Developing for the mac

Belias

Hello my friends, i didn't find any thread on this topic, is developing for the mac worth it? for iOS it is, what about the mac ? i can't find any good statistics on this, could you help? thanks.

ps: apps means apps (using XCode) and Games using Unity3D.

Justin Meisse

dustinbrown wrote: »

Developing games on a Mac is probably doable if you want it bad enough and don't mind spending more money on the brand name, but it would probably be more annoying than it's worth because most of the tools people use won't be available to you in Mac OS. Macs are much more prevalent in the graphic design world.

I think he's talking about developing for Mac.

If it's games, then I'm sure it's similar to PC - you want to get on Steam. That's just a guess though.

If you are looking to port a mobile game to desktop, Windows probably should be your first priority based on market share followed by Mac & Linux.

Belias

don't you think apple devices-owners are more willing to pay for software? (than the PC owners)

Justin Meisse

Belias wrote: »

don't you think apple devices-owners are more willing to pay for software? (than the PC owners)

According to Humble Bundle's stats, on average they do and Linux users pay the most but they both represent a smaller portion of the computer using population.

iOS users do spend significantly more than Android users, making up for the market share difference but I don't think you can apply those rules to desktop. They are two different beasts.

Belias

my main focus is apps, games take relatively much more time than games, and do require graphics and etc.., my main focus would be office apps & utilities.

Richard Kain

Belias wrote: »

my main focus is apps, games take relatively much more time than games, and do require graphics and etc.., my main focus would be office apps & utilities.

You can still create Apps with something akin to Unity. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, given the current UI library that Unity uses, but it is possible.

Naturally, you will most likely need to learn some Objective-C and use X-Code to produce most office and productivity apps for the Mac. This will require that you pony up for some manner of Mac to develop on. If you are on a tight budget, I would advise you get a Mac mini. It's a fine little computer that will handle that style of development without any problems.

As far as digital distribution is concerned, get it out there any way you can. If you can get it on Apple's digital marketplace, do it. If you can get it on Steam, do it. Users want to be able to purchase their software through the services they already use. Get it on as many of them as you can.

Equanim

From what I've read, iOS users are more likely to make in-app purchases than Droid users, which offsets Droid's larger market share if we're talking about raw profitability.

For desktop, the trick is exposure. OSX only occupies 7.6% of the desktop market, so your user pool is comparatively miniscule from the start. You can also dual install Windows on Mac hardware, which any moderately tech savvy Mac gamer will do. (Windows apps actually run faster on Mac hardware in some cases.)

So really, your demographic would be Mac users who aren't really gamers (or are beholden to OSX), and are aware enough to spot a new game. (Mac users are also used to getting burned by game devs, so you'd definitely want a demo.) All that being said, if you can get visiblity, your odds are good because OSX games are few and far between. Blizzard has capitalized on this for years and Mac users love them for it.

edit: For utilities, if it's not hardware intensive, you might consider something platform independent. Macs ship with Python pre-installed. There's also Java and Air.

Belias

additional information :
- i already have a macbook air that runs all what i need fastly (unity,xcode,...)
- i have worked with XCode to develop native iOS app or two, i do like it.

so i need to try my luck with apps.

Ben Apuna

For quick n' dirty OSX apps I'd go with RubyMotion.

I think the right niche app could sell well, see Pixelmator as an example. Just like iOS you'll probably want to integrate with as many of OSX's latest new features to get featured by Apple on the App Store.

For games the Mac App Store probably isn't worth the trouble for raw sales numbers if you can get on Steam. That said, I've heard that getting a game on the App Store can lend you some legitimacy in the eyes of other online stores, so if you're looking to cast a wide net then it probably IS worth the trouble.

For Mac specific utilities/apps you'd better be on the App Store or you probably won't make many sales at all.

EDIT:

*removed*

Belias

For Mac specific utilities/apps you'd better be on the App Store or you probably won't make many sales at all.

of course will buy a one year mac store subscription, i didn't like the ruby solution, native is excellent, even if i can make apps in unity, i don't like my app size to be topped by 7 mega bytes of unity engine.

the last link didn't work.

Ben Apuna

Oops! sorry that last link was a private share on Google+... so I guess I can't really share the exact info here.

The gist of it was that in 2012 apps were selling more than games on the Mac App Store because a game placing around the top 45 of paid games would place around the bottom 180 of all paid apps.