Which to learn

May 13, 2008 08:56

I want to learn a gaming package maker thingie...but im not sure which way to go..
My two options are Unity3d or XNAUnity3d benefits ( Read more... )

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Comments 10

oriden May 13 2008, 14:08:37 UTC
If you use XNA you can make Zune games, not to mention the whole XBox Live Community game thingy you could put your game up on.

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brianarn May 13 2008, 14:16:48 UTC
Having dabbled in Zune but not in Unity, I can say that I really kind of dug the approach of XNA. However, as a Mac fanboy, it does suck to think of doing Boot Camp just for development purposes.

I mean, you could theoretically test it in Parallels or VMware, so long as you know it's not a perfect test, and if you have an Xbox and are willing to pay the $99/year (which is accurate) you can do all of your testing on the Xbox itself.

The "It's Microsoft" cons don't bother me. I may not like Windows, but it's really the best platform for gaming on a computer. The Xbox is also a great console. Really, MS does gaming well and I'm okay with it there.

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zengyro May 13 2008, 14:21:46 UTC
Eh the "Microsoft" thing doesnt bother me. It was more of a poke at fun because some people make a big deal out of it.

That said, I am a mac user that programs in VB.net/ASP/C# at work so eh, im an odd one.

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brianarn May 13 2008, 14:23:54 UTC
I too am a Mac user that does VB.NET/ASP.NET at work. We don't have any C# here yet, because most people around here are more comfortable in VB, but they're not totally against it if justified. It's just hard to justify because really, VB.NET is just about as powerful.

We also have some random tidbits of PHP floating around, which are probably going to fall to me now that we've had a guy move on to greener pastures (this place is an awesome place to work and all, but he got a job doing game development, and is single, so he bolted -- I totally would have too :D ).

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zengyro May 13 2008, 14:39:13 UTC
Same here actually. I am the only one that works with C# (only one program in house was written with C#) everybody else knows vb.net.
We also have php floating around too and flash as well.

As for vb vs C#... on the stuff we do, the difference is nil...but there is a def speed difference in C# compared to vb.net and I think C# also handles unmanaged stuff better as well. (vs vb.net likes to play all in managed code stuff)

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surc May 13 2008, 17:07:15 UTC
I'm gonna throw my vote in for XNA, as long as you're not planning on sitting around for 5 years with a premium membership poking at it and going "Yeah... I should sit down and actually do that soon..."

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zengyro May 13 2008, 17:39:51 UTC
Yeah...that was my own worry. But the nice thing is that XNA is still pretty functional even without the prem membership. I just wont be able to port things to the 360.
That way I can still learn it without having to worry about teh 99/year thing.

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accer May 14 2008, 05:49:51 UTC
Funny, I just started dabbling in XNA myself last week. So far I'm digging it.

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gowerlypuff May 14 2008, 17:31:41 UTC
Other bonuses of XNA are that I can debug your code ;)

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