Ok, this should be my last newbie post for a while. Also, I'd like to thank all the people who've helped me in the past. Ok so now on to business, I'm making a turn based game and need a good engine to help speed up development. The game will include 2D characters combating on a 3D battlefield, it may also include mutiplayer online elements. 2D characters will have about 15-25 animations per-character. The 3D battlefrield uses mainly GL_TRIANGLE_STRIPS right now for the grid the characters move between but, may incorporate more complex objects (basically a FFT like game). So given the above info what's the best game engine to pull it off? I'd make an engine myself but I don't have the time (hell my girlfriend alleges I've started talking Obj-C in my sleep that's pretty bad as it is LOL) nor the comprehensive know how right now. Well once again thanks and peace out.
I'd second Unity. If you're already set up as an Apple Dev, email them and ask about a 30 day trial. As long as you are halfway familiar with JavaScript or C#, 30 days is plenty of time to know whether it's worth the investment (it is). Unity Indie + iPhone Basic will set you back $600.
if you have access to a windows system, also have a look at shiva: http://www.stonetrip.com/shiva/shiva-3d-game-engine.html which is not so expensive and as long as you do not need intense physics it can easy compete with unity.
As Unity got 2nd'd, I'll second Shiva Both engines should allow you to get on the 3D iPhone development ladder a bit quicker. Shiva is cheaper than Unity, but of course the main cost will be your time.
SOI2 would handle this game easily and is FREE has Lua and you can lay out scenes in blender. http://sio2interactive.com/HOME/HOME.html BTW Unity is good also... All of these have a learning curve. Depends on your needs.
There's also edgelib, which might be cool, since it uses traditional approach (c++, no world editor, no objective c), supports windows (visual studio! Oh!) and plenty of other mobile platforms. Impressively, Star Defense was built on top of it. Costs a lot though.
This might be worth keeping an eye on... http://code.google.com/p/gamekit/ Blender straight to iPhone, with Bullet physics etc ( still WIP )
If you want 2d, I say choose Cocos2d. It's open source, free and has some examples that show what it does.
if you're already drawing a battlefield with trianglestrips is sounds like you're half way there. what else do you need it do to? an FFT style game doesn't need complex physics or 3D collisions. For what you need to do the amount of time making your own engine versus learning someone elses is probably about equal.
Thanks everybody. In the end I've decided to go with SIO2 which seems reasonably easy to learn, not to mention free. To 99c_gamer. I've done a few rough battlefields using a template provided by Jeff Lamarche @ IphoneDevelopment ( by the way a really good site for OpenGL ES development via OpenGL ES From the Ground Up). But, I wasn't sure if I could use the template for apps commercially. So basically even though I know how to use triangle strips/fans, I still don't have the all-in-compassing knowledge of how to build an engine (I've been programing for only 2 weeks sigh...). Again thanks for all the help.
Why not team up with a more experienced programmer and share the developement of the game. Learning to program even a modereratly complex game isn't an easy task mastered in weeks. -ddn