Hello everyone, I'm interested in making my first iOS game and releasing it in the AppStore (you've probably heard this line many times), but I have no idea where to start. It's feels quite intimidating actually, but maybe somebody can provide me a really simple basic set of rules/measures/requirements that I need to achieve this, please? This is all I have and know: -I have a Windows Desktop PC running Windows 7. -I have downloaded the latest iTunes -I know JavaScript, some Python, and a light dash of C language -I would like my game to be OFFLINE only (at the time) -I have a general idea on how to advertise -I don't want to pay anything outside of getting the app published in the AppStore -I will be a single 'developer' working on a SIMPLE project that I expect to not cost anything to make -I own an iPhone 4 (iOS 6.1), iPad 2 (iOS 5.1.1), iPad Air 2 (iOS 8.3), and an Android phone (Android 4.4.2) This is what I don't have or know: -I have no comprehension of how to use a MAC (nor do I own one) -I know nothing of Xcode -I know nothing of Swift -I have only dabbled with Objective-C...3 years ago (consider it forgotten) -I am not familiar with ARM (all versions) -I only know basic LINUX commands -I don't know anything about SDK/APK stuff/software -I don't know anything about how databases and servers are created along with sending and storing information -I don't know to test my apps on my device(s) I'm sure you all realize how much of a newbie I am to this now (sorry for that), but I would really appreciate any help offered to get me started working on my first iOS app. Thank you very much! ^^;;;;;
I am pretty unfamiliar with today's engines (It has been nearly 10 years since I used an Engine). You are going to need a Mac or a Mac virtual machine to compile your game for device and App Store. Being you are new to all this: I would say start with an engine like Unity (it seems to be pretty accessible and you can get something running very easily). Your iPhone 4 is pretty long in the tooth (I make sure my stuff runs on it but I have to cripple the graphics - the easiest way is using a reduced sized gl window so fillrate is less of an issue). iPad 2 is still very usable (we use them here and find it runs more consistent ingame than our much more powerful android devices do). My recommendation is to try getting your games to run on iPad 2 as your minimum consumer.
Mac & developers license. Takes some time to get used to those. We are using unity and xcode and it couldn't be better (well, okay I admit that unity still needs some improvement but we're using the v.4).
Thumbs up for unity...and it is cross platform so you don't have to wait to get a mac to get started incase you don't have the cash to spare at the moment... Macs are really awesome, the higher spec ones are a little pricy..got a Macbook Pro with Retina display as my main workstation with two external screens...so one 24" and a 27" screen hooked up plus the built in lcd...so 3 screens of whatever I need to be looking at. You can use the unity remote app to get input from your iPhone into unity for testing...not as good as testing on device but at least you can get started. Apple has also removed the requirement to be registered /paid membership fee for testing on device, now you only need a mac and a and Xcode installed. The great news is that you seem to have everything to get started right now!
The Engine that UNITES us all I would like to thank you all for your help thus far! I have successfully downloaded and installed + registered UNITY 5, which is the current build. I have the PERSONAL EDITION, which is "FREE"....I'm sure I'm missing a LOT of stuff by not buying the PROFESSIONAL EDITION, but since I'm just getting started, I think the PERSONAL EDITION is a decent start to say the least. The documentation is quite heavy, and even the sample game doesn't "PLAY" without the "check for all compiler errors first" warning, so I guess I gotta learn how to fix the example game's compiler errors to see how it runs, lol! Also, from what I've read in the documentation, the language involved with UNITY is C#, and not Objective-C (iOS)...since iOS is my first priority platform, should I learn Objective-C and Swift? Honestly, I made a very simple 2D Traditional RPG (everything is static, motionless) from scratch in Python, and was planning on porting the game to iOS. Using the Unity engine for such a simple game feels kind of weird, but I suppose this is all I have to work with for now....perhaps I would have no choice but to live up to the engine and make my first game a greatly enhanced version of the original. Unity is quite complex, so I will need a few weeks or months to really get a grasp of things. I'm used to coding things from a blank canvas (Notepad being that canvas) as opposed to an empty studio (hello Unity!), so major adjusting would be needed on my part.
I don't believe the sample game doesn't work unless you modified it. Please download it again. Unity exports to objective-c. You need no knowledge of it to make an iOS game with unity. You would be silly to learn objective C or Swift over unity. Objective C is far more complex than unity and Swift means you have to recode your game if you want to release on anything else. The power of unity is the visual element. If you follow a make a game tutorial you can make a full game in a day from a tutorial! There is so much resource out there it is easy.
Congratulations on getting setup with unity! So unity itself is c++ and runs on your iPhone, and you have a few options on what languages you write your scripts in although not python. I recommend c# as it is the most widely used and hence easy to get help and also a worthwhile skill to pickup. I myself did objective-c and Xcode in the beginning which is cool but you will need to code together a lot of stuff yourself that is available in unity directly. I have not used Swift as it is quite a recent addition so I can't advice on that. Don't be intimidated by the gui..by the end of the day you will be writing your game exactly as you used to in a code editor although it is possible to use stuff like playmaker, from the unity asset store and not write any code at all. Maybe stay away from the example projects to start with and do some step by step tutorials, I also recommend to be a little dumb about them...i.e just follow through a few until you start seeing the pattern. I hope this helps!
For now just stick to Unity, you don't need to learn anything else. If you are able to write Python codes, you must already know programming, so getting used to Unity should not be a problem at all. I recommend some tutorials from official Unity website and www.raywenderlich.com
Grab a retina MacBook Pro and Unity, and be patient with the learning curve It's fun to see your own game--even a simple test exercise--sitting on your home screen for the first time!
