I’m rather new to game developement, I have an iphone but i don’t like macs so I have a windows 7 laptop. I’m hearing and seeing lots of mixed things about development for iOS devices. It looks relatively easy other then countless hours and learning to develop for a computer but eventually I would like to move past that and develop a game for my iPhone but I’m hearing and reading different things and that I need a mac to even convert it to use and build it for the iPhone but idk. It looks to me like Unity is the best for the job compared to other development engines out there although I think the price is a bit steep but it looks like the you get what you pay for theme and I’d rather have quality over quantity unless there’s an easier way to do it somehow? I read about dual-booting a mac ios xlion on my pc so i can run xcode but idk, that just seems more annoying that its really worth.
I was thinking originally to start with a pc game but now I’m wondering if I should start with an app game because it might be less complex. Any ideas, suggestions, or input on which to start with or if theres a better way to go about starting this or would I be better off trying to find another engine that is more affordable that ports straight to iOS or something? (although unity looks like its worth it in the long run for better quality games and such)
In order to build an App of the iPhone and get it on that device, you must have a Mac. This is not a Unity requirement, it is an Apple iOS requirement. With Unity you can develop on Mac or Windows, but once you export that project for Xcode to eventually get on an iPhone, you need to have an Apple Developers profile setup with Apple and it all hooks up through a Mac.
I highly recommend Unity3D, it is great as a cross-platform game development engine. It’s free (though you will need the $400 iOS version to export for iOS) which is a great deal. And it is relatively easy yet powerful. Also, if you plan to release for other platforms (other mobile platforms, or PC, or Mac, or Web, etc), there is really nothing else that compares, especially for this price.
The other cost to you in order to develop for an iOS device is the Apple Developer’s license (required to put anything on an iOS device by Apple) which is $100 a year.
Yes, but you will need a Mac in order to compile the Xcode for iOS. This is a requirement from Apple, not Unity. There may be some ways around this out there (you mentioned maybe dual booting a PC to use Mac OSX) but the system Apple has going is pretty closed and anything that gets around it would be hacky and potentially buggy IMO.
You can create games in Unity on the PC or Mac, but if you are aiming for an iOS release then a Mac is necessary because of Apple’s restrictions (unless you feel like trying to hack your way around it - if that’s even possible).
You could use the Android exporter and not the iPhone one. That should work on a windows machine.
If you got your game up and running for that, it shouldn´t be to hard to get it to run on ios as well.
Of course by then you should also have the ios exporter AND a mac to get it to Xcode. You can install your unity licences on two machines i think, so that should work.
Other (Mac) machine could be a friends? Or a cheap, used Mac Mini. Not too old though, or you might run into Xcode 4 not running on its OS or hardware.