Anyone into Android programming?

[emjay]

Hi, emjay.

1)  I don't know much about using Unity in Linux, and I didn't see a Linux version.  Unity is not very demanding on CPU/GPU, so if you have Windows running on Wine, I'm pretty sure it will work well.
2)  Shaders are scripts which describe how a graphics card should process 3D graphical information: color, gloss, reflections etc.  Custom shaders are an advanced subject, but almost completely unneeded to do things in Unity, with the exception of animating color-- and THAT shader is trivially easy to write. . . you could even just copy mine.  For the most part, Unity will do all the graphical stuff-- you basically just have to import the images you want to use for tiles etc.
3)  When you start a new project in Unity, it asks whether you are making a 3D or 2D project, and sets the basic scene up for you.  Unity is a boss at doing tile games, card games, and things like that.  Unity also has a complete 2D physics system: collision, hinges, springs, collision detection, etc. etc. built in.

Here's a little overview of 2D design:

Woh, seeing that I'm sold! I really wanna do this now. And since it's free that's even better! I'll see if I can get it to work in Wine, though I don't hold out much hope because only a small percentage of Windows programs do, but if I can't I think I'm prepared to buy a Windows laptop just for it. To be honest I do miss Windows a bit because I can hardly get any of my old games working on Linux. Anyway the closest I've ever got to game development was using Amos and Blitz Basic on an Amiga when I was a teenager. They were both designed to make game development easier as well. I made a 2D platform game of Dr. Who, with Daleks because they were easy to animate. Seriously, I can't wait to do this - thanks to both of you for the info Now you guys just carry on chatting and I'll dip in again when I've got something to show