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Agreed. I don't mind paying for closed source games, but not if it's Windows only. Indy game devs should be able to sell their games for a profit, but it's di

Agreed. I don't mind paying for closed source games, but not if it's Windows only. Indy game devs should be able to sell their games for a profit, but it's disappointing when they're helping to prop up a monopoly.

thrower123 7y ago
There is very little return for the effort expended on making Mac or Linux ports for video games, and with some of the changes that Apple is making, that calculus is getting even worse.
- loudmax 7y ago
  Locking your software onto someone else's platform is short sighted. I appreciate that indie game devs have limited resources, but a planning your game platform neutral from the outset will put you in a better opportunity to exploit other opportunities.
  - munk-a 7y ago
    The tech here isn't great, Unity is sort of the banner of a decent cross-platform engine for building on top of but it has it's issues... for a game like this my guess is that the graphical rendering is very closely coupled with the game logic in an effort to save cycles. Your game being unperformant out the gate is a death sentence, your game being only available on windows means <1% of your market is disappointed. I wish games had better cross platform support, but the motivation just isn't there monetarily and these guys tend to be financially strained as is.
  - jbattle 7y ago
    Short sighted? Games have been developed for windows first (or X-console-first) for going on 25 years. Seems like game developers have done OK with that strategy. The fact that windows-only is a poor business decision isn't obvious to me.
    - loudmax 7y ago
      Maybe beneficial to the small game dev to focus on a single platform at expense of the ecosystem, not beneficial to the ecosystem. These devs have got bills to pay, and individually it's hard to push against the current, so it's an understandable trade off. This is the tragedy of the commons.
  - NicoJuicy 7y ago
    I'm guessing that your not an indie dev :)
    - loudmax 7y ago
      Nope. But if I were, I still wouldn't develop exclusively for a proprietary monopoly. We all have our own trade-offs to make. I don't blame anyone for focusing on where the money is. In the long run though, we'd all be better off with a competitive market than stuck with a single dominant platform.
waltdestler 7y ago
Hey, Cosmoteer dev here, I just want to give a quick explanation of why the game is currently Windows-only: Originally I tried making the game in Unity but ran into major performance problems with that engine, so I switched to my own engine (there weren't really any other options like Unreal available at the time). But because I'm only a solo developer and I do all my own programming, art, sound, and game design, my time is very limited, so I chose to concentrate only on one platform. (And obviously Windows is by far the largest market for PC games.) I do hope to support other platforms eventually, but I can't promise that and it will probably only happen if Cosmoteer is commercially successful enough on Windows to warrant the investment in other platforms.
- loudmax 7y ago
  Best of luck to you and your game. I hope it's successful.

thrower123 7y ago

There is very little return for the effort expended on making Mac or Linux ports for video games, and with some of the changes that Apple is making, that calculus is getting even worse.

loudmax 7y ago
Locking your software onto someone else's platform is short sighted. I appreciate that indie game devs have limited resources, but a planning your game platform neutral from the outset will put you in a better opportunity to exploit other opportunities.
- munk-a 7y ago
  The tech here isn't great, Unity is sort of the banner of a decent cross-platform engine for building on top of but it has it's issues... for a game like this my guess is that the graphical rendering is very closely coupled with the game logic in an effort to save cycles. Your game being unperformant out the gate is a death sentence, your game being only available on windows means <1% of your market is disappointed. I wish games had better cross platform support, but the motivation just isn't there monetarily and these guys tend to be financially strained as is.
- jbattle 7y ago
  Short sighted? Games have been developed for windows first (or X-console-first) for going on 25 years. Seems like game developers have done OK with that strategy. The fact that windows-only is a poor business decision isn't obvious to me.
  - loudmax 7y ago
    Maybe beneficial to the small game dev to focus on a single platform at expense of the ecosystem, not beneficial to the ecosystem. These devs have got bills to pay, and individually it's hard to push against the current, so it's an understandable trade off. This is the tragedy of the commons.
- NicoJuicy 7y ago
  I'm guessing that your not an indie dev :)
  - loudmax 7y ago
    Nope. But if I were, I still wouldn't develop exclusively for a proprietary monopoly. We all have our own trade-offs to make. I don't blame anyone for focusing on where the money is. In the long run though, we'd all be better off with a competitive market than stuck with a single dominant platform.

waltdestler 7y ago

Hey, Cosmoteer dev here, I just want to give a quick explanation of why the game is currently Windows-only: Originally I tried making the game in Unity but ran into major performance problems with that engine, so I switched to my own engine (there weren't really any other options like Unreal available at the time). But because I'm only a solo developer and I do all my own programming, art, sound, and game design, my time is very limited, so I chose to concentrate only on one platform. (And obviously Windows is by far the largest market for PC games.) I do hope to support other platforms eventually, but I can't promise that and it will probably only happen if Cosmoteer is commercially successful enough on Windows to warrant the investment in other platforms.

loudmax 7y ago
Best of luck to you and your game. I hope it's successful.