Hi,

I've previously had experience with Java, C, C++ and C#.

I had been using Visual Studio on Windows in the past, when messing about creating a very simple 2D game engine.

I am now working exclusively on a Mac, and I'm going to have another bash at some coding (I've been out the game for many years now.) I was looking into using xCode. I tried to download it from the App store and I was notified that I don't have the required version of OSX. I'm very reluctant to upgrade, as I don't want any issues with other software that I currently need to use regularly.

I'm planning on getting a refresher on C++ and possibly getting back into simple game development too. I'm a bit stumped on where to go from here, so was wondering if anyone can recommend an IDE?

I've also been looking into some books on C++, which work with Visual Studio. Is there anything I should watch out for here? Should I be able to follow along with another IDE?

Thanks

I believe you can create a free developer account at developer.apple.com and then download old versions of xcode through the website.

If you prefer Visual Studio, you could try something like Parallels and run windows on a virtual machine on your mac, and use Visual Studio Express for free which is generally sufficient for most games development purposes.

I believe you can create a free developer account at developer.apple.com and then download old versions of xcode through the website.

This is the recommended approach.

XCode is decent, but there really is nothing that compares to visual studio. If you want to stick with c# look at monodevelop, it is pretty good. Seeing as Microsoft recently announced .net for linux and osx, I would expect visual studio to be coming to osx some time soon.

I would expect visual studio to be coming to osx some time soon

I wouldn't actually bet on that.

Microsoft seems to be investing in OmniSharp instead - it's effectively a full Intellisense setup that can plug-in to popular text editors.

... and use Visual Studio Express for free which is generally sufficient for most games development purposes.

Actually, don't use Visual Studio Express any more -- There's a new edition of Visual Studio that's also free (gratis), but isn't tied to any silly notions of what your target platform is. It's called Visual Studio 2013 Community, its the same as Visual Studio 2013 professional, modulo the license and very little (almost nothing, AFAIK) else. I believe the primary difference is that its available for commercial (but non-enterprise) use for up to 5 seats, which means its free for personal use and very small teams -- you can get clearer details here. It also supports things that the Express editions don't, like plugins (e.g. The Android development plugin, and Visual Studio Tools for Unity -- formerly UnityVS) and some first-party features like Graphics Diagnostics (which was previously only freely available in the Express edition for Windows Store, but not for Desktop).

or just grab it from the Visual Studio 2013 Community download page

XCode is decent, but there really is nothing that compares to visual studio. If you want to stick with c# look at monodevelop, it is pretty good. Seeing as Microsoft recently announced .net for linux and osx, I would expect visual studio to be coming to osx some time soon.

You should expect that what's been open-sourced from .Net and the Open Sourced Roselyn Compiler platform to improve the .Net runtime and developer story on both Linux and OS X over time. It'll be awhile before parity is reached with Windows/Visual Studio, but it seems obvious that that's the end-game.

I wouldn't bet on seeing Visual Studio itself on OS X or any other platform. Its not like there are a huge number of developers on OS X or Linux clamoring to make native Windows Apps, and anyone already using .Net or Java is reasonably well-served. The opposite though -- developers on Windows with a need to develop for OS X / Linux / Android / iOS -- is real, largely by virtue of Windows' dominance in OS market-share (and to be fair, their trailing position in mobile/tablet), especially in corporate environments, particularly corporate environments embracing cloud platforms (Microsoft's other big push) and Bring-Your-Own-Device IT.

I would expect visual studio to be coming to osx some time soon

Microsoft seems to be investing in OmniSharp instead - it's effectively a full Intellisense setup that can plug-in to popular text editors.

This makes me very happy :D