macOS Always wanted to make games, where should I start?

[HiRez]

I have a related question about the Unity pricing. It looks to me like to use iPhone Advanced, you have to pay $1500 for that license, in addition to owning Unity Pro, also $1500, so you need to spend $3000 total for advanced iPhone development? Is that right? If so, seems like a pretty steep tax to pay just for the iPhone additions...

If you're a big game house, certainly that's no problem, but for a smaller developer without an existing revenue stream, that makes it hard to swallow.

Also, is the license permanent, or is it a yearly fee?

 

[Eric5h5]

I have a related question about the Unity pricing. It looks to me like to use iPhone Advanced, you have to pay $1500 for that license, in addition to owning Unity Pro, also $1500, so you need to spend $3000 total for advanced iPhone development? Is that right?

Yep.

If so, seems like a pretty steep tax to pay just for the iPhone additions...

Well, you don't need iPhone Advanced (or Pro for that matter, unless you earn over $100K that is); iPhone Basic has about 99% of what's in Advanced.

If you're a big game house, certainly that's no problem, but for a smaller developer without an existing revenue stream, that makes it hard to swallow.

Meh, I did it and it paid for itself several times over with one game. Although I had purchased Unity Pro previously, so it wasn't 3K all at once. Considering what you get, it's a good deal.

Also, is the license permanent, or is it a yearly fee?

Permanent. Upgrades to major new versions are paid (50% of the original price I believe), but although they put out substantial updates pretty regularly, major version updates are rare. Actually there's only been one so far.

Edit: I should say that the usual course of action is to spend $400 on Basic, and if you find you really like doing that sort of thing and/or you make some money, then you upgrade. I don't think that jumping in with 3K right off the bat would be typical.

--Eric

 

[Sambo110]

I've decided I will just use Unity, no Xcode at the moment. Hopefully I can make the game quicker now.

 

[chrono1081]

I've decided I will just use Unity, no Xcode at the moment. Hopefully I can make the game quicker now.

Eh.....depends.

Its really important to learn programming fundamentals before hopping in and using an engine. You can give free Unity a shot but expect a lot of speed bumps when it comes to scripting.

I would suggest sticking with your C -> Objective - C plan. Or learn Python (as Unity supports Python scripting).

 

[Sambo110]

I was talking to some people and they all said I shouldn't learn C, and should just use Unity and learn C# along the way.

 

[twilcoxen]

Mac Programming Books

I really liked Dave Mark's book on C:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/14...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1430218096

Cocoa is a set of libraries for OS X and to some extent iPhone application development. I really liked the Hillegass book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/03...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0321503619

I also really like books from the Pragmatic Programmers. Here's one on beginning programming based on objective-c:

http://www.pragprog.com/titles/tibmac/beginning-mac-programming

I have a variety of their other books, Core Data, Core Animation, iPhone SDK, etc and they've all been quite good.