When it comes to game development, a lot of developers who haven’t developed games yet, usually face a dilemma. Deciding which platform to target, which frameworks to use, time-frame for development, complexity, and a lot more. These factors might lead to a false assumption: Game development is a very complex task. So, here I want to share my experience of developing a simple, yet addicting and award-winning game, Letters2Friends.

It all started when a client stepped in with an original word-based (scrabble-like) game idea. He has been playing that game on paper since a long time but wanted the world to experience it. The requirements were to develop it for iPad/iPhone, with lots of interaction and animations, and multiplayer option using GameCenter. Since I had prior experience of developing applications on UIKit, and the requirements were meeting using this framework, it was an easy decision to go with UIKit.

The animations were handled using [UIView animateWithDuration:] function provided by UIKit, interactivity using UIGestureRecognizer, and the multiplayer option using GameCenter that expels the need of a separate server. It all went quite good, and now this game is available on iTunes and has won P@SHA ICT Award in Entertainment category.

Of-course, there are limitations for UIKit, like when you have to develop a cross-platform or 3D game, there are other platforms that should be used for it.

So, when you have to develop a game and are not sure what framework to choose, go for the one that you have some experience of developing, given it meets the requirements.