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Mac OS X: Game Developer's Playground
Mauro Notarianni writes: "In the Stepwise article, 'Mac OS X: Game Developer's Playground,' Troy Stephens writes, "Mac OS X has the potential to be a superb launching pad for doing game development.'
The author describes how 'Cocoa's developer productivity benefits, when combined with Mac OS X's strong support for technologies such as OpenGL and QuickTime, can empower game developers to create the custom production tools they often need in a fraction of the programmer hours it takes on other platforms.'"
You have to realize that the box you do your developement on and the target box for the game need not be the same architecture. Many stages of developement can be done on one machine and cross-compiled to the other. I haven't tried it yet, (probably never will because I really don't have the desire to write for windows), but it would be relatively easy to set up a developement environment in Linux that builds an executable for Windows, and to launch the program for testing over a Samba share on the Windows side. So doing the same from a Mac to Windows shouldn't be that difficult.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
The article is mostly talking about building games, and the ability to create the tools to do so.
That said, think about the market for the "highend" gamers. You know...the %4 of us that actually buy a GeForce 3 when they first come out? Many such gamers would love to move off of Windows, especially the 98 variants. While Win2k helps a lot, in the end it's still Windows. Many are pushing for Linux to be the next great gaming OS, so much so that more then a few major game companies have already targeted it (even if not completely successful, ala Loki). Linux however, has a long, long way to go (to be very, very kind).
If all the "hot new games" start coming out for Mac (even if they also come out for Windows and/or Linux), it suddenly makes Mac an extremely attractive system for gamers. Gamers of course, being the only people who own a computer that are likely to actually buy a new one before 2030...
Now, if building games on Mac is easier, faster, and thus results in better games to market sooner...
If building a game under Mac implies open standards such as OpenGL instead of DirectX, thus enabling the game to target Mac, Windows, Linux, etc without nearly so much trouble...
The math becomes easy. Develop under Windows and we sell to say, 90% of the market. Develop our game under Mac and we sell to 100% of the market (5% Mac lets say another %5 Linux/Other)...AND we get to market faster AND our development is cheaper... The choice is clear, IMHO.
My
You used to develop applications quickly in VB, now Cocoa has gone above and beyond, letting you build *good* applications quickly.
You need to read the article again; that's not at all what he's talking about.
The author described a particular problem he had while developing a PSX game -- mapping the limited VRAM was a pain. So he wanted to write an automated graphical utility to do it for him. Using OpenStep (aka Cocoa) it took about 2 days and saved his entire team man-months of tedious labor.
This wasn't about porting some random PSX game to Macs. It was about using the language at the heart of OS X to be more productive at whatever it is you're doing. As you recall, productivity was one of the main reasons for the computer revolution (along with communication and porn, but you get the idea).