BlitzMax - the best for 2D cross platform games?

I've written one small game in BlitzMax and am mainly interested in doing 2D games in the future. I've looked around at alternatives, but haven't found anything that fits the bill better than BlitzMax.

My must have requirements are:
- Fast development times
- Hardware accelerated graphics (OpenGL/DirectX)
- Cross platform (Linux/OSX/Windows...maybe more)
- Preferably compiles to a standalone executable

Is BlitzMax simply the best tool for me?

Yes.

Yes.

Mostly Yes

If you're sticking to what BlitzMx is able to do and want it easy out of the box then definately Yes.

If you're having something bigger in mind, want to spend more money, want to use physics or want a 2d/3d game, target other platforms as well like Online, the iPhone and maybe consoles later on but no Linux, don't fear investing some work into setting up your own 2d framework in a 3d engine before, then No, Unity is the better option then.

Yes.

Oui.

Aye

yea

yep

Yes, but worth considering Flash?

- Fast development times - Yes
- Hardware accelerated graphics (OpenGL/DirectX) - partially
- Cross platform (Linux/OSX/Windows...maybe more) - yes and much more
- Preferably compiles to a standalone executable - can do

Plus:
- optional web delivery
- huge programmer base

Food for thought.

But for standalones this would mean Air.

Possibly, the main thing is development situations like installing loads of things to get it work and Max doesnt always work on some platforms.

For crossplatform I would go PureBasic as this does allow cross platform compatibility.

You don't need Air for standalones. There are many other options.

YEAH

@Beaker
Could you name a few which can do the same as air and are accepted by clients?

ragtag, Python + pyglet + py2exe/py2app should also be a valid alternative for what you want to do.

Air (for flash) is free, but yeah people need to download it to play the game. Still, not much of a hassle.

taumel - "Clients"? Do you mean end-users? Well you can just create a projector, or use a system like Jugglor. Or even make your own flash wrapper using any language. I've even done a nice setup before using a standard projector and AutoHotKey.

You wouldn't need a user download for any of these.

Java + Slick + Phys2D would also be good alternatives.
http://slick.cokeandcode.com/

I know the lead developer of this (Kev... very nice guy, btw), has tinkered around and gotten the framework to run on Android, so besides Win32/64, Mac and Linux/Unix, some near-future mobile platforms are also targets on the horizon.

@Beaker
With clients i mean clients, those who pay for thoughts. Creating a projector doesn't give you system access, nor is Jugglor for instance available crossplatform. Air and Jugglor are different solutions.

I love Blitz products and BlitzMax is an amazing language with a lot of support but for quick 2D game dev that goes cross-platform I like Torque Game Builder. It's just so easy to get a game up and running with the level builder, animation builder, and particle editor built in. The addition of behaviors make it even easier as you can code simple behaviors and then drag and drop those onto entities.

There are some things that you might feel restricted by graphically but the source code is exposed if you desire more control. I personally have never missed script access to low level 2D graphics in TGB. The best part is that it is portable to PC, Mac, iPhone, Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3.

I generally like the tools that let me make the game I want using the path of least resistence. For 3D I like Blitz3D and now XNA more than Torque Game Engine. However for 2D I like Torque Game Builder because it matches the quick flexibility of B3D with a suite of great pre made editors. It has the best of both worlds ... Now if only we had a similar 3D solution with perhaps a tad more low level graphics access like Blitz3D.

taumel - seeing as the topic is about making 2D games I don't know where you are going with this. I appreciate that Air is not the same as any other solution, but then nor is it the answer to the original question. Oh well, hope you find the right tool for the job. :)

Quite simple, i wouldn't recommend Flash in a first place as a 2D gamedev tool if you're after standalones and crossplatform availability as this is something you don't get in one step unless you also invest into further tools. Doing 2d online content of course is a different story.

Otherwise you also could embed your flash game into director (dependig on what features you're using), maybe add a few third party xtras and build your standalones from there, this also works but it's kind of let's say not a direct way.

Even thought I don't like torque, for cross platform nothing else can touch it. It's out for every platform of significance.

You can certainly do better than BlitzMax. There are plenty of superior (and free) alternatives.
One suggestion would be D with SDL.

You're going to have to clarify how that is better because it isn't obvious.

What Sledge said.

I love Blitz products and like Grey Alien's Game FRamework that works in conjunction with BMax makes for easy platform game generation, amongst other genres. I have not tried the torque game builder, I must go and investigate, if only I can stop plating with B3D and JV-ODE (;-)

Does SDL support anything other than DirectDraw and GDI in windows? Their site mentions OpenGL casually, but never in the context of Windows. All of their other FAQ links say that SDL sits above DD and GDI on Windows.

If DirectDraw/GDI are the only supported graphics API under SDL for Windows, then that's hardly a good cross-platform alternative to BMax.

Ditto.

I haven't tested other modern 2D cross-platform languages so I can't offer an fair opinion, but BMax certainly is easy to use and easy to get working on other platforms.

@Grey Alien, I've tried contacting you on email, but I've not received a reply.. hope you're not too busy :) I sent it to '[edited]'

@ashmantle: Yeha I got it and sent a reply. It must be blocked by your ISP or something. I'll send again now. Take a look at your spam filters...

Grey - you are better off putting the AT as an @ cos then it gets filtered by the forum code. Take a look here:
http://blitzmax.com/Community/posts.php?topic=80046
or here:
http://blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=80046
ie. wherever you aren't logged in.

test@...
test AT microsoft.com

Besides even the most rudimentary email harvesters have a regex that matches either @ or AT.

Heh.

Sure, that's neat thanks beaker. I was planning to delete it after I received they email anyway, which I have.