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As I'm interested in creating games like Jetpack Joyride for mobile devices and so on, I wanted to know what technology was used to create the game.

Was it made in Objective-C, Java, Flash or HTML5 canvas/javascript?

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3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

There are some options to release a game for both iOS and android:

  1. develop your game using c/c++ and use a wrapper for some iOS/android specific functions
  2. use GameEngines, they can be either native code like cocos2d-x (which is again c++) or scripting languages like Unity or Shiva3D
  3. develop your game two times once using Obj-C for iOS and once using Java for Android.

Each of these ways has their own advantages and weaknesses. But I suggest you use one of existing gameengines, either cocos2d-x (if you are a coder by nature) or Unity (if you are a designer)

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may I ask why did I get a downvote? sure my answer is not telling anything about joyride but I'm telling how to develop a game for multiple target platforms which is the main question! – Gajoo Sep 16 '11 at 18:35
No one asked about how to develop a game for multiple target platforms. The only question was about Jetpack Joyride. We already have questions about games for multiple platforms. – Joe Wreschnig Sep 16 '11 at 22:53
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Actually the question was for both how to make games for mobile devices and how was joyride jetpack made... So if I know how Joyride is made, I would know how games like that nature are made. So both of you are right... – Shaoz Sep 17 '11 at 13:32
up vote 3 down vote

To answer your question directly, Jetpack Joyride was made in Objective-C, with possibly a few areas of low level being C++ (and OpenGL for 3d hardware interaction).

You cannot make Java apps on iOS (not without jailbreaking).

HTML5 apps are not available from the App Store.

iOS does not run Flash, though Adobe do provide the capabilities for Adobe Air/Flex apps to be compiled into a native iOS app, the effect this has on performance is often noticeable, and I've yet to see a notable studio develop anything significant using that technology (not mature enough at this point).

As a quick tip, any game that uses GameCenter HAS to use Objective-C.

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This is still total speculation. Why are you assuming Objective-C with "a few areas" of C++, rather than C++ with few areas of Objective-C, or C and C++ with a few areas of Objective-C, or C and Objective-C with no C++, or some other framework entirely like Unity or Shiva? – Joe Wreschnig Sep 19 '11 at 4:39
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There is definitely Objective C as the only access to GameCenter is Objective C. The rest is because the developers, Half-Brick, are based in Brisbane, where I live, and one of their executive producers (Duncan Curtis) outlined their development patterns during a speech he gave to my Games Development course. – Jordaan Mylonas Sep 19 '11 at 5:00
Actually GameCenter being a part of a game doesn't have anything to do with the language game was written. It only implies that there is Obj-C layer in their code that manages all GameCenter functionalities. – Gajoo Sep 19 '11 at 7:26
@Jordaan: Then maybe you should write what he actually said, because what you've claimed - C++ for OpenGL interaction - is nonsensical. – Joe Wreschnig Sep 19 '11 at 9:39
Oh whoops, that's a typo, will fix right now. Sorry, don't know how that got there. – Jordaan Mylonas Sep 19 '11 at 20:47
up vote 1 down vote

the iPhone apps you can download from the appstore are made in Objective-C. For the Android platform, the main language for creating apps is Java.

Over that, there are frameworks that simplify the programmation and makes it multi-platform(iOS/Android) such as Titanium and others, but i don't have the names in mind.

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Wrong. There are a number of iPhone games made in c++ using cocos2d-x and others using Marmalade (formerly Airplay SDK). There are also some games made in engines like Moai which are c++ libraries tied together with Lua. – Andy Dent Jan 13 '12 at 7:12

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