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.'"

Comments

Potential

[ReluctantBadger]

"Mac OS X has the potential to be a superb launching pad for doing game development". It may have the potential, but is there the market? The volume of Mac games has always traditionally been of the low side, not because of the limitations of the technology, but the number of consumers to make games software profitable.

Re:The Biggest, hardest step

[tanuki_x]

If you want more portable games, why not write them using SDL? It seems perfect for the job...

Time to think about throwing out TV

[Helmholtz]

The music industry convinced me to stop using their product. The prices have become exhorbitant, and the quality of the artistry has become lousy. Songwriters don't put out albums anymore, marketing departments do. So I have tossed them aside and stick with the old tunes that I still love. For new stuff I follow local bands and non-music-industry-affiliated bands I find here and there on the internet. I find that these guys, while they don't always have access to the best sound equipment, are producing songs of greater interest than the latest smash pop barbie/ken doll.

The movie industry has almost convinced me to stop using their product. Movie prices keep rising, the quality of the theatres keep dropping. I find it unacceptable to go to a theatre and see 5 minutes of "black rain" when there's a bright white scene. I think that movies are also moving into the abyss, much like music, but at a much slower pace. There are still enough people making interesting movies to keep my interest alive. So if I shirk theatres that's no big deal; it's simple to make a home theatre these days. And then there's the whole DVD and HDTV mess ... I'm still hoping the MPAA and FCC don't manage to do to movies what the music industry has done to music.

While I gave up on network TV a long time ago, I've found that many cable/satellite channels have quality entertainment in their lineups. Because of the sheer number of available channels, I always figured that cable/satellite TV would stay relatively unscathed by all the BS that has destroyed the music industry, and is gnawing at the movie industry. Then I read articles like this, and ones that talk about the fervent attepts to destroy the ability to record television programs. I can easily see television being the next media outlet that I throw away.

If there are any music/movie/television industry workers reading this thread, I just want to make it clear that in your rabid pursuit to further unbalance the scales of product and profit you are at the very least going to lose this customer. And I can't help but think there are others who feel the same.

I guess I'm done ranting for now.

[OFFTOPIC] New Powermacs

[tbien]

$1599 - 800Mhz G4, 40GB, CD-RW, Radeon 7500, 256MB
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$2999 - Dual 1Ghz, 80GB, SuperDrive, GeForce 4 MX, 512MB
$3649 - Dual 1Ghz, 80GBx2, SuperDrive, GeForce 4 MX, 1.5GB

OT: MacOS X programming jobs?

[Gorimek]

Does anyone know here I can find a MacOS X programming job in the SF area? I'm very interested in getting one, but the regular job boards I look at never have any. Is there some place on the net where such things are posted? Or are there just not any such jobs??

My email address is in my profile.