2D Gaming Development / CocosSharp
-
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!
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Yeah, thanks, I forgot about this one. It seemed a little clunky last time I visited, but its worth another look. For anyone else who wants to check it out quickly, here is a link: Simple DirectMedia Layer - Homepage[^]
-
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.
-
Yea, MonoGame rocks! Never tried CocosSharp though so I can't compare them.
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." << please vote!! >>
Good to hear! MonoGame is what I'm flying with for now. I've been fairly happy so far. CocosSharp is built on-top of MonoGame and allegedly provides a more .NET friendly framework. It seemed like an exciting option. However, the last update is so old I can hear crickets on the GitHub site :) Also, since nobody has visited and exclaimed, "Yea, CocosSharp rocks!", it seems woefully short of supporters. Everything I can find says its dead. Heck, on the following GitHub site, the link they list for their web site is even dead. GitHub - mono/CocosSharp: CocosSharp is a C# implementation of the Cocos2D and Cocos3D APIs that runs on any platform where MonoGame runs.[^] It's a real shame. It looked interesting. I was hoping someone might chime in with recent news.
-
Have you looked at some of the game builder tools such as GameMakerStudio or AppGameKit? Not C#, but may be suitable for your needs.
Intriguing suggestion, but the sites for both seem high on marketing hype, low on exact pricing, and absolutely silent on licensing details. For now, their sites set off all sorts of alarm bells for me. That said, thank you for the suggestion. I think I'll keep a link to GameMaker Studio on my "to visit in the future" list. It looked promising.
-
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.
Yeah, you can also use VS to code, though I never tried this. I think you can also write your own VS code and then access it from within Godot too. Again, never tried it myself. A quick Google search threw this up: [Getting Godot 3 working with C# & Visual Studio Code on Windows 10! | IdiotCoder.com](http://idiotcoder.com/godot3-csharp-visual-studio-code-windows10/)
Quote:
If you’ve never started up visual studio code just start it up and keep it open. Then with godot create a new scene and save it. Now create a new Panel and save it. Create a sub Label node and rename it to “my_label” and edit the text to say anything really. Press the play button to make sure godot runs and shows the text. Update: forgot one important note, make sure in editor settings under Mono -> Builds that you select MS Build (System) instead on windows. This worked wonders for me, thanks to this guy for the suggestion. Go to editor -> editor settings and select Visual Studio Code from the External Editior drop down option. Now add a script to the label and select C# from the language drop down and hit create. This should open my_label.cs in visual studio code without any issue. Inside the _Ready() methods body add the following: GD.Print("Hi");
-
Good to hear! MonoGame is what I'm flying with for now. I've been fairly happy so far. CocosSharp is built on-top of MonoGame and allegedly provides a more .NET friendly framework. It seemed like an exciting option. However, the last update is so old I can hear crickets on the GitHub site :) Also, since nobody has visited and exclaimed, "Yea, CocosSharp rocks!", it seems woefully short of supporters. Everything I can find says its dead. Heck, on the following GitHub site, the link they list for their web site is even dead. GitHub - mono/CocosSharp: CocosSharp is a C# implementation of the Cocos2D and Cocos3D APIs that runs on any platform where MonoGame runs.[^] It's a real shame. It looked interesting. I was hoping someone might chime in with recent news.
I've been using MonoGame for the past year for cross-platform, and it does rock! You can now also use it in .NetStandard which you could not a year ago. It is actively being improved and there is a great community that can help. Also, there are lots of examples out there to help get you started.
-
[Xenko Game Engine](https://xenko.com/) Just saying....
A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!
Mmm. This project got turned open-source a month ago, with no corporate support. I'm all for open-source projects, but this is like MonoGame with less features, less developers, a smaller community, no money, and a slightly better open-source license. How will this ever survive? Is there a crowdfunding campaign funding it or something?
-
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!
Yeah, Unity started off with ActionScript based scripts and added C# later so the scripting is kind of wonky. Xenko is much more C# friendly from what I can tell and apparently has a very good engine but the editor needs a bit of work from what people are saying. Looks super promising though!
Blog: [Code Index] By Mike Marynowski | Business: Singulink
-
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.
Another vote for MonoGame here. I've been a fan of the XNA API since its beta days and the MonoGame team are doing a great job of extending it to multiple platforms. I'm probably the last person on the planet still actively developing an XNA product. :-) KoduGameLab One thing to keep in mind is that MonoGame is an API and Unity is a game engine. Unity will do a lot of things for you but it will also insist that you do things its way. You will also be stuck with its limitations. For instance, in Kodu I need to be able to support R-to-L languages (Hebrew, Arabic, etc.) None of the UI options in Unity do this well (or at all). Using XNA I was able to roll my own support from this. Yes, it was a pain but at least it was possible.
-
Mmm. This project got turned open-source a month ago, with no corporate support. I'm all for open-source projects, but this is like MonoGame with less features, less developers, a smaller community, no money, and a slightly better open-source license. How will this ever survive? Is there a crowdfunding campaign funding it or something?
Well it has (or had?) corporate support. One Japanese company which name I forgot.. mm.. ha yes, [Silicon Studio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon\_Studio) ....
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.
You're welcome! :) You can't see 3D? Never heard of that ! :omg:
A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!
-
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.
-
You're welcome! :) You can't see 3D? Never heard of that ! :omg:
A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!
Yup, you need stereoscopic vision (aka two working eyes) to see true 3D. Regrettably, I've got extremely poor vision in one eye. So, 3D is a no go for me. The brain is pretty good about using perspective cues to compensate, so you hardly notice. Basically, its the same difference between a movie and a 3D movie.
-
Another vote for MonoGame here. I've been a fan of the XNA API since its beta days and the MonoGame team are doing a great job of extending it to multiple platforms. I'm probably the last person on the planet still actively developing an XNA product. :-) KoduGameLab One thing to keep in mind is that MonoGame is an API and Unity is a game engine. Unity will do a lot of things for you but it will also insist that you do things its way. You will also be stuck with its limitations. For instance, in Kodu I need to be able to support R-to-L languages (Hebrew, Arabic, etc.) None of the UI options in Unity do this well (or at all). Using XNA I was able to roll my own support from this. Yes, it was a pain but at least it was possible.
Yeah, I've found MonoGame to be really easy to pick up so far. Already, implemented some animation loops and got them working on Windows Desktop, Windows Universal, and Android. I'm really impressed with the stub projects it auto-generates for each platform. So far, I've changed almost nothing in them. All the logic and graphics live in a shared project, with no conditional compiles. Though, I'm guessing some of that will creep in as I add user interaction.
-
Yup, you need stereoscopic vision (aka two working eyes) to see true 3D. Regrettably, I've got extremely poor vision in one eye. So, 3D is a no go for me. The brain is pretty good about using perspective cues to compensate, so you hardly notice. Basically, its the same difference between a movie and a 3D movie.
oh, ok. makes sense...
A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!