Future = Developer

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by ZeroAT, Oct 28, 2010.

  1. ZeroAT

    ZeroAT Well-Known Member

    Apr 5, 2010
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    I am currently in 10th grade in high school and I was hoping to go into the field of computer engineering in my future but I am finding that game development could be funnier and more exciting. What type of programming languages etc would I have to know to program for example a iphone game app?


    Thanks for posting :eek:
     
  2. pchukwura

    pchukwura Well-Known Member

    Sep 15, 2010
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    Co-Founder/Software Engineer
    Atlanta
    Hello, and welcome!

    To develop a game for the iPhone, there are a few directions you can take. First, I would learn Objective-C, which is the language you would use to develop pretty much everything on the iOS devices.

    Once you have a grasp of Objective-C you can then decide how you want to go about making your game. If it's very simple (like maybe tic-tac-toe), you could use Core Animation Framework, for more control but sticking to still a 2D environment, Quartz Framework would be one step up (or down, as it's lower level), and if you plan on doing 3D games (or even 2D if you wanted), Open GL ES is where you want to go. There are also 3rd party frameworks such as Cocos2d(http://cocos2d.org/) that make developing 2D games a little easier by allowing the developer to stick to ObjectiveC, while it utilizes OpenGL ES in the background among other things (such as physics engines etc).

    A different route altogether (which is what I'm doing) would be to develop the game in C++ (except for the device specific things like detecting touch), and using Open GL ES. The reason I'm going this route is for two reasons, first I do plan to port my game to other platforms such as Android, and writing it in C++ would make it that much easier to port. And #2, I like knowing how things work, which is why i'm using OpenGL ES.

    And another option, (which is probably the fastest option) is to use software such as Unity3D (http://unity3d.com/) , which is an entire environment that lets you for the most part create your games from a visual standpoint, and use JavaScript (among other languages) to do the work. I believe there is a free license, but other than that, it costs about $2,000 to purchase a license for that suite. One benefit of this is also the ability to export your game to multiple platforms (PS3, Xbox, Android, iPhone, Wii, etc) without additional coding. Of course you need a license for each platform you want to export to, which can really add up. This is not my favorite option, as I'm not a fan of not knowing what's going on underneath the hood, and I don't like the idea of being dependent on a specific piece of software to create a game. That thought process may be the more difficult way, but thats what I prefer.

    Although game development may seem sexy on the outside when it comes to thinking of an idea, and the final product and such, it can have its challenges and mundane streaks like any other development, Just keep that in mind.

    I hope this helps!!
     

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