I have never made a game for the Mac before and was wondering what steps could be taken to start on my way. I really like Objective-C and the Cocoa frameworks, so I would like to stick with them as much as I can. That said, are there any tutorials, walkthroughs, or pieces of advice I could grab from you guys on where to get started?

My current plan is to make some simple little games: Checkers, tick tack toe, maybe a turn based thing at some point. Any advice would be great. Thanks!

developer.apple.com has some amazing resources available on it.

Do you currently have any programming experience or are you starting fresh?

kodex Wrote:developer.apple.com has some amazing resources available on it.

Do you currently have any programming experience or are you starting fresh?

Yes, I have a solid knowledge of C, some C++, and have been developing for the iPhone in Objective-C. Also, I am very good with Java and general computer science principles. Thank you for the link.

You may want to look into SDL as a way into game development, it simplifies a lot of the getting up and going kind of stuff.

You will more then likely want to pick up a book on OpenGL as it is the primary graphics language being used on the Mac right now.

The first step is getting some 2d objects on the screen, once you can do that it opens up pretty quick.

Check out nehe.gamedev.net for some great OpenGL intro stuff. They are a bit outdated now and the mac code no longer works but everything is simply and well explained.

kodex Wrote:You may want to look into SDL as a way into game development, it simplifies a lot of the getting up and going kind of stuff.

You will more then likely want to pick up a book on OpenGL as it is the primary graphics language being used on the Mac right now.

The first step is getting some 2d objects on the screen, once you can do that it opens up pretty quick.

Check out nehe.gamedev.net for some great OpenGL intro stuff. They are a bit outdated now and the mac code no longer works but everything is simply and well explained.

Oops, forgot to mention that I've had some experience with OpenGL and am currently struggling with SDL. Is SDL and OGL the standard for Mac dev then? I was hoping to use a view-based approach that Cocoa provides, or is that taboo? I've found that using Cocoa's VCM paradigm to be very good for 2D games and simple but powerful UIs.

Personally I do not use SDL in my game development, I use a custom NSView and Obj-C. There are people who would argue both ways are better it is just a matter of personal preference.

I'm in Kodex's boat -- no SDL for me. I'm Cocoa/Obj-C all the way baby!

kodex Wrote:Personally I do not use SDL in my game development, I use a custom NSView and Obj-C. There are people who would argue both ways are better it is just a matter of personal preference.

As I would like to. But the question is where to start. I am adept at working with views and similar paradigms with Cocoa Touch and I'm wondering what it takes to translate this knowledge over to the desktop?

A basic gl context is pretty easy to set up in Cocoa. Apple has plenty of sample code for that, and there are other sources as well. It's when you have to start handling all the other little details like full screen fades and input that things start to get a little hairy. iPhone is notably simpler.

AnotherJake Wrote:I'm in Kodex's boat -- no SDL for me. I'm Cocoa/Obj-C all the way baby!

Here's another recommendation for Objective-C.