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up vote 4 down vote favorite

What are my options for writing C# code to produce a 2D iPhone game?

I specifically mention 2D -- Unity will not suffice for me (even though it can "fake" it with a 2.5D game).

I like C# because of language features (LINQ, garbage collection, generic collections, etc.) although I would be open to considering Java as well if nothing exists. Objective C is not my cup of tea.

And I don't own a Mac. Eek.

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3 Answers 3

up vote 3 down vote accepted

I believe part of the strategy from Apple is that you OWN a Mac if you want to become a developer. I haven't checked the latest articles/details regarding their licensing system, but I know that Adobe is now able to ship Flash Builder 4.5 which generates code for the iPhone. I wonder if you still need a Mac to upload it to iTunes.

Xcode, the developer tool from Apple for iOS is Mac only.

There is another approach I've been told though. If you have a spare PC or harddrive, you can buy the original Mac OSX DVD (actually rather cheap last time I checked) and then with a lot of tweaking and researching, you can install Mac OSX ontop of PC hardware and have a dual boot machine.

Look on google for "hackintosh". Its not every PC that will work with this, but search, read and try - it ought to be possible. I am not sure what Apple thinks about this, but if you start by buying the original Mac OSX instead of using a pirated copy, I believe you should be "okay" - cant promise you anything, but thats what I've been told by someone who did it himself.

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up vote 1 down vote

You can use MonoTouch and write your own GL code, but it isn't nearly as fast to get something up and running as using Unity.

http://forums.monotouch.net/yaf_postst1420.aspx

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I heard you need to own a Mac for that. Not an option I'm gung-ho about. –  ashes999 Apr 22 '11 at 22:36
    
I am 99% sure that you will need a Mac to use MonoTouch for iOS: monotouch.net/IPad –  BerggreenDK Apr 22 '11 at 23:01
2  
If you're serious about iPhone dev, you need a mac. Any other path is unsupported and subject to the whim of whatever hacker is maintaining whatever project it is that you're using to get around it. The only real exception that I would even go near trusting is what the UDK is doing. –  Tetrad♦ Apr 22 '11 at 23:01
up vote 0 down vote

I would actually say unity is a very valid tool to accomplish this. You can create both 2.5d and full 2d games using unity. If you change the camera from perspective to orthogonal projection then you are eliminating the depth side of the rendering. Doing this, and using either textured 2d planes or gui textures, you can create a very detailed 2d game. As such, you are no longer limited by the engine to create 2d games. With that said, if you want to develop a full game before porting to IOS, unity is IMO the best route as it lets you develop and partially test without a mac. All other tools I've seen for this are mac only.

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