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Possible duplicate: What technology should I use for a web-based game?

I have agreed to show my child how to develop software. He wants me to help him develop a game.

If you were me then what approach would you take to develop an old school game?

I was thinking about an old school game that you can pick up and play them straight away, where there is no "learning curve". This is because we prefer playing these types of games. On top of that I want to be able to say things like "I made the game engine, the AI, he did the scoring system and .. and .. and ..".

I intend to run it in a browser, to target a broad range of platforms. I was thinking to use mainly C# and Silverlight.

So, if you were me then what approach would you take to develop an old school game?

EDIT

Could I use XNA? Is it free? Does it plug into Visual Studio 2010?

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    \$\begingroup\$ I did not say i'm not asnwering. And yes XNA is free and it works with VS 2010 very well. \$\endgroup\$
    – Notabene
    Apr 16, 2011 at 11:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ What about deployment? Can I just copy the framework dlls to the hosting server to run under the application folder or does this framework need to be installed on the server box? I don't have full admin control over the hosting server. \$\endgroup\$
    – Phil C
    Apr 16, 2011 at 11:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ Hope i understand well. If you are asking about unity, you compile it for the web and users with installed unity player can play it by opening link to the file. XNA cannot run on web. \$\endgroup\$
    – Notabene
    Apr 16, 2011 at 11:54
  • \$\begingroup\$ So unity developed games can run in a browser if it has a unity player plug-in / add-on? \$\endgroup\$
    – Phil C
    Apr 16, 2011 at 11:56
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Carnotaurus: the original question had a long and mostly pointless rant about your life as a software developer, and you haven't really been clear with your requirements. The short, short answer to your question: If you're making a game for the browser, and you have to use visual studio, then you can use Silverlight or HTML5/Javascript. \$\endgroup\$
    – thedaian
    Apr 16, 2011 at 12:37

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C# makes best combo for home development. There are two great platforms which are well suitable even for beginers. I expect that "old school game" means something like SNES games.

  • XNA - is buid over directx and can ran on PC,XBOX and win7 phone. It is easy to use and learn. It uses shaders but you can evercome it by use basic effect classes which does the work for you and you don't need to touch GPU. And of course you can make simple 2D old school games which will run on todays hw with xna.
  • Unity - Is today's "everybody-love" game development platform. You can write code in c# or javascript and it will run on almost everything (PC, web browser, mac, iphone, android, xbox and ps3). It is however not that good for simple 2D development as XNA is. But someone may disagree.

edit: if running in web browser is your "must have":

  • Using java applets is also possibility to run games in browsers. If you use only canvas to which you can draw geometric primitives, it will be pretty near to the old school. However you can also use JOGL or similar to have access to the OpenGl functions.
  • Flash - It is well used possibility for game development in a browser. It uses action script, which is similar to javascript.
  • Javascript and html5 - Html5 canvas and javascript opens new ways to create games in browsers. You can control directly what you draw into the canvas and it will run with no need on of installation of any plugin in every browser (in near future). No hw acceleration seems like no problem for you.
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  • \$\begingroup\$ That's helpful so have an upvote - I would like this to be run over a webserver. So, that the application runs in any popular browsers. XNA sounds has a lot of client-side dependencies and may not be suitable unless it can work server-side... What about deployment? Can I just copy the framework dlls to the hosting server to run under the application folder or does this framework need to be installed on the server box? I don't have full admin control over the hosting server. \$\endgroup\$
    – Phil C
    Apr 16, 2011 at 11:53
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    \$\begingroup\$ XNA is not browser based and it truly has dependencies, but you can create installer which connects to the server and install what is needed to the client PC with your game. The installer is created via menu in visual studio. \$\endgroup\$
    – Notabene
    Apr 16, 2011 at 11:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm still tempted to use Silverlight as it is supported in all major browsers... Can Unity or XNA run on Android? \$\endgroup\$
    – Phil C
    Apr 16, 2011 at 12:36
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    \$\begingroup\$ Unity can. XNA don't. Please don't take me answer as full overview, i propably forgotten something and i don't know anything about silverlight, thats the reason why i did not mention it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Notabene
    Apr 16, 2011 at 12:47
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Carnotaurus This is really the thing i dont like here too. I downvote only the bad answers, thats what i hate... Questions are not bad, even if they are bad. Our moderators here are trying to keep it "proffesional" and it seems to be agressive for a user from a more friendly stackoverflow. But it just works here like this. Downvotes are not attack, only tries to show you the way. It is mostly not insult. So i wish you happy development with you child, neat project you have ;). Once you get stucked you can try it again here, wish you beter experience... \$\endgroup\$
    – Notabene
    Apr 17, 2011 at 1:00

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