[casual_games] languages... (that's an 's' at the end!)

[Jonas Beckeman]

> Hello all,
> I am to quite new myself to casual game programming. And I am wondering
> if Python or .Net are valid alternatives to the common Flash and Java ?

Seems I'm the only one who's gonna stand up for .NET here, so I'd better do
it tall...

Before I get off on how great it is, let me state some problems that may be
enough to make you look in other directions:
* .NET games need the .NET framework. The 2.0 beta is 25 MB.
* You'll probably want to use Managed DirectX. The distribution model is
still very unclear to me, I don't know myself how large the add-on is, or
even how to obtain it without downloading the DirectX SDK.
* There is no browser plug-in yet.

I do believe these issues will be resolved later on - soon enough to make it
worth-while to start looking at it today.

And then some positives:
* Good performance, both code (thanks to JIT compilation) and
graphics/sound.
* The .NET framework/code library is fantastic compared to anything else
I've seen. Easy to use and *huge* in its diversity.
* You can choose from a large number of languages and even mix them.
* C#
* Portable to non-Windows platforms thanks to the mono project.
* A large community and lots of 3rd-party tools and IDEs.
* You'll be better prepared for XAML when it conquers the earth and makes
you its willing slave.
* Visual Studio 2005, finally an MS IDE that puts a smile on *your* face and
not only Bill's.
* I almost exclusively use .NET these days. Before, I used Director for
games, VB for server-side scripting, and C++ for desktop apps. Now, when I
learn something new in one of these areas (or create a useful class), I can
directly benefit from it in the others.

Game development kits are fairly new and incomplete in the .NET world, so
unfortunately right now the start-up phase can be a bit long and require you
to work a little harder.

The ones that seem to have come the farthest are
http://www.truevision3d.com/home.php (3D, commercial)

http://www.flatredball.com/ (2D)

http://realmforge.com/ (3D)

http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/ (3D engine, but with some GDK elements)

And my own, 6-hours-old update of Endogine (now 2D - later 3D - GDK,
pre-alpha status)
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/Endogine.asp


Read more about .NET GDKs here:
http://www.thezbuffer.com/categories/engines.aspx

And 3D engines:
http://www.devmaster.net/engines/


/Jonas