Question re: Mac dual-release support

Hi guys,

My boss and I are constantly clashing on this topic: He keeps saying dual-coding for Mac has been dubbed "easy" if you plan for it from the beginning of game develpment and naturally as a Mac fanboi he thinks dev who don't dual-code are ignoring 1/3 of a potential customer base.

I keep arguing that dual-releasing HAS to be a significant additional expense and that it's not as easy as he claims. Could someone on the dev team or anyone who has experience with game development enlighten me on how much more difficult/how much more significant dev costs are to dual-release vs ONLY windows releasing a game?

I don't think Starbound is dual-releasing but I would also like to know, if you're not dual-releasing, why aren't you? The solution may be the same as my question above...

Thanks so much!

 

It's been confirmed that Starbound will be for Windows/Mac/Linux at release.
As for your other question on if it's easy, I have no idea, a developer would have to answer that.

 

Fantastic ab the dual-release =) Thanks for the info! I hope a Dev can answer my other question!

 

No problem. Means everyone can enjoy the game when it comes out.

 

im going to take a stab at this one. granted im not an expert but after a little checking i have some input.

Starbound is codded in C++ (form faq *** section) form my understanding C++ is friendly with most things and you can find a "compiler" for c++ for mac with just a google search,

other ways to code make games might not be. the Unreal Development Kit 3 (used to make Dungeon Defenders for example) was not available until last September for mac. **

also looking at the UDK3 web site you can see there are a few other steps to getting it onto mac but is other wise is "virtually identical" *

so i guess a big part of if a game is mac or windows is probly the coding, but it looks like now its getting a bit more simple to make it for both. so i guess you and your boss are both right? i dunno. like i said. not a code wizard, just my thoughts. maybe a real code worker could answer this better.

* http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MacPlatformHome.html
**http://www.unrealengine.com/news/epic_games_releases_september_2011_unreal_development_kit_beta/
***http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/official-faq.3/

 

If I recall correctly, Starbound is built upon SDL which abstracts access to multimedia from operating system. Not an expert in multiplatform coding myself, but I believe code should port pretty easy if you rely mainly on libraries that are multiplatform by nature.

 

Thank you guys tons for the info!! Good to know for sure.

 

starbound is triple releasing there even applying to linux gamers like myself

 

Ugh, read the FAQ, bluuuh.