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Smalltime/indie game developers must love Apple

Posted on
12

…because by comparison Sony and Microsoft look like stupid corporate dinosaurs.

Is my watermark showing?
Stupid Corporate Dinosaur

If you want to develop a game for iPhone or iPad

  • You’ll need a Mac
  • Install the free developer tools (XCode) from DVDs that came with your computer
  • Register for free as an Apple Developer and download the iPhone SDK
  • Create applications and test them in the emulator
  • Once you feel like you are not totally wasting your time, pay about $100 to register as an iPhone developer, which lets you
  • Test your applications on your own devices (and those of friends if they want to help)
  • Submit your application to the App Store
  • Assuming it is accepted, which most are, everyone can now purchase your app and you can make your first million

If you want to develop a game for Xbox 360

  • You’ll need a Windows PC
  • Sign up for Xbox live
  • Register for dorkily named XNA Creators Club
  • Download free XNA Game Studio add-ons for Visual Studio or Visual C# Express (so far so good)
  • Since there is no emulator, the only way to build for 360 is to buy a premium membership, $120/year, which you have to pay even though you don’t yet know how hard this is going to be
  • Build and test your game on your 360
  • Submit it for peer review to the Kreator’s Klub
  • Realize that the only people who can see/download/purchase your game are the other poor schmucks who joined the club; Regular xbox users will never see your beautiful creation
  • Further realize that even people who have joined this stupid club can only download your game if they are registered in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom or United States. Australians are shit out of luck, as are the majority of other countries in the world

If you want to develop for Zune

  • As above but you don’t need to pay for the premium membership, so that’s one less impediment to cashing in on the enormous market for Zune games we keep hearing about… …*chirp* *chirp* … …

If you want to develop for PS3

  • Buy a PS3
  • Now fuck off – Sony hates you and provides no tools or access to the platform for independent developers

I mean sure, Apple’s iOS platform may not be the most open thing out there, but that’s only when comparing it to other computers and operating systems. Start comparing it to other entertainment systems and you’ll realize just how much worse things could be!