14 DAY TRIAL // Over at Macworld they're asking "will iPhone games lead to more on the Mac?" Some developers think so. Others don't quite see it happening without a distribution service like the iPhone's App Store.
Glenda Adams, director of development for Aspyr Media, agrees that developing for the iPhone may lead to an interest to develop for Mac as well, since the iPhone requires both a Mac and a working knowledge of Cocoa, the Application Programming Interface (API) that Apple uses for Mac OS X:
"That might be what happens," said Glenda Adams. "It's possible that iPhone games might lead to a new crop of little games for the Mac," Aspyr's director of development added. Aspyr Media is well known for publishing popular titles such as The Sims and Guitar Hero for Mac.
Developer Unai Landa Bonilla has only recently picked up on the iPhone and Mac. The handheld technology director of Spanish game developer and publisher Digital Legends showcased his first iPhone game, Kroll, during this year's WWDC keynote. Looking at Mac gaming from a different point of view, Mac games could pick up where their iPhone counterparts left off, the news source suggests, but this solution isn't without its downsides either:
"The problem I see is the size of the content," Bonilla stated. "Most developers creating a game for the iPhone will be generating a limited amount of content - smaller graphics and fewer gameplay levels than many Mac gamers may be expecting," reads the Macworld piece.
Then, there's the problem of distributing the games. While iPhone developers have a very safe and attractive environment to throw and advertise their apps (the App Store), currently the Mac doesn't sport such a service. Thus, developers have to worry about Mac copy protection and, of course, about a distribution mechanism to get their games on folks' hard drives.
GameTree is one such service, but it's only handling casual titles for now, according to TransGaming CTO Gavriel State. TransGaming Technologies is the creator of Cider, a technology used to port games to Intel-based Macs.
So, clearly, the road to Mac gaming is bumpy. But, while everyone keeps waiting for Apple to offer more gaming support on its Macs, maybe it's time to ask the question: which is Apple's gaming priority right now - the Mac or the iPhone?