I wanted to start working on a simple game concept I have, just as a side project/hobby/learning experience.
Pygames or Pyglet came immediately to mind, but it looks like they aren't being actively developed. Or perhaps they are, but extreeemely slowly.
I want a high-level programming language, multi-OS support, 2D focus (or suitable for 2D stuff, anyway), and active development. What are my options?
I use Pygame and think it is a great option. The community is fairly active, I see a new or updated project posted about every other day on Pygame's homepage.
Another good option would be the Love2d framework, which you can find here: http://love2d.org/. Love2d uses the language Lua, which is a high level, beginner-friendly language like Python.
Pygame and Pyglet are indeed excellent choices. If the level of activity concerns you, just take a look at the Google Code page for Pyglet, seems it's fairly active to me.
If you prefer more actively developed engine (less documentation, but more up-to-date approaches), check out the Monacle Engine:
http://monoclepowered.org/
If want to get your hands dirty and take a more Do-It-Yourself approach, projects like
SDL, SFML and Allegro may provide a good foundation for a cross-platform 2D engine.
Another, more recent project that provides a very useful set of 2D primitives is the Clutter framework:
http://www.clutter-project.org/
Add a sound library like FMOD or BASS and physics engine like Box2D or Chipmunk and you may build pretty much everything.
The PopCap (a.k.a. SexyApp) engine was a popular choice in the past.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/popcapframework/
For real-world example, check out the acclaimed indie game World of Goo, which is using it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Goo
If python API is preferred, there seems to be an effort to provide one here:
http://www.farbs.org/pycap.html
Related
Anyone knows of a tool like GameSalad for PC in which you don't have to write scripts or anything but just use the existing behaviors and events to create custom game logic?
Thanks
If you are looking for a cross platform game constructor you might want to try Flowlab, which runs in a web browser.
Construct from Scirra is a free, open-source, drag and drop, game engine. There is however talk of them making a paid version of Construct in the future.
I've only used Construct once, so I don't know that much about it, but i do know a lot about GameMaker.
As long as your not trying to do something complicated like a 3D or MMO game, (both of which GameMaker supports, but with major limitarions) I would recommend you use it, especially if your just starting out. GameMaker is one of the easiest if not the easiest programming language to learn. It also teaches good programming skills. As I mentioned before GameMaker uses drag and drop so you can easily transition from the D&D to the progeamming aspect of GameMaker.
As mentioned in the above posts RPG Maker is another popular tool , but it's limited to RPG games, and doesn't allow you to easily transition to an actual programming language. It's also very restrictive in what you can do.
When you feel like getting into some more advanced gaming engines, Blender is a great tool to use for creating 3D games. It can also be used to create 3D modules and has the ability to create animated movies.
I've never used PyGames before, but Python is a easy language to learn, and would probably be the best way to transition from a D&D program to a programming language.
*GameMaker can be extended in functionality with DLLs and Blender can be extended with Python.
So to summarize, GameMaker is a great tool for creating Games. RPG Maker and Construct are other possibilities, but from my view there not as good as GameMaker. when your ready to get out of Drag&Drop gaming engines Blender, PyGames, and GML(Game Maker Language - the advanced part of the GameMaker product) are all great resources.
PlayBits has an interface similar to GameSalad and makes games for Windows Phone 7, using your PC. Here's the link: http://www.playbits.com/?page_id=171
RPG maker here you can find it is a light weight game engine but if you are clever you can make really good apps
In terms of game development for iOS and Mobile development using the Windows platforms you might want to have a look at these two:
http://www.giderosmobile.com
and
http://www.stencyl.com/
Although I haven't, yet, used the Gideros solution, it's targeted specifically for Mobile platform development and has what looks to be a tidy UI with code folding and syntax coloring if you're comfortable with a traditional coding approach.
Stencyl is an interesting product, it sits beyond the capabilities of Gamesalad and uses a blocks metaphor for programming which works well.
Personally, I wouldn't use any tool that has a single platform for output, which is why I stopped using Gamemaker (I'm aware it now has a Macintosh client, but the quality of the application has been terrible and their player isn't much good either.)
If you're looking for GameSalad for Windows you might want to check out our HTML5 game engine Construct 2 which functions in a similar way.
It's also got an event based system with no programming required, and there's an extensive free edition available for you to try out as well.
You can use Yoyo Game's GameMaker:Studio also.
GameMaker is one such tool.
There is also The 3d Gamemaker, by the same people who make other rapid-game-development tools like DarkBasic.
What are the most valuable parts of Computer Science studies for Cocoa developers?
Another way I might word this question is:
If I’m not going to go to school for Computer Science but want to be a developer working primarily with Cocoa, what are the things I should make sure I learn that I otherwise might miss by being self-taught, and be worse off for it.
Update: Replaced the term "professional Cocoa developer" with "developer primarily working with Cocoa", in hopes that the intent of my question is somehow clearer.
To be clear, I've been working with Cocoa for two years and am comfortable with Objective-C and the Cocoa frameworks, as well as Cocoa design patterns and the developer toolset, and thus am for the most part fluent with the Mac and iPhone platforms. But I have wondered whether I'm missing important CS or SE elements due to being self taught/no formal training, and not coming from other languages or platforms.
This question is for Cocoa developers.
There are many, but things that come to mind imediatly
-Design Patterns (the Cocoa framework relies on many Design Patterns, if you follow them it will make your life very easy, most obvious example is MVC)
-Algorithms and Data structures(this applies to any framework really)
-Memory Management (No garbage collection on the iphone!)
I would question whether there's really such a thing as a "professional Cocoa developer" (from a philosophical standpoint), or if you would want to be one. There's "professional developer", who may work with Cocoa primarily. A professional developer is language-agnostic and as such has a solid career ahead of him/her. A language- or platform-specific hacker has very limited usefulness.
The question to ask is do you want to be a developer or not? If there aren't any good Cocoa jobs available at the moment, or Cocoa is replaced by something newer and better and very different, a professional developer changes gears and follows. Are you OK with that?
If so, a computer science degree definitely cannot hurt. If not, you should probably not put all your eggs in the Cocoa basket and pursue a non-CS degree.
In addition to what's been pointed out already, I highly recommend reading "The Pragmatic Programmer". It contains a wealth of information on how to write software, how to manage projects, and how to develop your career, advice that goes well beyond the documentation you look at every day in Xcode. Some of the topics they cover are ones that you might have been exposed to during a standard computer science degree.
"Professional" is a relative term.. but anyways, this is what i had to go through so that i could easily learn a new language anytime i want and also master it:
started by learning a simple console language (pascal or c++, but i consider pascal being simpler than c/c++), then learned another language just to see if i can do it (c++)
i learned a lot of algorithms and data structures, until i was able to recreate them and even create my own
i moved to a visual approach on programming with Visual Basic 6 (another simple one to start with), and tried to copy lots of apps just to see if i can do it
i learned about Object-Oriented Programming and finished by mastering it
from this step on, learning a new language was like a hobby, like playing!
then i wanted to learn some different topics, like design patterns, multithreading, and so on..
moved from windows to mac, and started learning objective-c: because i already knew lots of languages, it took me 5 days to learn objective-c, and yes, i took breaks like any human being :P
after i learned obj-c, i now had to learn cocoa... this one took me a lot of time to learn, and i still don't know it all.. but i do know most of it :D
What are the most valuable parts of Computer Science studies for Cocoa developers?
Learn that it's important to understand the differences between languages, not learning a particular language.
Are you writing numerical method solvers with a Cocoa frontend? You'll want to take numerical methods. Writing a 3-D plugin with a Cocoa UI? Better learn about Catmull-Rom splines.
A good understanding of computer graphics is required if you want to make some good looking animations :)
I think one of the best ways to learn a new programming language is to dive into source code and see how experienced coders write. I've found this kind of question asked here on Stack Overflow for other languages, but none targeted at Objective-C. The closest I've found is this question about good-looking Cocoa user interfaces, but I'm thinking in terms of general code quality, such as good use of idioms and design patterns, and usable documentation. Another good characteristic would be a code-base that is large enough to require real organizational discipline, but small enough that a beginner can fit his/her head around.
What do you think is a high-quality open source project that meets these criteria?
There's a decent list of open source Mac projects on CocoaDev: http://cocoadev.com/CocoaOpen
Not all of the projects are still active, but a decent number of them are. I particularly recommend:
BWToolkit - http://bitbucket.org/bwalkin/bwtoolkit/
BGHUDAppKit - http://www.binarymethod.com/bghudappkit/
CHDataStructures - http://cocoaheads.byu.edu/code/CHDataStructures
MGTwitterEngine - http://mattgemmell.com/source
Sparkle - http://code.google.com/p/sparkleplus/
Colloquy - http://colloquy.info/project/wiki/Source%20Code
CocoaRest - http://github.com/sdegutis/CocoaREST
CorePlot - http://code.google.com/p/core-plot/
I've found Adium to be a well-designed and written Objective-C project. It has a huge codebase, too.
I don't think there's any one place to learn all the Objective-C idioms and best practices, but you can pick them up here and there over time and practice. Cocoa mailing lists and blogs are good resources for this. (There are several SO questions relating to that.)
I haven't dived into the source myself, but the Omni frameworks are well-respected in the Mac community.
I work on a framework of my own that's still rough around the edges, but I strive for quality documentation in addition to understandable, well-structured code.
Google Quick Search Box [ qsb-mac - Google Code ]
I think The Google Quick Search Box (QSB) is worth a look. IMHO it's pretty much a cleaner googley rewrite of Quicksilver (Note: N. Jitkoff, the QS programmer, is also involved in the Google QSB).
Apple has tons of downloadable examples on their developer website. You get to see the source, and the license is BSDish from what I recall (use it for whatever, but don't repost original code without the license).
http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/Cocoa/index-date.html
Check Out lots off open source project here.
http://code4app.net
http://code4app.com
https://www.cocoacontrols.com
Here's a test app I wrote earlier today. Download links under “get source” in the top-right.
It's small, but it demonstrates good organizational discipline (separate controller object, instead of everything crammed into AppDelegate), a simple model layer with one model class (Header), and correct use of Cocoa Bindings.
I used to work on the GNUstep sources, they've got a good consistent coding style and the code is well-organised. Of course the project is hardly small, but given that you know what most of the classes do as you've used them in your Cocoa projects it's easy to zoom in on a piece that interests you. Some of the GNUstep Applications Project or Étoilé apps may also be a good place to start.
Check out PSTreeGraph, a view control for iPad applications.
iMedia Browser
, shows support of 10.4 - 10.7 strategies, is neatly and purposefully organized, and deeply commented. inherent problems using ImageKit have been boldly approached and solved.
i aspire to this level of thought mixed with practicality.
I am in the process of designing/building a cross-platform game engine in C++. I would like to use an game API that has 2D/3D graphics, input, networking, audio, etc. One API I found that meets many of these requirements except for Audio is Amaltheia. Can anyone suggest an API that meets all my requirements or one that meets most of the requirements that is better than Amaltheia.
You could look at SDL, it's a popular cross-platform multimedia library used in many games.
Also the Game Programming Wiki is a good source for lists of game programming libraries and engines
Lots of people are using SFML these days, which is a bit more up to date than SDL.
(Answer edited as SDL finally saw an update since I originally posted this! SFML is still a worthy choice, however.)
Allegro is very popular. There is also a big community site for it here.
In case you get tired of C++, there's also something simpler: BlitzBasic
http://www.blitzbasic.com/
Check out Unity Engine if your authoring is done in OSX
Ideaworks 3D has a great API that works on more systems than you could shake a stick at (including windows and linux), does networking, sound and 3d. It's a bit expensive though...
I downloaded Squeak, the Image file, and the Sources file, but I can't figure out how to write Smalltalk code. Is there something obvious I'm missing? Is Squeak even the right IDE for serious Smalltalk development?
Squeak is a great environment for learning Smalltalk, but don't confuse that particular implementation with 'Smalltalk'. Some of the other implementations are very professional, but not surprisingly come at a financial cost.
Squeak is an excellent IDE for serious Smalltalk development. That is not to say that it cannot be improved. The pharo guys are eleminating from the squeak image the parts you might not want for professional development.
Download (or buy) the book Squeak by Example to get started.
I don't think Squeak is really oriented towards "serious Smalltalk development". It's intended as a first programming environment for children. Which isn't to say that you can't do useful stuff with it, it's just not aimed as much towards large-scale development.
Check out the Wiki for getting started tips. It's been a while since I last used Squeak, but I don't remember it being particularly hard to get started.
Squeak is nice to learn the language and to see how creative a system like it can make people, which has two aspects: you see many interesting ideas and new concepts tried, but also a lot of junk and bad looking (some even abandoned) experiments.
I admit that, for a beginner, it may be hard to see the big picture, or if there is any at all. An example is the use of multiple GUI schemes (MVC vs. Morphic): at a time, where the mainstream is junping on MVC (they just understood in Java, what the ST guys talked about 20 yrs ago, and so they went from callbacks and AW to Swing), the Squeak guys are fed with MVC and move on, trying other aproaches. There is also a lack of "professional look" in squeak. And a chaotic community, some of which are quite ego-driven individuals.
It can be argued, if Squeak alltogether is good or bad for Smalltalk's reputation, as it certainly pisses of all those who want to write "conservative" windows apps, with menubars, icons, toolbars etc. Also performance used to be a problem (but since ELiot is working on the VM, is getting better...)
On the other side, there are wonderful applications, which are almost impossible in other environments: look at croquet (having a browser on the wall, with fishes swimming around), Etoys, Scratch, nice Seaside apps etc. And also almost all things which are now considered mainstream have originated from the Smalltalk and the Squeak community. And these guys are moving on...
So please take a look at the other Smalltalk's too: there are at least GNU-ST, Visualworks and Smalltalk/X. The later two are more biased towards blassical business apps, and the language and base libraries are almost the same. VW is not free, for commercial work, though.