mac support

[gringo]

I am wondering why is everybody so concerned with mac... Does anybody know how many casual players have mac, or something like that, to figure it out?

I've heard like 95% of the people uses plain windows.

[PoV]

Well, if you have a Mac, you don't really have a choice to "use" Windows or not. It's true there is a larger market of potential Windows users, but of the people here with cross platform games, some get almost equal or more sales on the Mac.

Some like to joke that their success on the Mac is something related to this:

http://www.roosterteeth.com/archive/download.php?id=499

(if that link doesn't work, go here: http://www.roosterteeth.com/archive/ ) :D

[Jim Buck]

Many people on these boards have 50%, or more, of their sales coming from Mac people..

[ggambett]

Many people on these boards have 50%, or more, of their sales coming from Mac people..
Note that it's "50% of sales from the website", not 50% overall sales or 50% overall profits. Unfortunately there aren't Mac game portals comparable to Yahoo, Real and the like.

[elias]

Mac (and to a lesser extent) linux support are valuable to us. From a sample of 28000 downloads and 519 sales of Tribal Trouble, Mac OS X sales account for 55%, Linux sales for 14% and Windows sales for 30%. Perhaps just as important, it seems that Mac OS X users have a slightly better conversion rate (>2%, while the linux and windows users are somewhat less than 2%).

- elias

[princec]

My findings echo Elias', with the exception we only pay lip service to Linux support because the conversion rate is abysmal, the freeloading hippies :)

Cas :)

[soniCron]

My findings echo Elias', with the exception we only pay lip service to Linux support because the conversion rate is abysmal, the freeloading hippies :) Do you notice, or have any way to notice, cross-platform conversions? Perhaps they're trying the Linux version but buying for Windows? Of course, I doubt the numbers would be above abysmal, even under those circumstances. When you're getting so much for free, why bother paying? ;)

[princec]

I could technically check for a regcode being entered on different OSes but as I don't feel that user defections are anything I could use to my advantage, I don't.

Cas :)

[Sillysoft]

In the last 6 months, Mac sales have made up 63% of my sales. Linux sales are less then 1%. The rest are windows. I've gotten some good press on mac sites recently, so that has pushed the mac ratio up. Also, my sales/download conversion rate is noticeably higher for mac users.

Any idea why your Linux sales are so high elias?

[elias]

Any idea why your Linux sales are so high elias?

Not sure. Our sample size is probably not large enough. We did have quite a lot of "early adopters" from linux users since we announced the beta on several linux user forums. Maybe they like the fact that we emphasize cross-platformness and that we use linux as a development platform. Maybe they like the game better. As for Cas, I'd guess that his webstart distribution on linux is hindering him. But since you get low rates too, it's anyones guess really.

- elias

[Jack Norton]

Well, who doesn't make a cross-platform game nowadays? with libraries like PTK or torque etc is so easy...

[princec]

I've been talking to Pat on and off about a JPTK as well...

Cas :)

[Emmanuel]

I'd absolutely use it if you build it and have a small JRE (like Twistingo does), Cas. I've looked at LWJGL but it's too smart for me :)

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[Jack Norton]

A JPTK would be the ultimate game development machine :D I'm already dreaming of a web-UBM multiplayer... :D

[iopred]

Mac sales have accounted for 50% of Little Soldiers sales also.

I would never consider not making a mac port, when you can double your profits, do it!