How long to develop?

[zaca]

Im new to the development scene. Only just got accepted and I want to start on some new app ideas. Only problem is that I have had no programming experience. Im willing to spent time on it (about 12 hours a week)

So how long will it take me to develop apps like: minesweeper or an excel like app or a simple 2d game? How long did it take you to develop your games/apps? How much experience did you have?

THANKS!

[iphonedevelop18]

I have just started making a basic tic tac toe game and I feel I have a fairly good knowledge of objective - c and I have only been programmking about a month for around 12-hours a week.

[mccannmarc]

Im new to the development scene. Only just got accepted and I want to start on some new app ideas. Only problem is that I have had no programming experience. Im willing to spent time on it (about 12 hours a week)

So how long will it take me to develop apps like: minesweeper or an excel like app or a simple 2d game? How long did it take you to develop your games/apps? How much experience did you have?

THANKS!

Minesweeper and a simple 2d game not too long at all especially if you use a 3rd party library such as cocos, an app like excel is a monster of a program and you will have to have a VERY deep understanding of programming to even come close

[zaca]

@iphonedevelop18 - good to know, thx

About the whole library thing...what libraries are good (for 2d game development) and how do I use them...any guide or tutorials or anything?

When I said excel, I was really talking about creating a table based on user inputs (they select # of rows/cols and they input static data). Sort of like those timetable apps.

Would it be better to build a few very simple apps first that I wont release, or throw myself in the deep end and try to create my 2d game off the bat (with a high chance that i will end up recoding it a few times)??

[firewood]

Learn to program first.

Most successful app developers have months or years of prior software development experience under their belt before tackling Objective-C, UIKit and the SDK.

imho.

[MacDonaldsd]

As aforementioned don't run before you can walk. Learn how to programme in general before moving on to games.

[zaca]

Thats what I was thinking. I have a bunch of utility apps that are very simple that I will work on while i am learning.

Do you think that I will be able to code simple games by the end of this year? What about a super mario platformer type game? (thats 40 weeks....~450 hours of coding)

[Jeremy1026]

Thats what I was thinking. I have a bunch of utility apps that are very simple that I will work on while i am learning.

Do you think that I will be able to code simple games by the end of this year? What about a super mario platformer type game? (thats 40 weeks....~450 hours of coding)

To make a Mario type platformer it would probably take 450 hours to write. (If written correctly with the amount of depth as a typical platformer.) Writing apps takes a good bit of time. A simple application (I wrote a simple app that interacts with www.moodyornot.com) can take a week or two from start to polished finish.

[yayaba]

My app is approaching the 2 month mark now in terms of development time. This was after a month long learning process reading tutorials and books.

I hope to finish it within the next month but I have a full time job too at a start up so I have very little time to work on it (1 to 2 hours a day).

[mccannmarc]

To make a Mario type platformer it would probably take 450 hours to write. (If written correctly with the amount of depth as a typical platformer.) Writing apps takes a good bit of time. A simple application (I wrote a simple app that interacts with www.moodyornot.com) can take a week or two from start to polished finish.

Not to be argumentative, just a basic question really but I take it by development taking 450 hours you mean everything from start to finish including drawing graphics and producing sound etc? If so, thats a reasonable timeframe I suppose. However I would seriously feel the need to whack myself around the head with a mallet and relearn everything I know about programming if just writing the code for a mario type game took even a quarter of that time! Now the code for a sonic type platformer with complex physics and an object based engine as opposed to a tile based engine would probably be around the 450 hour mark to write from scratch. Not that I prefer Sonic over Mario or anything.....lol

[Jeremy1026]

Not to be argumentative, just a basic question really but I take it by development taking 450 hours you mean everything from start to finish including drawing graphics and producing sound etc? If so, thats a reasonable timeframe I suppose. However I would seriously feel the need to whack myself around the head with a mallet and relearn everything I know about programming if just writing the code for a mario type game took even a quarter of that time! Now the code for a sonic type platformer with complex physics and an object based engine as opposed to a tile based engine would probably be around the 450 hour mark to write from scratch. Not that I prefer Sonic over Mario or anything.....lol

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