Hi Shaun, Actually, compared to other operating systems like OSX Windows is more difficult to develop for not easier. The reason has to do with too many different configurations, versions, and too many libraries and languages that makes Windows difficult to support.
For example, right now there are 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows actively being sold on the market. Well, if I write a program and compile it for a 64-bit version of Windows it will not run on 32-bit versions of Windows. Therefore I have to design my game to be 32-bit in order to support 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows, and by doing so will have to forgo the advantages of a 64-bit OS and processor. If I choose something like Microsoft's .NET Framework I first have to determine which version is present on the machine. As I can't rely on everyone to be running the latest and greatest that could be cause for incompatibility right there. Not to mention all the third-party dependencies I may use with my game such as SlimDX, SDL .NET, OpenAL .NET, whatever won't come with the system meaning I still have to make sure they are installed and setup correctly in order to run my game. Those are just two of several things that makes supporting Windows something of a nightmare to develop for and support. With Apple's OSX there is only one target environment, 64-bit, and so the issue of 32-bit compatibility is a non-issue. Although, there is a free .NET Framework called Mono available for OSX most developers choose to use Object-C and the native libraries meaning they don't have to worry too much about which .NET Framework is installed or if x number of dependencies are installed, because most of what a game developer needs should already be available on OSX from the get-go. Cheers! On 3/6/14, shaun everiss <sm.ever...@gmail.com> wrote: > darrin, to be honest devs can just use sapi. > Compaired to other things windows is probably easy to develop because > you don't have restrictions on what you do, I guess the smart phone > will take over but I have not seen that many blind devs actually make > games for the smart phone market and those that are out really > although good for smart phones are probably crap compaired to their > windows varients. > I am still a firm believer at least for the short term maybe longer > that we will have windows. > The big jump is when vb6 dies then we may see more of the games drop > off and who knows. > However its not all over till the fat lady sings and even if the > core devs all died we would still have some of an indie industry > active so its not an issue really. > shaun. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
