Hi Will, I kind of find that surprising coming from you since you are one of the Mac OS supporters. You of all people know the importance of getting a cross-platform engine and games out there on the market for the blind community. I'm one game developer that whole heartedly believes in a persons right to freedom of choice. Anyway, as I've said many times on list already the cross-platform version of the game is personally motivated and not commercially motivated. I don't always use Windows, and I consider it my second operating system and not my primary operating system. As a result my priorities are vastly different from the huge Windows market out there that have a GMA Tank Commander, Shades of Doom, Sarah, and dozens of other good games for their platform of choice. What high quality accessible games do we non-Windows users have? As I have also said before it is not because Linux or Mac OS are bad operating systems. Quite the contrary both have a lot to offer a VI computer user. The access on both operating systems is rapidly catching up with Windows accessibility and now is the time people have a real choice in the software they want to use on their computer. VI computer users are no longer bound to owning and using Microsoft Windows because it is "the most accessible option out there," nor are we forced into paying hundreds of dollars on a screen reader like Jaws or Window-Eyes. For the first time in history companies like Cononical and Apple have addressed accessibility issues by incorperating a full fledged screen reader, magnification software, etc into the operating system itself saving us hundreds of dollars in access software alone. All of this is well and good, but the majority of game developers, and some users, are of a "just release it for Windows" mentality. They are far too willing to surrender their rights to choice for convenience sake. If I were not so passionate about this maybe I would cave into popular opinion, but I am passionate about this. I really believe we all have a right to have not only accessible games, but they should be available for Mac OS and Linux just as they are for x number of Windows users. Of course, that isn't going to happen, because there are far too few developers that have a personal stake in the matter or the skills to do what I do. Sadly far too many accessible game developers have chosen to take a strictly Microsoft path, and have adopted proprietary languages like Visual Basic. Until they begin writing their games in Python, Java, or maybe C++ there never can be games for other platforms. That's why I have chosen to take a personal stand against that very problem.
Cheers! On 10/29/10, william lomas <[email protected]> wrote: > i'd have just ignored cross platform really and just finish it up and > release the game, since another year has gone without the full release of > this title --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. 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/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
