More research on choosing dev stack for game dev

Last week, I had decided to use Swift/Apple’s ecosystem for initial gamedev. But I wasn’t feeling 100% okay with getting locked into Apple’s ecosystem.

So I spent last week doing more research on developing simple apps using Swift, Xamarin, Flutter, and React Native.

Since I use JavaScript at work, React Native would be the easiest way for me to get started but it feels too much like work and I am kind of tired of js/npm dependencies and build tools. One nice thing about staying in Apple’s ecosystem is that everything has really good documentation and feels more polished.

Then looking at Flutter, I love their docs and it looks very clean and polished. It also has game dev engines. It has a few game engines available.

And Xamarin, probably most mature cross-platform. The nice thing about Xamarin is that it uses C# which means my skills can transfer over to Unity. Xamarin also has game engines, good docs.

Idea

The first game idea that I am thinking is an app for project management, tasks, and relationships. As game dev is my side hustle, it is one of the lowest priority. After day job, I need to do errands, play with my son, and hangout with my wife. House projects such as painting walls are higher priorities. Then staying in touch with friends and families should be next priority.

But when I start a new project, I forget about everything and everyone. The most project management tools are build for teams working on commercial projects.

So the first project for me to build project management tool that is suitable for personal life and side-hustles. The few key features of this will be:

• One time tasks - One time things like drop off packages at UPS.
• Repetitive tasks - Such as take out trash
• Each type of tasks can be part of a project. Project is basically just a label or category on a task.
• Habits - Help you build or break habits.
• Contacts - Name, number, social media profiles, birthdays
  • You can set a reminder to connect with your contacts every so often.
  • Add notes and photos for each contact
• Reports or dashboard to show you your next highest priority tasks, who you need to contact, etc
• Privacy - This will run locally, no data should be needed to stored on any server. Probably will use json format file for easy export or import of data from the app.
• (Optional) Gamification - This might be simple as adding contacts or building new habits will earn you badges or level ups.