Software costs iOS

[NicolasGB]

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've posted on these forums

I am looking into starting up a 3-people iOS game studio. Our games will be 2D

I am wondering what software costs I should plan for. Any clue on the following? I guess it's a little broad but thought it'd be worth a shot to ask...

- OS: does an OS come bundled when buying a Mac or do you have to buy it separately ? (I'm a PC user...)
- Photoshop (or Gimp) : Do we need additional software for UI/menus and animations ?
- What software will our coder need? Visual Studio, Visual assist, Visio?
- Are there great tools that you would recommend for iOS game development?
- What are good free alternatives to paid software?

Note: I am leaving the following software out of the scope of this question : game engine/librairies, MS office or the likes, marketing tools, 3D software (max maya zbrush etc)

Thanks in advance guys! Any insight will be much appreciated.

[vbovio]

A short summary of what you need:

- an Intel Mac, a new Mac mini ($599) should do fine, any new Mac you buy comes with the OS included, if you get a mac mini you would only need to get a display, keyboard, and mouse, which I think you can use non Apple stuff.
- iOS developer program ($99 per year), you need it to test your apps on the device and to submit to the app store.
- an iDevice to test your apps, an iPod touch ($199) is the cheapest option, if you target the iPad, you should get an iPad as well ($499).

you could also buy older macs or devices on eBay for less as well, but I would recommend that you buy new stuff, maybe get an iPad 1 for less and to be able to test and target all iPad users.

about software, XCode is the official IDE for iOS and is free, you can download it from Apple Developer.
for graphics, Gimp and Inkscape are good options for free, another good cheap one is Pixelmator and Graphic Converter.
I have no clue for audio :P

hope it helps and good luck!

[jcottier]

vbovio did cover your basic needs. It is exactly how I started: new Mac Mini+iPod touch, then later I bought an iPad.

What engine/language are you going to use?

JC

[flavio]

if you get a mac mini you would only need to get a display, keyboard, and mouse, which I think you can use non Apple stuff.

I confirm: I'm using a MacMini, with non-Apple keyboard, mouse and monitor. I never had a problem with these devices, so far.

[NicolasGB]

Thanks everyone! that helps big time, especially knowing that a mac mini is enough to get started.
vbovio: the graphics tools you mentioned can cover animations too? (most of the teams I led before were 3D so I'm less familiar with 2D art...)

JC (salut!) : I haven't yet settled on a particular tech, as I'm looking to hire a programmer who would hopefully have some input on those choices too (I'm more of the producer/business type). I was looking into Cocos2D but it being iOS only is a bit of a turn-off, it'd be interesting to author on Android as well... Or Unity, but it is perhaps expensive to begin. Any recommendation?

[pcf]

vbovio did cover your basic needs. It is exactly how I started: new Mac Mini+iPod touch, then later I bought an iPad.

What engine/language are you going to use?

JC

I'm also considering to buy a mac mini to make mac versions of my pc software, however i've heard from long time users of visual studio (as myself) that it can be quite slow for dev purposes, if using QT sdk for example someone said it can take hours to rebuild all libs in MAC mini? is there any true on this? too slow or not?

[lennard]

#NGB if you are hiring a programmer then the cost of Unity should be moot. It's a 3d tool and the examples for 2d look pretty shoe-horned but if I were you I would look for a Unity programmer - gets you a lot of platforms at a very reasonable cost.