For 2D games, is there any reason NOT to use a 3D API like Direct3D or OpenGL?

Posted by Eric Palakovich Carr on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Eric Palakovich Carr
Published on 2010-07-16T14:45:13Z Indexed on 2012/06/08 10:47 UTC
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2d

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opengl

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directx

I've been out of hobby Game Development for quite a while now. Back when I did it, most people used Direct Draw to create 2D games. By the time I stopped people were saying OpenGL or Direct3D with an orthogonal projection is just the way to go.

I'm thinking about getting back into creating 2D games, in particular on mobile phone but maybe on the XNA platform as well. To make something using OpenGL I'd have a (hopefullly) small learning curve to acclimate myself to 3D development.

Is there any reason to skip that and instead work with a 2D framework where I just have a Width x Height frame buffer I need to fill with pixels?

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