The Minority Report

duketek has posted today about what programming language he should pick up to develop casual games. I’ve clipped just about the entire post here but be a dear and visit his blog to comment on what language/platform you think is the best for casual game development.

Personally, I’m curious about what programming setup you need to develop games for the iPhone App Store and/or Android but I’m far to lazy to start that shit anyway.

Currently I am learning C#(XNA) for game development, but the wanted to share the thoughts with the web community and see what you think.Learn a new Language/Platform for game development « duketek

C++/Game Engines(Torgue e.t.c)

Pros

* Potentially cross platform development
* Multipurpose language (Can develop desktop applications with QT and other UI packages)
* Mobile game development for Iphone.
* Plenty of resources and open source game engines
* Faster in terms of speed than competitors e.g Java games

Cons

* Steep learning curve with other game engines

* Relatively complicated to start with
* Game distribution channel problems incase of indie developmentLearn a new Language/Platform for game development « duketek

C# (XNA)

Pros

* Relatively easy to learn
* Windows and Xbox 360 ready deployment
* possibly cross platform application development with mono (open source port of C#)
* Web development with Microsoft ASP.NET (Not sure if I want to go in that direction)
* Possible iPhone development using Unity3d (http://www.unity3dd.com) (not open source)

Cons

* XNA is locked to the windows platform
* Decent materials are still very scarce for the XNA platformLearn a new Language/Platform for game development « duketek

Python

Pros

* Relatively easy to learn
* Plenty of materials
* Cross platform development
* Usable for application development both for the web and desktop
* Used as a scripting language in other gaming platform
* General purpose scripting language.

Cons

* Fewer game engines (Even lesser documented engines)
* Could be slower than C++ or C#
* Distribution channel for indie game development is lacking
* Virtually no support mobile game developmentLearn a new Language/Platform for game development « duketek