm usually reluctant to invite opinions, but I could use some advice here. My biggest concern is that the last update (of CocosSharp) on GitHub is comparatively old. Is CocosSharp still a viable alternative? Or, am I about to use an already extinct dinosaur? Anything else you'd recommend? Again, my focus is free/cheap, simple, 2D. In an ideal world, VS/C#, so I can stay comfy on my PC. Though, I'm flexible on that goal. Most of the other options I saw out there seemed expensive, complicated, and/or 3D oriented. UPDATE: I'll leave the thread open for continued Unity cheerleading, since this seems to be the only opinion out there. Sigh...not sure of the purpose of repeatedly posting "use Unity", but too each their own :) Regarding the original topic, since I'm leery of CocosSharp's continued support, I've decided to experiment with MonoGame instead.
Have a look at SDL, I know it's cross platform - although I've only ever run it on Windows and Linux. I think it has C# bindings, but I've never used them. You'd need to build up a lot of the logic for your actual game, which I reckon is a lot better than been stuck in something like Unity's GameObject model when it doesn't fit your use case.
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I have an idea for a simple 2D game and am thinking about trying to go cross-platform. Let me start with, I considered Unity first. For various reasons, not interested in advice about it. To stay in VS/C# land and save money, I'm considering using CocosSharp. I'm usually reluctant to invite opinions, but I could use some advice here. My biggest concern is that the last update (of CocosSharp) on GitHub is comparatively old. Is CocosSharp still a viable alternative? Or, am I about to use an already extinct dinosaur? Anything else you'd recommend? Again, my focus is free/cheap, simple, 2D. In an ideal world, VS/C#, so I can stay comfy on my PC. Though, I'm flexible on that goal. Most of the other options I saw out there seemed expensive, complicated, and/or 3D oriented. UPDATE: I'll leave the thread open for continued Unity cheerleading, since this seems to be the only opinion out there. Sigh...not sure of the purpose of repeatedly posting "use Unity", but too each their own :) Regarding the original topic, since I'm leery of CocosSharp's continued support, I've decided to experiment with MonoGame instead.
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I have an idea for a simple 2D game and am thinking about trying to go cross-platform. Let me start with, I considered Unity first. For various reasons, not interested in advice about it. To stay in VS/C# land and save money, I'm considering using CocosSharp. I'm usually reluctant to invite opinions, but I could use some advice here. My biggest concern is that the last update (of CocosSharp) on GitHub is comparatively old. Is CocosSharp still a viable alternative? Or, am I about to use an already extinct dinosaur? Anything else you'd recommend? Again, my focus is free/cheap, simple, 2D. In an ideal world, VS/C#, so I can stay comfy on my PC. Though, I'm flexible on that goal. Most of the other options I saw out there seemed expensive, complicated, and/or 3D oriented. UPDATE: I'll leave the thread open for continued Unity cheerleading, since this seems to be the only opinion out there. Sigh...not sure of the purpose of repeatedly posting "use Unity", but too each their own :) Regarding the original topic, since I'm leery of CocosSharp's continued support, I've decided to experiment with MonoGame instead.
Pah, forget unity. Try [Xenko Game Engine](https://xenko.com/) :D
A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!
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I have an idea for a simple 2D game and am thinking about trying to go cross-platform. Let me start with, I considered Unity first. For various reasons, not interested in advice about it. To stay in VS/C# land and save money, I'm considering using CocosSharp. I'm usually reluctant to invite opinions, but I could use some advice here. My biggest concern is that the last update (of CocosSharp) on GitHub is comparatively old. Is CocosSharp still a viable alternative? Or, am I about to use an already extinct dinosaur? Anything else you'd recommend? Again, my focus is free/cheap, simple, 2D. In an ideal world, VS/C#, so I can stay comfy on my PC. Though, I'm flexible on that goal. Most of the other options I saw out there seemed expensive, complicated, and/or 3D oriented. UPDATE: I'll leave the thread open for continued Unity cheerleading, since this seems to be the only opinion out there. Sigh...not sure of the purpose of repeatedly posting "use Unity", but too each their own :) Regarding the original topic, since I'm leery of CocosSharp's continued support, I've decided to experiment with MonoGame instead.
Sorry to jump on the cheerleading band wagon, but there's no realistic C# alternative in existence. We needed a 2D engine for low-cost (so C#) tech-demo's, we considered Cocos (dubious support and future), MonoGame (slow updates, no web support), SDL (too much boilerplate needed) and Unreal (unsupported C# plugin). We really tried not using Unity, but even with it's terrible bug support, terrible IDE design, terrible cloud support and terrible asset store.. it's still the best tool for the job.
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I have an idea for a simple 2D game and am thinking about trying to go cross-platform. Let me start with, I considered Unity first. For various reasons, not interested in advice about it. To stay in VS/C# land and save money, I'm considering using CocosSharp. I'm usually reluctant to invite opinions, but I could use some advice here. My biggest concern is that the last update (of CocosSharp) on GitHub is comparatively old. Is CocosSharp still a viable alternative? Or, am I about to use an already extinct dinosaur? Anything else you'd recommend? Again, my focus is free/cheap, simple, 2D. In an ideal world, VS/C#, so I can stay comfy on my PC. Though, I'm flexible on that goal. Most of the other options I saw out there seemed expensive, complicated, and/or 3D oriented. UPDATE: I'll leave the thread open for continued Unity cheerleading, since this seems to be the only opinion out there. Sigh...not sure of the purpose of repeatedly posting "use Unity", but too each their own :) Regarding the original topic, since I'm leery of CocosSharp's continued support, I've decided to experiment with MonoGame instead.
There's Godot Engine, but it uses its own scripting language. The language is pretty quick to learn, although it has its idiosyncrasies. The architecture might also be a bit confusing at first the way it's set up with scenes and nodes etc. if this is your first foray into the field. The documentation is also at best so-so. I was lucky enough to have someone help me with the basics and answer my noob questions, so I got off to a quick start. Thought I might as well throw it out there as an alternative.
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Pah, forget unity. Try [Xenko Game Engine](https://xenko.com/) :D
A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!
I was actually looking to start a game project and was about to start learning Unity but this looks really interesting. Do you have any experience with it? Pros/cons vs Unity?
Blog: [Code Index] By Mike Marynowski | Business: Singulink
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I was actually looking to start a game project and was about to start learning Unity but this looks really interesting. Do you have any experience with it? Pros/cons vs Unity?
Blog: [Code Index] By Mike Marynowski | Business: Singulink
To be honest I never practice either unity or Xenko. Just was curious about DirectX C# binding From what I read it's much more developer friendly. But has less design tools! :)
A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!
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Sorry to jump on the cheerleading band wagon, but there's no realistic C# alternative in existence. We needed a 2D engine for low-cost (so C#) tech-demo's, we considered Cocos (dubious support and future), MonoGame (slow updates, no web support), SDL (too much boilerplate needed) and Unreal (unsupported C# plugin). We really tried not using Unity, but even with it's terrible bug support, terrible IDE design, terrible cloud support and terrible asset store.. it's still the best tool for the job.
[Xenko Game Engine](https://xenko.com/) Just saying....
A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!
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Pah, forget unity. Try [Xenko Game Engine](https://xenko.com/) :D
A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!
Wow, that does look pretty awesome! However, like Unity, it seems way over-kill for the simple 2D game I'm considering. Regrettably, I'm old-school and barely passible at 2D artwork. My 3D skills are absolutely non-existent. It probably doesn't help that, because of a vision problem, I can't even see true 3D. Still, the graphics on that site make me almost believe in myself :) Anyhow, thanks (and an upvote) for what appears to be a serious contender, which appears largely unencumbered license-wise. All the other suggestions so far, I had at least heard about. I'm surprised that this one has flown completely under my radar.
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There's Godot Engine, but it uses its own scripting language. The language is pretty quick to learn, although it has its idiosyncrasies. The architecture might also be a bit confusing at first the way it's set up with scenes and nodes etc. if this is your first foray into the field. The documentation is also at best so-so. I was lucky enough to have someone help me with the basics and answer my noob questions, so I got off to a quick start. Thought I might as well throw it out there as an alternative.
I looked at this one a long while ago, but was put off by having to work in yet another language. Their web site now claims C# support. I might have to give it another look. I do like the licensing terms. Thanks for the suggestion.