14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft continues its efforts to get closer to developers and encourage them to bring their apps on Windows 8.1, so today, the company published an interview with the creator of Drift Mania, one of the most popular games in the Windows and Windows Phone stores right now.
The Drift Mania series recorded a total of 6 million downloads on both platforms, Microsoft says, so Pat Toulouse, the man behind Ratrod Studios – the company that created the game, took the opportunity to discuss the way Redmond works with developers on bringing more high-quality titles to the store.
As far as games are concerned, Toulouse explains that going from Unity to Windows isn't such a difficult job, although he admits that it could take a while until you successfully manage to discover all its benefits.
“Best of all is that porting from Unity to Windows is efficient. The first time we did it, it took a little effort to figure out the different steps and get familiar with the platform and tools. Now, however, we can generally port a title to a Windows Phone within a few days and to Windows 8.1 within a week,” he says.
Leaving all these porting details aside, Toulouse also comments on the collaboration between Microsoft and developers, as the Redmond-based tech giant has often been criticized for the way it treats app creators.
The Drift Mania owner says that Microsoft is really lending a hand to developers who are planning to launch an app or game on Windows, offering them low fees and access to Visual Studio, which is pretty much the number one solution when it comes to such a task.
“Microsoft treats us well. We pay a low fee for a developer account, and in return, we get to use Visual Studio, and we get great support throughout our development process so we can really polish our end product. Microsoft has also provided us resources to help us start advertising via pubCenter, and that has helped us to increase our revenues and generate profits from our free versions. Microsoft’s start-up programs, like BizSpark, have been key, too,” he explains.
And it seems like Microsoft's efforts are already paying off. At this point, there are more than 160,000 apps available for download and figures are very likely to grow bigger in the coming months, as more users are completing the switch to Redmond's modern operating system.