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I am developing a mobile game (not so complicated) which is needed to be run on both iOs and Android. I am newbie in the field, so do you have any suggestion on which framework and game engine I should choose?

I have done some research and found some applicants: - Cocos2d-x: C++ game engine, quite powerful, but it seems too complicated, my project needs to be done in 2 months. - Limejs: HTML5 game engine - CAAT framework: it is also in HTML5. I tried to use it with phonegap but it didn't work.

Thank you in advance.

Wooble
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Thanh Bui
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3 Answers3

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Try the Mobile Game Engines page, which lists almost all of them. And read my Game Engine Dating Guide.

Short answer: ignore features, pick the engine you will be most productive with. That means look at your skills, and compare the game engines only on the basis which will best fit your skills. For the most part that'll be the programming languages you have experience with, but perhaps you're more the designer or artist type so you might prefer a more visual game design tool rather than a programming SDK.

Rationale: It's counterproductive to pick the Uber-Engine with tons of features but requires writing C++ code if you've never done C++ before.

As a beginner, you want to make sure you won't be in way over your head when picking an engine or game creation tool. If you have little programming experience, try a game engine with a GUI and perhaps lightweight scripting support. It might not have supercool features or might not be the fastest, but it's most important to get closer to completing your first app (and getting there so much faster).

CodeSmile
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  • Thank you for your answer and also for your wonderful article. Your right, I was too worried about the game engine. Well, I am best at C++, so maybe I should learn how to use Cocos2d-x :) – Thanh Bui Dec 20 '12 at 16:39
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HTML5 is not a good ideia, too heavy.

For this short time, maybe Unity3D would be a good choice if you have basic programming knolodge, and you can export for both (IOS and Android) with enough good result.

Pozzo Apps
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  • So you mean HTML5 is not suitable to develop game on mobile devices? – Thanh Bui Dec 20 '12 at 16:29
  • Some frameworks such as Cocos2d provide javascript native bindings => so I think you can actually use HTML5 for mobile games – sdabet Dec 20 '12 at 16:30
  • Tried once, with a some simple animations I got a low fps (below 20) on my Tablet Asus Transformer... (I used on webView directly). – Pozzo Apps Dec 20 '12 at 19:09
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I've played some awesome Android games that used Unity. There may be others, but until I see awesome end products with them I'll forever be oblivious to their existence.

rubenvb
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