What language/2D engine to use?

Depends what you mean by engines.


One of the side effects of C# is it has XNA, which is pretty much universally praised, and is at a higher level than traditional Direct X, as you would see in the C++ world. So, in many cases, there aren't a lot of "engines" ( I assume you mean like SDL, SFML, Allegro when talking about 2D engines ) in the C# world, because simply put, they aren't needed. That said, there are actually quite a few libraries out there or bindings for popular libraries, and if you want a more DirectX'y experience, SlimDX is a very good choice and it's primary author is quite active on these forums.



Also, quantity means very little, so long as you have at least one good choice that fits your need, that is enough.

I think Unity would be all right if you wanted to go straight to 3d. There are a lot of tutorials. 2d or 3d, XNA is best. Remember eventually you will want models, so you should start looking at Blender also, and do them close to the same time. It can take as long to learn to model as it does a programming language. You can do some passable 2d art with a 3d modeler by using toon shading, if you do start with 2d. One sort of problem with Unity is a lot of the tutorials are in JavaScript. Eventually, you will probably move to C# because it's more robust.

Depends what you mean by engines.


One of the side effects of C# is it has XNA, which is pretty much universally praised, and is at a higher level than traditional Direct X, as you would see in the C++ world. So, in many cases, there aren't a lot of "engines" ( I assume you mean like SDL, SFML, Allegro when talking about 2D engines ) in the C# world, because simply put, they aren't needed. That said, there are actually quite a few libraries out there or bindings for popular libraries, and if you want a more DirectX'y experience, SlimDX is a very good choice and it's primary author is quite active on these forums.



Also, quantity means very little, so long as you have at least one good choice that fits your need, that is enough.

Hmm, I should of said this in my original post, but anyways. I would rather work with something that isn't tied to an operating system like .Net/XNA. Would you have any suggestions for a cross-platform direction? I'm not trying to get ahead of myself and try to worry about making things for multiple operating systems right now, but, I don't want to get comfortable with XNA or such, then want to go cross-platform and have to start working with something new again.

[quote name='Serapth' timestamp='1322952272' post='4890238']
Depends what you mean by engines.


One of the side effects of C# is it has XNA, which is pretty much universally praised, and is at a higher level than traditional Direct X, as you would see in the C++ world. So, in many cases, there aren't a lot of "engines" ( I assume you mean like SDL, SFML, Allegro when talking about 2D engines ) in the C# world, because simply put, they aren't needed. That said, there are actually quite a few libraries out there or bindings for popular libraries, and if you want a more DirectX'y experience, SlimDX is a very good choice and it's primary author is quite active on these forums.



Also, quantity means very little, so long as you have at least one good choice that fits your need, that is enough.

Hmm, I should of said this in my original post, but anyways. I would rather work with something that isn't tied to an operating system like .Net/XNA. Would you have any suggestions for a cross-platform direction? I'm not trying to get ahead of myself and try to worry about making things for multiple operating systems right now, but, I don't want to get comfortable with XNA or such, then want to go cross-platform and have to start working with something new again.
[/quote]

Check out the Mono framework if you're interested in cross-platform, and OpenTK for C# OpenGL support. OpenTK is akin to SlimDX where it's nothing fancier than exposing the API. I wouldn't entirely count out XNA as there are extras built into it (like their content pipeline), but because its intended to support a few MS platforms (Phone, Xbox, and PC) it differs a bit than using something like SlimDX.

I don't know of any engines that specialize in 2D, most likely because it's a bit redundant - anything you find out there that is intended for 3D can do 2D rendering just as well.

I have really grown to like C++ and SFML (and use a 2d physics engine with them, I use chipmunk-physics).

Check out my Blog (in the sig) for a game example using them, with code. I'd suggest starting from the early posts.