Develop for Android only

[TheBoneJarmer]

Hey guys

I am rather new to this subject but not with game programming in general. The thing is, I got a working C# OpenGL 3D library, framework and engine I use to build PC games and 3D editors with. But lately with all this fussle about Pokémon GO I have started thinking about developing games and apps for mobile phones and tablets. I have never been really interested in this stuff for I think it is quite complicated compared to building a pc game. I mean, I use C# for both my 3D editors and my library. The stuff works and was pretty simple to set up. It is pretty easy to export games with it as well. Also, when I build a game I can easily put it online in a ZIP or something and almost everyone can download and play it right away.

When it comes to developing mobile games, well, I don't know. It looks freaking complicated. Tried Java and Android Studio, which was and still is terribly slow and didn't even manage to get my hands dirty with iOS. When I started creating HTML5 games (hence the reason why I am here) it worked perfectly in the browser across all laptops and home PC's I tested it with. Tried it on different browsers on phones and tablets as well as a cordova app and none of the results were the same. One device A something did not work that did work on device B. And on device C nothing worked while on device D everything worked. The results were overall dissapointing. The performance was terrible on most devices and that was only Android. I have not managed to test it on iPhones or iPads because I don't have access to one. Can't build apps for it either because I don't own a Mac and I am not planning to do half the work on Windows without being able to test my app on an Apple device I have yet to aquire. Not to mention the price. I mean, I am not rich, I am a student with student loans which have yet need to find a job.

So as for my situation, I am stuck with lots of thoughts like the ones above I can't seem to solve. I have not started yet with creating games with Java and the Android SDK using GLES but here is the thing. I can when I want to. I got the Android SDK installed and I can actually build and export basic apps to my devices (which are all Android bytheway). As well as a good amount of books and websites to teach me how to do it. I am familiar with OpenGL for 2 years so that is not going to be a problem. But when it comes to iOS, well, I do not have a Macbook and according to what I read I can't publish without it. And according to forum posts, blogs and topics on Stackoverflow it seems to be a pain in the ass to actually get your iOS app in the App store. And not to mention the price you pay each month apparently. And that is what is bothering me. I want to publish my future games to both Android and iOS but I am not willing to spend a huge amount of money on iOS solely for the purpose of creating apps for it. But at the same time, I don't want to leave iOS users out. I have friends who got iPhones and I would hate to tell them they can't play my game because I was not able to publish it to the App store. I mean, what kind of mobile app and game developer would I be. I see people around me doing it all the time, shipping their games to both Android and iOS. Still, keeping my situation in mind while considering all of this I am thinking about going for Android only and ignoring whatever complaints iOS users throw at me. I would feel sorry for my friends when they logically complain about it but they won't buy me a Mac either when I ask them so I could solve their problem lol. What is your opinion on this? All your help and opinions would be greatly appreciated!!

Sincirely,

TheBoneJarmer

[bdekk]

I did not find a real explicit question in your story. Still I would like to give my two cents. I guess that it depends on the game that you want to create, which platform and related tools to use. WebGL-based rendering (like PhaserJS uses for example) offers quite a good performance in my opinion. However for big performance-intensive games I would still choose to develop native (iOS or Android). The issue of not being able to cater iOS-users can not be dealt with in an easy way when coding native. Perhaps you could do most of the game logic on the server and only render on the client (keep the client dumb). Although I am not sure if this would decrease speed. Totally another way would be to go the unity3d way. With its vast amount of exports it could be just the engine that you need: https://unity3d.com/unity/multiplatform

As a side-note:  Would you elaborate on the issues that you had with packaging HTML games using cordova?

 

edit: through this forum I also learned a bit about Haxe http://haxe.org/ . This might also be a solution to your problem. I have never tried it though.

[TheBoneJarmer]

Hey bdekk!

Thank you for you reply and sorry for mine being late! I agree with what you said. Those thoughts crossed my minds as well. But what I really want to know is if I should worry about those iOS users. I mean, would it be harmfull if I would ignore them? What are the pros and cons doing so? It is more about me being the poor fuck who does not want to buy a macbook to compile apps for iOS. And for me it does not matter if I am a hobbyist or not. I am planning to sell my games in the stores so I do take things seriously. Got some earlier replies in other topics on other forums telling me I should not care because I am not a professional company but I would like you guys to think like I am. Otherwise I might as well care about nothing.

[BobF]

9 hours ago, TheBoneJarmer said:

what I really want to know is if I should worry about those iOS users

Yes, if you intend for your game to make money. Getting money from iOS users is much easier than getting money from Android users (although still difficult). Also, only supporting one device type puts a damper on any viral effect the game may have. As for the hardware... You can save money by buying a Mac mini as the development box. And, buy both the development box and iPhone/iPad used.

All that being said, you may want to develop the Android edition first and see how it goes before spending money developing the iOS edition.

[bdekk]

Furthermore, about professionalism. There are many companies that first release an Android or iOS version and only when there are enough downloads they start developing a game for other platforms. Business-wise this is a good decision, because why would you invest in a game that is not going to sell in the first place? I think making wise business decisions makes you seem  more professional ;).

[marksjohn]

that sounds good! many successful stories of millionaires in the world start from developing apps on mobile. develop your idea. at first, you can develop at one operation system androi or ios, after its success, upgrade it as you can possible. probably, the most famous app is pokemon go, you can follow this as sample. hope you will share your product to us soon. Good luck

[jkohler]

I would release an iOS app first, to see if it does well. If it does, then i'll move to Android. I don't remember where i read this from, but i find a lot of app / game devs going the same route.