Alright, so I'm a budding game programming student and I really want to get a platform for mobile games development. It's clear that app Stores and the iPod Touch, Zune HD, and a whole set of different phones have become a new place for the "little guy" to grow.

To me it's a no-brainer - one set of code (mostly) for 3 platforms (PC, 360, Zune). That alone kills all other choices.

What kind of game do you want to make?
What kind of audience do you want to reach?
Which platforms actually support the game you want to make, and the audience you want to reach?

For example, if you want to make a 3D MMO game, you pretty much have to aim for the PC. If you want to make a 2D two-stick shooter, you pretty much have to aim for the Xbox. If you want to make a small and light game that uses tilting (accelerometers), then you can choose the iPhone/iTouch, or the Zune HD. At that point, you should consider what the distribution will look like, how big the markets will be, and how much competition there will be when you're done (which involves a little bit of guessing).

It's important to note that, even though you can address three platforms with XNA (PC, Xbox and Zune), the kinds of games that you can make on each platform are wildly different. The overlap between the platforms is fairly small, and more importantly, if you restrict yourself to the intersection between the platforms without playing to the strength of each platform, then you may not be able to sell much of your game. (There are a few genres, like the 2D image-based adventure, that could potentially work equally well on each -- compare "Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney" for the DS as an example)

I'm still sitting on the fence on this one. I'd really like to do iPhone, but that requires me to get AT&T as a phone provider (I've heard so many bad things) and purchase a Mac. The development environment is also vastly different and it sounds like Apple is not very developer friendly.

I don't plan to do any Zune HD development, but I'm waiting to see what Microsoft does with Windows Mobile. I think phones are the way to go, I don't know why you'd get a device like a Zune when you could get a phone that does essentially the same thing and thus only have to have one device instead of two. If Microsoft announces XNA support for Windows Mobile phones (and I suspect at some day they will) and setup a decent app store, I am going to be all over that.

I haven't seriously looked at Android development. I've looked a little at Blackberry but I'm turned off because I would have to use Java. I like my C languages :)

Until that time... I'm doing Xbox 360 games and possibly PC. The nice thing, as previously mentioned, is that the code is pretty similar for both.

Kris Steele:

If Microsoft announces XNA support for Windows Mobile phones (and I suspect at some day they will) and setup a decent app store, I am going to be all over that.

Agreed. I did a bit of Zune development just to test it out, but not having an app store nor being able to sell games on my own means I'm not going to do any serious work with it. I already get complaints from the family about spending time working on things that don't bring in any money. :(

TheByrus:

It's clear that app Stores and the iPod Touch, Zune HD, and a whole set of different phones have become a new place for the "little guy" to grow.

It's a new place where you might grow. Or you might just be another one of the hundreds of little guys who really don't see that much return on the platform. I made as much with Bloc (here on Community Games back when it launched) as I did with two games and an app over on the iPhone.

TheByrus:

Plus it seems that Microsoft wants to take the "Google" route on this one and support apps through advertising while making the apps themselves free. And I'm glad they want to experiment with that style of distribution, but I'd prefer to be able to set some kind of price on my app since it lets me compete in one more way.

Keep in my that your app won't be anywhere on the marketplace. Currently only Microsoft gets to put games/apps up there. There is no way for you to distribute or monetize on your Zune games. It's actually forbidden as per the XNA EULA.

jwatte:

What kind of game do you want to make?
What kind of audience do you want to reach?
Which platforms actually support the game you want to make, and the audience you want to reach?

I agree with Jon that these are the most important questions. I did some iPhone development at the start of the year and I left it for these simple reasons:

1) It's no easier to get noticed there than anywhere else. If anything it's harder given how many developers are flocking to the platform.
2) I hate Objective-C with a fiery passion. Just an ugly, horrible language in my opinion.
3) I also hate Xcode (Apple's IDE) with a passion. Visual Studio puts it to shame in pretty much every way.
4) Most importantly, I realized that the games I want to make don't make sense on a mobile platform.

I honestly recommend PC/Xbox 360. Not only is the code nearly identical for the platforms if you're using XNA Game Studio, but you are also able to distribute and monetize on your games. Plus you get to use a sane language and IDE. ;) Of course, if the types of games you want to make don't make sense on those platforms, perhaps the mobile world is for you. There's always Windows Mobile and I know they're introducing their own app store with Windows Mobile 6.5, so maybe it's worth looking at that to see what technologies are used for gaming on that platform.

And that's even not mentioning Flash, Silverlight, and all of the web. :p

Nick Gravelyn:

TheByrus:

It's clear that app Stores and the iPod Touch, Zune HD, and a whole set of different phones have become a new place for the "little guy" to grow.

It's a new place where you might grow. Or you might just be another one of the hundreds of little guys who really don't see that much return on the platform. I made as much with Bloc (here on Community Games back when it launched) as I did with two games and an app over on the iPhone.

TheByrus:

Plus it seems that Microsoft wants to take the "Google" route on this one and support apps through advertising while making the apps themselves free. And I'm glad they want to experiment with that style of distribution, but I'd prefer to be able to set some kind of price on my app since it lets me compete in one more way.

Keep in my that your app won't be anywhere on the marketplace. Currently only Microsoft gets to put games/apps up there. There is no way for you to distribute or monetize on your Zune games. It's actually forbidden as per the XNA EULA.

jwatte:

What kind of game do you want to make?
What kind of audience do you want to reach?
Which platforms actually support the game you want to make, and the audience you want to reach?

I completely agree with Nick on points 1,2, and 3.

More Bad:
-It's an extreme pain to create and install certificates and setup XCode to properly build apps.
-Objective C is not only silly, ugly, and horrible; it does some behind the scenes things that can completely catch you off guard... Iterating through a collection adds temporary ref counts and is actually SLOWER than indexing through it for instance.
-You basically have to buy a Mac and iPhone/iPod Touch to comfortably make apps (this could cost you well over $1000).

Good:
-Instruments (a built in profiling tool) is actually pretty good.
-You could win the lotto and have a top 10 app.

I did a writeup a while back Here which goes through some iPhone dev basics.  If Zune / Windows Mobile had an App Store, there would be no question which would be my main focus.  Although just making things for fun, you can't go wrong with XNA on any platform!

just wanted to mention that on the iPhone / iPod Touch side, if you're making an OpenGL game, you can code 99% of your game in either C or C++, there is no requirement to use Objective-C for anything but the parts that interface with the UI and the Hardware more directly, and Apple has an OpenGL sample that sets up the window and everything that you need to get started...

PixelFriends:

just wanted to mention that on the iPhone / iPod Touch side, if you're making an OpenGL game, you can code 99% of your game in either C or C++, there is no requirement to use Objective-C for anything but the parts that interface with the UI and the Hardware more directly, and Apple has an OpenGL sample that sets up the window and everything that you need to get started...

at that point you can just throw C / C++ code wherever you want and it will compile and run just fine.

I say keep things simple and cheap (free) as long as possible and just focus on making a game.  If you want to target the ZuneHD/iPhone, just use XNA and develop on Windows but use a screen res of 480x272 with the possibility of expanding that to 480x320.  MonoTouch/XNATouch would let you build your XNA game on iPhone, but would still require a Mac, iPod Touch (no monthly fees like the iPhone), and the $400 MonoTouch license.  In the worst case, you finish your game in XNA and you port it to Obj-C/C/C++ to run on the iPhone, but you don't need to worry about that until you have a game done.