The Aspiring Indie Dev Advice Topic

general
#1

The Aspiring Indie Dev Advice Topic

I often get asked what engine or language was Game Dev Tycoon created with, and what are good software packages for aspiring developers to use. :computer:
Please feel free to discuss the merits of these and other software packages here.
This should be an informative and helpful thread for people looking for information and feedback. Stay on topic.

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The Devs Code Choice

Game Dev Tycoon was created using javascript and HTML5.
Daniel and Patrick each have many years of c++ and c# knowledge.
They chose to use javascript and HTML5 because at the time they started no one knew in which direction Microsoft will go in future (Win 8) and it looked like HTML5.

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Software Packages for Aspiring Devs

GameMakerStudio (Standard)
Very easy to learn. A lot of things can be achieved without writing code. For more complex stuff, code can be used. The community of yoyogames has many examples, plugins, scripts and other things available.
Easy to learn, easy (but sometimes tricky) to master. For prototyping and/or small games it’s ideal. The PRO series allows to compile to other platforms, too (depending on the additional compilers purchased).

It is available directly from yoyogames or through Steam.

XNA / C#
This is officially discontinued and u need Visual Studio 2010 to use it. The latest version (4.0) was released in 2010 and according to an email sent on 31 January 2013, XNA is no longer actively being developed. It is not supported under the new “Metro interface” of Windows 8 and not supported on the Windows RT platform.

The new Visual Studios (2012, 2013) do not support XNA. To use XNA, you need to get first into it, as it has an own pipeline for assets (using a customized format). You also need to know the .NET Framework and, of course, C#.

It is available for free from the Microsoft website.

Mono.XNA / MonoGame
As an alternative to the discontinued Microsoft XNA Studio, there is a project called Mono.XNA, that was created to port the XNA to the open source and cross-platform “Mono” framework (Open Source Variant of the .NET Framework).

With MonoGame (sort of a fork of Mono.XNA) a Mono.XNA based system has been created to support iOS, Android (incl. OUYA), Mac OS X, Linux and Metro (Windows 8), Windows RT and Windows Phone 8, PlayStation Mobile (2D).

Unity 3D
This is a very good game development system, although it’s harder to learn and harder to master, but once you get into, you can do a lot of things. Unity is free in the community edition (although quite limited) and costs ± 1.500$ (or ±75$ / month) if used professionally. (Generally spoken it is free as long as the user is not a commercial organization with an annual gross revenue exceeding US$100,000).

It is a cross-platform engine (supports iOS, Android, Windows, BlackBerry 10, OS X, Linux, web browsers, Flash, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Windows Phone 8, and Wii U)

Sources (Wikipedia):

XNA / Mono.XNA / MonoGame

Unity3D

GameMaker Studio

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Engine used for Game Dev Tycoon?
Questions About Game Development
#4

Hmm, isn’t that[quote=“Charlie, post:1, topic:11465”]
Software Packages for Aspiring Devs
[/quote]
from @alphabit?

And, I think that JS is good choice :3

#5

For those who plan on using GameMaker Studio, unless you’re going to buy (or pirate) the pro version, use GameMaker 8.1 Lite instead. You can’t accomplish anything in the free version of Studio (as you are limited to 10 sprites/objects) even though the pro version is superior to 8.1 Pro.

#6

I can recommend Clickteam’s products, like Clickteam Fusion 2.5
You can do games drag and drop way. It is easy, and You can do great games in it.

#7

Construct 2 is also an interesting option for those who prefer to have an editor

2 Likes
#8

Construct is good but not free version, too many limits.For beginers and who wants to nothin the pay, best is to start with Haxe and Stencyl to learn.

1 Like