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I have an idea for a simple 2D game and am thinking about trying to go cross-platform.
Let me start with, I considered Unity first. For various reasons, not interested in advice about it.
To stay in VS/C# land and save money, I'm considering using CocosSharp. I'm usually reluctant to invite opinions, but I could use some advice here.
My biggest concern is that the last update (of CocosSharp) on GitHub is comparatively old. Is CocosSharp still a viable alternative? Or, am I about to use an already extinct dinosaur?
Anything else you'd recommend? Again, my focus is free/cheap, simple, 2D. In an ideal world, VS/C#, so I can stay comfy on my PC. Though, I'm flexible on that goal.
Most of the other options I saw out there seemed expensive, complicated, and/or 3D oriented.
UPDATE:
I'll leave the thread open for continued Unity cheerleading, since this seems to be the only opinion out there. Sigh...not sure of the purpose of repeatedly posting "use Unity", but too each their own 
Regarding the original topic, since I'm leery of CocosSharp's continued support, I've decided to experiment with MonoGame instead.
modified 6-Sep-18 9:42am.
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Have you checked out unity? It is free up to a certain level (<$100k), and they have a 2D toolkit that may be downloaded for free.
Also, I'm not sure if you are going cross-platform that you can stay entirely on the PC when it comes to apple. I believe you need a MAC to compile the code. You can still use VS on the PC, but it needs to send it to XCODE for compilation (at least that's how it works based on my limited Xamarin experience).
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Yes, I considered Unity first. Its too much for what I'm doing.
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Eric Lynch wrote: Anything else you'd recommend?
Unity. You can code in C#.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Yes, I considered Unity first. Its too much for what I'm doing.
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Eric Lynch wrote: Its too much for what I'm doing.
Really? It's pretty much a goto standard for simple games.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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I hear you. Its certainly difficult (I'd say impossible) to mistake its popularity 
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Eric Lynch wrote: o mistake its popularity
My point was, it is what lots of people use for simple gaming. So, if it's too much for you, I'm not sure what else would be simpler than Unity.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Definitely Unity (using the 2D parts).
Works great on the PC and uses c#.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Yes, I considered Unity first. Its too much for what I'm doing.
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LOL,
Use Unity!!
Everyone is using it, C#, 2d ...
I'd rather be phishing!
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Thank you (and an upvote) for the first non-Unity option. I was starting to have flashbacks to the Borg from TNG: "You will use Unity. You will be assimilated. Resistant is futile."
HTML5 / Canvas looks like a potentially interesting fit for a different project (currently on the back burner). For now, I think I'm sticking with MonoGame for this project.
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Probably not what you are interested in, mostly because it doesn't stick with your parameters but I wanted to throw it out there for future readers, if nothing else.
Embarcadero[^] has recently created a community version of their RAD studio. It is C++ and Delphi and not C# but it is free until you earn $5000.00 and seems fairly easy and straight forward.
They have a boot camp with several 2d games and source that you can play with, along with a high level explanation.
Lots more tuts and stuff for Delphi and it is an easy language, but C++ is my fav. My thoughts are to create a really simple app for my grandson (who is 2) to play on a windows touchscreen and then to port it to Android and IOS with the same code. If it works and is easy enough then I'll try something more complicated and eventually purchase it, but only after it has paid for itself.
Delphi Community Edition[^] | C++ Builder Community Edition[^] | Embarcadero Bootcamp[^]
Anyway, just some thoughts I had. 
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often times better than master of one.
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Have a look at SDL, I know it's cross platform - although I've only ever run it on Windows and Linux. I think it has C# bindings, but I've never used them.
You'd need to build up a lot of the logic for your actual game, which I reckon is a lot better than been stuck in something like Unity's GameObject model when it doesn't fit your use case.
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Yeah, thanks, I forgot about this one. It seemed a little clunky last time I visited, but its worth another look.
For anyone else who wants to check it out quickly, here is a link: Simple DirectMedia Layer - Homepage[^]
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Yea, MonoGame rocks! Never tried CocosSharp though so I can't compare them.
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence."
<< please vote!! >></div>
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Good to hear! MonoGame is what I'm flying with for now. I've been fairly happy so far.
CocosSharp is built on-top of MonoGame and allegedly provides a more .NET friendly framework. It seemed like an exciting option. However, the last update is so old I can hear crickets on the GitHub site 
Also, since nobody has visited and exclaimed, "Yea, CocosSharp rocks!", it seems woefully short of supporters.
Everything I can find says its dead. Heck, on the following GitHub site, the link they list for their web site is even dead.
GitHub - mono/CocosSharp: CocosSharp is a C# implementation of the Cocos2D and Cocos3D APIs that runs on any platform where MonoGame runs.[^]
It's a real shame. It looked interesting. I was hoping someone might chime in with recent news.
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I've been using MonoGame for the past year for cross-platform, and it does rock! You can now also use it in .NetStandard which you could not a year ago. It is actively being improved and there is a great community that can help. Also, there are lots of examples out there to help get you started.
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I was actually looking to start a game project and was about to start learning Unity but this looks really interesting. Do you have any experience with it? Pros/cons vs Unity?
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To be honest I never practice either unity or Xenko. Just was curious about DirectX C# binding
From what I read it's much more developer friendly. But has less design tools!
modified 7-Sep-18 7:52am.
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Yeah, Unity started off with ActionScript based scripts and added C# later so the scripting is kind of wonky. Xenko is much more C# friendly from what I can tell and apparently has a very good engine but the editor needs a bit of work from what people are saying. Looks super promising though!
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Wow, that does look pretty awesome! However, like Unity, it seems way over-kill for the simple 2D game I'm considering.
Regrettably, I'm old-school and barely passible at 2D artwork. My 3D skills are absolutely non-existent. It probably doesn't help that, because of a vision problem, I can't even see true 3D. Still, the graphics on that site make me almost believe in myself
Anyhow, thanks (and an upvote) for what appears to be a serious contender, which appears largely unencumbered license-wise. All the other suggestions so far, I had at least heard about. I'm surprised that this one has flown completely under my radar.
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You're welcome!
You can't see 3D? Never heard of that ! 
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