

Ask HN: What's a good cross platform alternative to C#? - larswinback

C# is a relatively high level language which is exceptionally suited for games. Are there any alternatives which are as good as it on Linux? Suitable for game development of course. Or completely different languages that are good for game dev if you think that.
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claytonaalves
Lua has LÖVE ([https://love2d.org/](https://love2d.org/)), a 2D engine. Python
has PyGame ([http://www.pygame.org/](http://www.pygame.org/)). Both are cross
platform interpreted languages. If you are planning to develop for mobile,
unfortunately there's no cross platform.

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larswinback
I'm doing 3D games though, with OpenGL. Would definitely use LÖVE if I was
doing 2D games.

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bdfh42
People often describe C# as "Java done right" \- so Java? Certainly cross
platform.

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larswinback
The problem here is "done right". Java is certainly not as polished as C# in a
lot of senses.

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bdfh42
True but everything is there if you dig deep enough.

You say you are looking for an alternative to C# and with Linux support - why
is that - what are you looking for in addition to what C# has to offer on that
platform?

[Edit]Comment indentation limits stop me replying to the reply below so. OK,
you can't run visual Studio on Linux but you can code in C# against the .NET
framework. Have you looked at the Mono project?

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larswinback
I have looked at it, yes. But it seems like it's not very well integrated with
Linux. On Linux I usually prefer to use a text editor for editing code. So I
would prefer a language which suits being edited in one.

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m1k3yboi
Simple. C or C++. Highly portable, C++ is widely used by Game Devs.

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larswinback
I would probably pick C++ then. Like it better than Java, but unfortunately
not as good as C#.

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m1k3yboi
Lua?

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larswinback
Kind of nice. Does it have OpenGL support though?

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m1k3yboi
Yes, there is a LuaGL binding. Angry birds is written with Lua so it can't be
too bad.

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gringofyx
Mono?

