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I'm a Flash developer, but I think it's time to think of other avenues. Ideally I want to be able to write once but be able to deploy to as many different platforms as possible, so iOS AND Android....Web AND Mobile. Are Html5 game development platforms good enough to create games that run on the web and mobile? or should I go with say Corona for iOS and Android, and use Html5 just for web?

I'm a professional developer so paying out for a decent game dev platform is not an issue, I just want to make sure I'm using the best tools for the job over the next few years.

Only interested in developing 2D games. Might well need physics. Corona definately seems a good option for mobile, but if it's possible to create everything in Html5 even if it's more work I'm wondering if it's worth the time learning that.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I just want to make sure I'm using the best tools for the job over the next few years. That's a bit hard to achieve nowadays, at the rate technology is evolving :-) \$\endgroup\$
    – David Gouveia
    Jan 6, 2012 at 3:01

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Unity seems to be a popular choice lately. It will allow you to run on iOS, Android, Web, PC, Mac.

Although, you're question needs to have more specifics like what kind of games you want to make, what features you must have, etc. Otherwise it's a just a "What's best?" question, which isn't good for this site.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Unity seems like a very nice tool, and I have plans to look into it myself when I have more time. But from what I've read you will have to twist it a bit to get it to work well in 2D, since it was mostly built for 3D games. \$\endgroup\$
    – David Gouveia
    Jan 6, 2012 at 3:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ @DavidGouveia Yes, you'll have to. But it's not a LOT of work, since if you have already ran a 2D game on OpenGL, you will see that it's not too different. Just run planes over a 0 Z coordinate with a ortho view. \$\endgroup\$
    – Gustavo Maciel
    Jan 6, 2012 at 4:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ I've been looking into doing 2D games in Unity and I think it might be easier than it seems at first glance. The 2D Toolkit seems particularly promising. \$\endgroup\$
    – NoobsArePeople2
    Jan 6, 2012 at 6:45
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I use LWJGL. Its a wrapper for OpenGL that is cross platform out of the box. With literally zero special considerations needed per platform, I'm able to produce a single jar, with a single click, that works on Windows, OSX, Linux, Solaris and a couple of others. Because LWJGL uses Java, you can abstract your game logic into a separate module and just adjust the renderer for use with Android. I have no experience with iOS, but I hear that apps must be programmed in Objective C, if thats true, then LWJGL+Java is ruled out instantly.

All you need to know is Java, and OpenGL.

I haven't used Unity, but from the outside looking in; it seems like a more drag and drop and scripting game development approach. LWJGL involves programming your game manually from scratch using any modern Java IDE (such as Netbeans).

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Yep, this is what I'm using for my game. I agree it's good, and you have far more control than you would using Unity. Although, sometimes I wonder why I'm doing it the hard way :) \$\endgroup\$
    – House
    Jan 6, 2012 at 7:07
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Since you're specifically looking for 2D, you might want to have a look at Googles playn. It's an open-source framework that allows you to publish to HTML5, Java (Desktops) and Android. They had a working flash compiler, but that seems to have lagged behind or is no longer maintained.

The project is quite new, so it's probably not so mature yet. Also it's uncertain if there's ever going to be an iOS publish option.

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Tom here from Scirra, we make the Construct 2 game maker

Construct 2 is used by thousands of game makers from all over the world, a mix of indie and professional. It also has a built in physics engine (Box2D) which you specified as a requirement in your question.

Construct 2 is capable of making just about any type of 2D game. You don't need programming knowledge to get going with it, but if you like to program as well you can extend Construct 2's capabilities by writing your own Javascript plugins and behaviours (and share them with the community!).

It's another option to take a look at anyway! Construct 2 also has an extensive free edition available.

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