macOS What programming languages to use for making games/programs?

[Mammoth]

That might be a dumb question, but Apple's website isn't really that great for telling me what I should know for developing games and programs.😕

 

[caveman_uk]

Depends what sort of games you want to write. If it's a 3D shooter then it's pretty much going to be C++ and OpenGL as you need the speed. Otherwise you might have a bit more choice of language.

Perhaps you need to think more about what you actually want to be able to do. Choosing to write a game might be setting yourself an unrealistically hard target - especially if you're a novice.

 

[DavidLeblond]

There is plenty of things you could use, depending on the game.

Hit up iDevGames and poke around. That is a website dedicated to creating games for the Mac.

 

[zimv20]

a friend of mine works for a company developing games for mobiles phones. he told me they use java and assembler.

 

[macdong]

deverlopers use Java for games mostly because of the protability.
you certainly don't want to write a first-person shooting game running on a Mac with Java.
it really comes down to the specifics of your project.
without more details i can't offer you many suggestions.

 

[DavidLeblond]

C++ and SDL are pretty safe bets, especially if you want it portable (as in to other platforms.)

If you know python, pygame may be a good bet.

 

[greatdevourer]

deverlopers use Java for games mostly because of the protability.
you certainly don't want to write a first-person shooting game running on a Mac with Java.
it really comes down to the specifics of your project.
without more details i can't offer you many suggestions.

Megacorps did it. Quake 2 was re-written in Java. Java can be quite fast once it's gotten going, although C/variants would be useful

What is the project?

 

[ChrisA]

That might be a dumb question, but Apple's website isn't really that great for telling me what I should know for developing games and programs.😕

Don't get hung up on "which language is best" they are all good for something. The trick is to match the language to the job. he closer the fit the less work for the programmer. If you are doing "macintosh-like stuff" yu know, normal user interfaces with drag and drop, menu picks and what not. Objective C may e good. It also matters if you need to remain portable. Will your software have to run on non-mac platforms? Generally at the start of a new project you select something based on many factors.

Of course if this is a project that just you are working on using what you know best will be a large factor

 

[bootedbear]

deverlopers use Java for games mostly because of the protability.
you certainly don't want to write a first-person shooting game running on a Mac with Java.

Why not? I'm running a Java port of Quake 2 (named Jake2) and it runs great!

 

[macdong]

Why not? I'm running a Java port of Quake 2 (named Jake2) and it runs great!

🙂 yes, i am aware of it.
though i do prefer if it was written in OpenGL/C

 

[Soulstorm]

That might be a dumb question, but Apple's website isn't really that great for telling me what I should know for developing games and programs.😕

Apple won't tell you, because they don't know what reason you will program for. All languages exist for a reason. Otherwise, we would use only 1 programming language, which we would think it would be the best.

If you want to make games, C or C++ would be your choice. (quake 3 was written in plain C. Unreal Tournament 2004 was written in C++ I think).

If you want to make professional programs, and/or programs that are capable of using the OS's sub-routines or APIs you will need Java, C++, C, or Obj-C.

My advice: Go with C or C++. They are the languages that will be your ticket to the world of professional programming.