How are games developed for mobile platforms?

Question

Mobile development

Good afternoon.
I've been developing for the web for five years now, but lately I've been wanting to change direction. I have been wanting to try my hand at game development for a long time. Of course, as an ultimate goal, I would like to get into a company that develops serious games.
But for now, I don’t understand anything about this and I want to start with games for mobile platforms. I've been surfing the net for a couple of days in search of lessons, tutorials, etc. Now I am faced with the choice of platform. They talk a lot about unity 3d, but for some reason I don’t have a soul for it. Do not want and that's it.
Of the alternatives, I found good reviews about Marmalade. The code is written on the pluses, which I really like. Maybe someone worked with him. What is this platform? Or can you recommend alternatives? I would be very grateful for any advice and recommendations.

Answer 1

I work with Marmalade. Satisfied. As for the cost - $500 (an indie license, you don't need another one) - not such a big investment for a good programmer if you are seriously planning to do it. If you just want to try it, you can download the evaluation version.
I also have development experience with phonegap . For someone coming from the web, using familiar technologies can be a plus.
But honestly, not my choice. Lots of bugs (although new versions come out fairly quickly) + a dead community. The last minus is critical in my opinion. Of course, you can try to ask a question here or stackoverflow, but in the official community 95% of the questions are unanswered.
By the way, about marmalade and other frameworks in general: how many developers - so many opinions, everyone has their own approach and taste. There is no unambiguously correct solution here. But you pay attention to the showcase. Marmalade has top toys (doodle jump/need for speed shift/cut the rope). So, it is not in vain that serious companies choose it.

Answer 2

Be sure to take a look at the Corona SDK . The free version is very functional - only the ability to add in-app purchases is missing.
The code is written in Lua - the language is simple and efficient. The bottleneck is very rare.
Alternatives: Moai SDK (very little documentation and takes a long time to master), Monkey - its own language, but it compiles to a lot, Gideros is also an interesting product, Cocos2d-x - open, free, but other options seem more interesting to me.
Marmalade is good but pricey. On the plus side, there is Marmalade Quick.
If you want a 3D game, then choose Unity.

Answer 3

Unity plans to implement official 2d support soon. Plus free for indie is very nice.

Answer 4

cocos2d + Chipmunk - my personal choice for 2D games for iOS

Answer 5

You can also try OpenFL and HaxeFlixel which is a game framework for OpenFL. HaxeFlixel has good examples and an active community.