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[CRTSSLL]

Hey guys,

I have been working on a concept for my first game and it turns out that it's for the Iphone. So, my question is how hard is it to learn how to use the Iphone SDK? I have very limited programming experience-I only have learned how to program in both Visual Basic and Qbasic. I am willing to spend sometime learning how to use the Iphone SDK but I am concerned that it will be too difficult for me. Thanks.  

[CRTSSLL]

Apparently the Iphone SDK uses a language called Objective which is apparently similar to C/C++. I have also heard that C/C++ is a fairly advanced language so, the chance of me making a Iphone game are slim. 

[mcc]

If you know C/C++, and have had any experience at all with "opengl", you will find the iphone SDK easy to learn.

If you have only used visual basic / qbasic you are going to find this a fairly steep climb.

Instead of targeting the iPhone SDK directly you may want to instead use a library such as cocos2d (which as I understand uses Python and insulates you from many of the gritty details of OpenGL ES), or even easier make your game in Flash and compile for iPhone.

[Chromanoid]

if you have some money maybe unity3d for iphone is interesting for you.

i think objective c is simpler than c++ but more difficult than basic. the sdk has many things built in and if you can use normal ui stuff for your game it can be very easy...

[CRTSSLL]

Thanks for the Great advice mcc. I completely forgot about the fact that you can make games in Flash and compile it to the Iphone. From the little bit of scripting I have done in ActionScript 2.0 it should be much easier then learning C/C++ or Python. Are there any resources you would recommend about how to compile Flash games to the Iphone?

Also thanks Chromanoid, I will also have to check out Unity3d to see which would suit my game concept better.       

[Sigma]

compiling flash games to iphone can be done with Adobe flash cs5

[roboprez]

but with flash CS5 currently without a release date I wouldn't hold your breath

[Twitch]

There's plenty of stuff in the iPhone SDK, things like Objectionable C, Apple's Core Graphics API, and all the other think-different coding standards which you could learn to use.

Or, you could do what I did: ignore the parts of the SDK that you don't need, and program your game in C++ and OpenGL/OpenAL.
I found it much more straightforward, especially since there are plenty of C/GL tutorials scattered around the net that don't have to be iphone-specific, what with the two being fairly ubiquitous in game development.

In short, my advice is this: Don't learn the iPhone SDK; learn C++ and OpenGL, and use those to make your iPhone game. That way, you can re-use code, and port to other platforms.

[Dataflashsabot]

Objectionable C

[RabTom]

Instead of targeting the iPhone SDK directly you may want to instead use a library such as cocos2d (which as I understand uses Python and insulates you from many of the gritty details of OpenGL ES), or even easier make your game in Flash and compile for iPhone.

cocos2d is written in python, but cocos2d for the iphone is written in objective-c

I found objective-C and the iPhone SDK fairly simple to pick up. Granted I've been using C and C++ for quite a while. However, the iPhone SDK is very well documented I've found and made it a lot easier to learn.

[Sam]

but with flash CS5 currently without a release date I wouldn't hold your breath

There is now! (April 12th 2010)  Unless that's some absurd PR thing where "launch" doesn't actually mean "available for buying."  The Wikipedia page seems to contradict itself between sentences.

I've no idea how it'll do in terms of performance compared to a more native approach.

If you do learn to do Flash stuff then learn AS3 rather than AS2: it's Just Better(r)

[mcc]

cocos2d is written in python, but cocos2d for the iphone is written in objective-c

Hm, OK. For some reason I had gotten the impression that cocos2d iphone had a python wrapper for manipulating the underlying objc.

[mewse]

Also worth mentioning that Objective C++ is compatible with C and C++, so you can quite easily just call straight into regular C++ code when your app starts up, and write your whole app in C or C++, just using the Objective C as a stub for reading input and suchlike.

That's certainly what I've done.  My C++ game engine worked as-is on iPhone, once I wrote a small Objective C++ stub to start it up, and removed the OpenGL features that weren't supported by OpenGL ES.

(Of course, if you're not already fluent with C and C++, then this comment isn't particularly relevant)