From: mssmith@afterlife.ncsc.mil (M. Scott Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Developer seeks advice: SUMMARY!
Date: 19 Nov 92 01:49:31 GMT
Organization: The Great Beyond


Hi again!

   A couple days ago I posted some of the questions that have been lurking
in my mind as I begin to develop a Mac game.  I have received dozens and
dozens of detailed answers from all kinds of people from all over the
world.  Wow!  I am VERY, very grateful for all of the suggestions you
guys (and gals) made.  I'll try to reply individually to many of you over
the next week or so.

   I feel obliged to summarize some of my findings.  (And I encourage you
all to yell at me if you see a flaw with my analysis!)

COLOR SUPPORT
-------------

   While many people had color and thought it might be OK to only have a
color version, the majority stressed that there is a LARGE number of people
out there with black and white Macs.  And the sale of PowerBooks -- 1-bit
(or 4-bit grayscale) machines -- is enormous.

   People noted that I shouldn't feel a huge need to support  B&W if I
made this shareware, but that I'd really being cutting down on my market
if I went commercial.

   Now, people offered suggestions on how to go about supporting B&W.
Some said to let the Mac take care of it by dithering on the fly --
unfortunately, the way I'm using colors, there is not enough contrast for
this to work.  I would definitely need to do separate black and white
versions of all the sprites.  I think what I would do is have two
separate versions -- and in fact, design them somewhat separately, because
I'm getting fancy with color with the version I'm working on and it adds
a lot to the game.  A simple port to B&W wouldn't cut it -- I'd want to
try to make the B&W version look good _in_ B&W, instead of just OK.

   Many of you felt that the B&W machines might not have the horsepower
to run the game, anyway.  I'm not sure -- I don't have benchmark tests.
But so far I haven't done any incredibly complicated animation, and some
of my testers have said it runs at the same speed on the LC as the IIci,
so this may not be a problem.

REQUIRE SYSTEM 7?
-----------------

   People were mixed on this.  It was clear that a lot of people still use
System 6 (although it looks like most replying use Sys 7).  Some felt
requiring System 7 wouldn't be a problem because most people would have it
by the time I completed my game, and that people could upgrade to Sys 7
(although not 7.1 -- groan) for free -- also, all new Macs come with Sys 7.

   But I think it was pretty clear that I had better support at least
6.05, especially if I'm looking to go commercial.  As I stated earlier,
I don't really have System 6 -- I got my Mac with Sys 7 on it and haven't
ever gone back -- and so I'm not certain what would be involved in making
this game run under System 6.  I mentioned I use GWorlds, which I thought
only worked with System 7, but many pointed out that some later versions
of System 6 include it.

   Actually, I have a stripped-down version of System 6 (not sure what
version, though) on a floppy disk, and I quickly tried running my game
under it.  The graphics became corrupted and I decided not to worry
about it for now.

   I didn't feel people felt as strongly about not supporting < Sys 7.0
as they did B&W.  But eventually, I would love to have beta-testers who
use System 6.0.x to help me investigate making it Sys-7 compat.  It didn't
sound like it would be a huge problem.

MONITOR SIZE SUPPORT
--------------------

   This was a tough one.  In my first message I mentioned that I was
supporting a classic-size monitor, but only color.  Of course, the
smallest color monitor is the 12" monitor, and I guess I confused a
few people.  WHen I started the game I made the game window the size of
the classic, what I felt at the time would be my lowest common denominator.
But then I did everything in color, and wasn't sure whether I'd be doing a
B&W version.  After the first couple reponses, I set the game window
to the size of the 12" monitor.

   There are many games that can take advantage of basically any monitor
size.  For example, a game with a battlefield or something, where the
whole field isn't normally shown, can display however much of the field as
possible.  And games like SimAnt, which have multiple windows with options
or statistics in them, certainly can benefit from larger screen space.

   Unfortunately, with my game, I don't use scrolling and basically what
you see on the screen is the entire "playing field".  And there are no
extra windows with options in this (I'm keeping this simple).

   An interesting suggestion people made, which I guess has been used in
games like Glider, is to fill that extra screen space with neat patterns
or something.  I might do that -- but I think a window designed to fit on
a 12" monitor looks great on the 13" monitor -- and for those of you
with 21" monitors, hey, if you're not happy with it, I'll take it!  :)
But seriously..  I'm not sure..  If this was the right kind of game to
take advantage of your extra space, I wouldn't hesitate to do it at
all.  I'll see how it goes.

COMMERCIAL OR SHAREWARE?
------------------------

   Granted, I won't know until I'm done with this game whether or not it's
commercial quality.  Indeed, I don't want to worry about this too much.  I
know that I would eventually like to get a game published for the Mac, but
it doesn't have to be this one.  My primary goal is to write a good Mac
game, and to learn a lot in doing it, so I can write an even better Mac
game in the future.  And I value positive comments from players as more
rewarding than money.  (I've already got a full-time job, so I'm not
in desperate need for money.)

   People pointed out that I would make basically no money if I made this
shareware, though.  In fact, not one person could come up of an example
where an author received more than a few registrations, even when the number
of users using the software was enormous.  Also, several of you from outside
the Continental U.S. stated that it was a headache trying to send in money
for a game, what with bank surchages, currency headaches, etc.

   You all stated that you want to see a demo of this game on Sumex if
it's commercial, and I am absolutely committed to making a demo version
available when it's ready.  What I will probably do is include 2 or 3
levels of the game -- and maybe disable a few features and sounds (in the
interest of space) -- but basically I'll have a demo which is the real
thing.

   The majority of people said $50 and under for a good game was fair, and
that $15 for a shareware game was very fair.

COPY PROTECTION
---------------

   As expected, you all were as much against copy protection as I am.  Many
of you stated that you didn't mind non-obtrusive copy protection schemes,
and a lot of people were in support of the method where you receive a code to
unlock the copy protection once you send in your registration card.

   But, if this was published commercially, it would ultimately be up to
the publisher.  Even so, I would express my reservations against copy
protection.

HOW MANY OF YOU BUY GAMES?
--------------------------

   I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone by insinuating that Mac game
players weren't honest people, so I hope no one thought I was.  No,
really, I think PC gamers are dihonest as well.  ;)  (I'm joking.  Well,
at least, about the Mac game players part.)

   We all know the reality is that we can't afford to buy every game we'd
like, especially poor games.  I only have bad feelings towards those who
regularly copy software and never buy it.  But I honestly don't think
there's many people like that.

   It was clear to me that you all would be willing to spend money on a
game, commercial or shareware, if it was decent.  And most of you seemed
willing to buy the game -- even after you had already acquired through one
way or another -- if you really enjoyed it.

   As for what types of games you like, obviously you like them all.  And
few people argued that "fluff" (i.e. superb graphics, etc.) were a
necessary requirement for a good game, although obviously a good game with
great graphics makes an even better game.

------

   I think that basically covers it for the topics I brought up.  I really
did learn a lot from all of your suggestions.

   At this point, I feel that I should support black and white as well as color,
and should further investigate supporting System 6.  I will also attempt to
satisfy those with small as well as large monitors, somehow.

   Some of you offered assistance in beta-testing this game, and I will
definitely take you up on your offers when I'm at that stage.

   I'm still not going to mention any features of this game, because as soon
as I did that it would be vaporware.  But hopefully you'll be hearing from
me again sometime in the next couple months.

   Again, THANK YOU for your responses.  They were great!  And sorry for
this long message which is probably full of type-o's and really incoherent
sentences.  I'm a little behind on sleep.  (Hey, I could've just appended
all the replies and posted them, clogging up the net for weeks!)

Please keep in contact with me if you have any further ideas, suggestions,
urgings, etc.  I don't mind.

M. Scott Smith
  (mssmith@afterlife.ncsc.mil || umsmith@mcs.drexel.edu)

{Whew!}