Pros and Cons of Gaming Frameworks - language-agnostic

Question

This question is directed to anyone out there that is just starting in hobby game development. The first thing that comes to ones mind is:
Which language/framework should I use?
List of solutions:
Adobe Flash -> done
Allegro
Apocalyx
Blender Game Engine
Blitz3D
Devkit Pro
Game Maker
Gosu
IndieLib
jMonkey Engine -> done
Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft XNA -> done
Multimedia Fusion / Games Factory
OGRE -> done
pygame -> done
pyglet -> done
RubygGame
SDL -> done
SFML
Torque 3D
Unity 3D
Custom -> done
Answer template:
Framework Name (Linked)
Pros:
Pro1
Pro2
...
Cons:
Con1
Con2
...

Answer 1

Microsoft XNA Game Studio
Pros:
Uses .NET languages; managed memory, ease of the Visual Studio environment, etc.
Good mix of high-level and low-level
Supports both 2D and 3D very well
Is proven; look at the Xbox Live Arcade, all of those games are made with XNA
Games can be easily run on a networked Xbox
Cons:
Uses .NET languages; can't use Java, C++, etc.
Not too many resources (i.e. books) out yet, though it is easy to learn and use so that may not be an issue
Windows-only. Mono (on Linux) doesn't support XNA at all.
XNA 3.0 was released less than a year after 2.0, and now we're at 3.1; frequent changes like these can hinder documentation, i.e. books get outdated quickly and many things break when upgrading a 2.0 game to a 3.0 game.
As of 2014, discontinued.

Answer 2

If you have the time, do it all yourself. It's worth the experience and you'll learn a lot, instead of how to work with framework X . ;^)
Pros
Full Control
Strong Learning Experience
Consistent code between game engine and program
Tends to be well-suited towards the application it is applied towards.
Supports any language/environment
Cons
High difficulty
No online documentation
Generally, less generic. Harder to apply to other games.
Harder for other people to use.
Probably buggier than more popular frameworks.
Not well-tested.
Harder to get help.

Answer 3

jMonkeyEngine
Pros
Uses Java; managed memory, highly supported in many mature IDE's (Eclipse, NetBeans, etc.), highly portable
Good mix and high-level and low-level
Modern 3D scenegraph
Built atop LWJGL, a very mature and well-working game library
Very lightweight; doesn't add very much overhead
Built in 3D model loading in a variety of formats.
Built in modern node-based 3D scenegraph.
Easy to use.
Open source; constantly evolving and improving.
Includes culling, collision checking, etc.
Has the option to save and read its own ultra-compact, ultra-fast binary model format.
Full list.
Cons
Uses Java, so compiles JIT and can therefore be a bit slower than C++ and other options.
Hasn't been used in many commercial apps (and therefore not as "proven").
Has no attached editor of any kind, everything must be done in pure code.
Difficult to do 2D games (for that you could try Slick).

Answer 4

pygame
Pros:
Easy to get started and create something visible.
Cross-platform.
Lots of open source games available to inspect the source.
Python language's pros (flexibility, dynamic typing, strings/arrays/tuples, etc.).
Cons:
Performance-wise does not scale to very large games (which hobby game development rarely is).
Mostly suited for 2D, although 3D is possible.
Difficult to distribute as closed source.
Also SDL could be inserted as pros and/or cons.

Answer 5

OGRE (Object-Oriented Graphics Engine)
Pros:
Tons of 3D features
Cross-platform, uses DirectX or OpenGL
Plugin architecture for even more features
Does not try to be an everything-engine, only a graphics engine (doesn't even try to handle input, as many graphics libraries tend to do)
Cons:
Uses the Singleton pattern
Very hard to do 2D or primitive rendering (individual polygons, lines, etc)
Tons of code makes the learning curve quite steep

Answer 6

pyglet
Pros:
Low difficulty
Cross-platform
OpenGL accelerated graphics by default
Further OpenGL graphical enhancements easy to add
Python language
Cons:
Less well-known than pygame
Game 'loop' is a bit unconventional
OpenGL knowledge required for advanced graphics and to maximise performance

Answer 7

SDL
Pros
SDL officially supports Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, and Android
It is used by video playback software, emulators, and popular games including Valve's award winning catalog and many Humble Bundle games.
Open source
SDL is written in C, works natively with C++, and there are bindings available for several other languages, including C# and Python.
Cons
No special IDE like Unity
A bit low-level

Answer 8

The pros of any framework (gaming, web, etc.) is that they remove the unnecessary boilerplate code you'd have to normally write.
The cons often come up later on, once you want to go beyond the capabilities of the framework it can become very difficult. With many of the more complex frameworks, extending their functionality to make it do something it wasn't designed to will results in you having to write a lot of your own boilerplate code.

Answer 9

just starting in hobby game development
You should program a few games before attempting your own framework, otherwise you don't know what to put in it and how to write it. You'll end up endlessly rewriting it to "get it right", when really there are lots of good (and bad) ways of doing it, depending on what it is used for.
"Frameworks" can also be a pain, as they offer a partial solution to a problem. E.g. you just extend a few classes and boom, you have a game. But if your game doesn't suit the framework design you just end up fighting with it and hacking it. The "toolbox" approach tends to be a better approach as it just supplied functionality without forcing you too much into how you should use it. E.g. the standard C libraries are are toolbox and don't force you to structure your code in a certain way.
To start off with you have to ask yourself:
what sort of games you'd like to write.
what you'd like to develop for?
Web browser?
Facebook?
PC?
PC and Mac? i.e. cross platform
Console?
iPhone and iPad?
which language you'd like to use (but this may be set by the platform you chose)
The learning curve for writing games can be quite steep as you might have to learn:
how to program in a new language
how a new API works
how to do the graphics and sound
how to debug it
perhaps how to hook it into other system
Don't be put off it this sounds like a lot of work! The key to writing good games is sticking it out and having the determination to carry on and finish. Have you seen the film, Indie?
My advice:
Start simple - There is a lot to learn, if you take on too much to start with you will be scared off and think it is to hard. So...
Easy language - You'll hear lots of people ranting on the internet about how great certain languages are. Well, they all have their pros and cons. Some are easier to learn that others. E.g. Python or Lua are quite easy to learn. They are scripting languages, which are a lot more forgiving and less complicated to games together with. They don't have things like pointers, memory allocation, etc to worry about.
Python tutorial.
Lua has a tutorial (which I wrote!)
Just make a game! - You'll hear other people talking about patterns and singletons and data driven design etc. None of that matters when you start out. You aren't trying to impress anyone with your code. People will judge you on the end result not the code! Trust me, some of the best games you've played on console etc have terrible code!
Use a small, well maintained library. I'll make it easy, there are other choices, but:
if you want to choose Python (a good choice!) use pygame. Use Eclipse (for Java Dev) with PyDev. Magic and free!
if you want to use Lua (a good choice!) use Love
Look for other game examples - Pygame has tons of examples and games using it. Check the license and if you are allowed, just rip the code. Patch, splice, but put a comment about where you got the code, it is polite, and may be necessary according to the license. Don't ignore the licensing.
Look at Ludum Dare. Tons of great examples and source code to see how it is done quickly.
Then once you have made a few games consider the more complicated libraries and languages. Then you can ask more specific questions about how to solve certain problems. Have fun!

Answer 10

Flash
Flash is a great tool for those who have limited programming or art experience, but want to start cranking out a game.
Pros:
Symbols make graphical creation and manipulation very easy
Symbols have built-in bounding boxes; bounding boxes have built-in collision detection
Ports easily to web
Built-in layers and display architecture make displaying content simple
Lots of support, documentation, libraries
Vector art is easy to create
Cons:
Relatively slow
No method or operator overloading
Requires a purchase, either Creative Cloud or buying Flash outright
Pixel art must be ported in, which can be aggravating
I highly recommend flash if you have access to it, its one of the programs I use most often.

Answer 11

Pro's for XNA in my opinion are that XNA apps can run on Xbox360 in addition to PC, and you can pick your favorite language from anything supported by the .NET Framework - which is quite many.