Looking around this blog and its comments, I’ve noticed that the argument of DirectX vs OpenGL seems to be discussed quite regularly. Therefore, I thought it relevant to bring up the topic a bit more formally.
For those who aren’t completely familiar, DirectX/Direct3D/D3D and OpenGL are the two most popular graphics API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) utilized in game development. While the complete description of what a graphics API does and their history would fill quite a few blog posts, they essentially provide sets of abstracted functions designed to be used and reused in a game’s source code. In short, they make game programmers’ lives much easier.
Probably the hottest debate between the two API’s has to do with their relative performance. I find this to be a bit misguided. (more…)
In case you haven’t heard the news, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is now available on the Mac App Store!
And to celebrate, we’ve put together a small sweepstakes where you can win a FREE copy to call your own. The rules are simple:
“The Look.”
I have a variety of nerdy interests. I have seasons of Full Metal Panic and Babylon 5 tucked under my bookshelf, folders full of unfinished fantasy stories, and a beautiful, proudly decked-out iMac squarely taking up the majority of my desk. Needless to say, I’m a pretty big geek. Most people know that I’m nerdy, but before I started writing for Aspyr, few knew that I was into video games. Why? “The look.”
I encounter “the look” frequently. I’m a senior in college and yes, I’m still into video games. “The look” is an expression of the American stigma against video games. It typically involves a cocked eyebrow, an awkward silence, and a slightly upturned lower lip. They believe that games are for kids and immature teens, that games are violent and have a negative influence on society, and that games are socially isolating.
Unfortunately, these people likely haven’t played a game since Oregon Trail was a bestseller. The video game industry is a growing art, and has shifted its focus to adults. That trend is here to stay.
Please extend a warm welcome to Michael Simpson, our newest social media marketing intern. Michael is a graduate of Westwood College with a degree in game software development. He “aspyr”s to one day be a game designer, specifically in the areas of game mechanics and/or balancing. Michael has always been into competitive gaming, and lately has been fairly obsessed with Riot Games’ League of Legends. Some of his favorite games include Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Shadow of the Colossus, Limbo, and Silent Hill 2. For his first entry, we asked Michael to comment on the future of Mac gaming, and the larger picture of gaming on Apple devices in general.
The future of gaming on the Mac is going to rely heavily upon choices made by Apple. Looking to the past, one can see that Apple hasn’t made much effort to support gaming on its OS, until quite recently. One of the largest breakthroughs was Apple’s shift to Intel processors and then later the release of Boot Camp, though this ultimately still promoted playing games through a Windows OS (part of the problem). While this is a temporary way to satisfy fans of gaming, it’s not the answer to gaming natively on a Mac OS. The laziness Apple has exhibited in the past with game software has been a large bane to gamers who also love Apple PCs and Mac OSX.
Historically speaking, Apple has taken too much of an ambiguous stance toward gaming on their platform. A great example of this is an old interview with Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve Corp. Gabe reveals that he and others at Valve had been in talks with Apple many times, trying to get the ball rolling on Valve software releases for Mac operating systems. According to Gabe, Apple was hesitant to follow through with them on a repeated basis. Given Valve is responsible for arguably some of the greatest games in recent history, Apple’s choice to not follow through on this opportunity should leave doubts toward their commitment to Mac gaming.
Gabe has his eyes on you, Steve
While choices like this have made Apple’s aim to make gaming “serious” on a Mac dubious at best, recent developments have been significantly more promising. With Valve’s announcement that Steam would be available on the Mac, it seems that they were finally able to get through to Apple. Though the number of games currently available through Steam is limited in comparison to the PC version, the fact that Steam is available for the Mac period is a huge boost to Mac gaming. Steam makes games incredibly accessible and therefore offers increased exposure as well. Both of these things are needed to increase the likelihood of game developers releasing Mac ports in close tandem with their PC counterparts. Essentially, Steam makes a future where a Mac gamer is no longer logging into their Windows partition to play a given game a very viable possibility.
Excellent…now if only the Macintosh Steam had a design that appealed more to its user base…
With Steam breathing life into Mac gaming, there’s some assuredness to its growth. However, the future of gaming and Apple may be more closely associated with other apple products – namely, the Apple iPhone and iTouch. The iPhone in terms of app support is fairly dominant among mobile devices, and experienced iPhone developers are highly sought-after in the job market. Apple has the ability to take the iPhone and do to the rest of the phone industry what PCs essentially did to Macs in terms of gaming. If Apple continues to put time into iPhone and iTouch graphics and app support, the sky is the limit as to what these devices could achieve. When there are 99 cent games in the app store that are giving better experiences than ~$30 Nintendo DS/Sony PSP games, who is to say that such a device couldn’t potentially steal sales from the handheld industry? With Nintendo’s 3DS launching at a $249 price point (slightly more than the base iTouch retail of $229), the iTouch and its future generations can be seen as a reasonable alternative, especially for more casual gamers. This isn’t even taking into account the plethora of other features that the iOS can offer.
ChAIR Entertainment’s Infinity Blade, running on the Unreal Engine 3, makes me a complete believer in the potential of the iOS to deliver some amazing games in the future.
While Apple has found a bit of a gaming niche with the iOS app store, there are still strides to be made if the Mac is to be considered a true alternative to PC gaming. Fortunately with the launch of Steam for the Mac, Apple now has a stronger foothold to challenge PC dominance. Most importantly, Apple must continue to make a strong push for gaming and continue to show that it’s a market they wish to capture.
How do you feel about Steam on the Mac? Is Steam going to be Apple’s big ticket item toward driving Mac gaming, or just a small stepping stone in the right direction? What about other online game services, such as Aspyr’s GameAgent Store or the Mac App Store? How about the gaming support on Apple’s mobile devices? Feel free to leave some comments below with your opinions!
Smurf game complications, a video game grammy win, and a Smithsonian video game exhibit.
First, big thanks to everyone that participated! We got some really good entries, and we put them all through our super scientific selection process (read: a committee of interns and a few others picked their favorites) to come up with six winners. Here are the winners and the tweets that got them to the top:
Runners Up
Starting today, we’re creating TWO news streams–one focused on the GameAgent Store and its news, deals, contests, and promos, as well as our upcoming and updated GameAgent application (check the Mac App Store soon!); and one focused on Aspyr Media, all of its products, and the Mac gaming scene in general.
If you want to keep up with all of the latest promotions, contests, and deals from GameAgent.com, then be sure to follow our GameAgent Facebook and Twitter (@gameagentstore) accounts. The vast majority of you are already following us on these accounts since these have been our sole social media outlets.
For everything else Aspyr-related, as well as news, reviews, and other tidbits from the Mac gaming scene, be sure to follow our new Facebook and Twitter (@AspyrMedia) accounts set up specifically for Aspyr Media. You’ll be able to find out about new releases, keep up with stories here on our blog, and be one of the first to know about any deals on any of our games (whether through GameAgent, Steam, or anywhere else!).
Essentially, you’ll be getting all the same info as before (if not more) from both of the feeds, but now it will just be easier to filter!
Of course, you’ll still be able to get everything in one place by checking in here on our blog. Like our upcoming GameAgent application for the Mac App Store, we want the GameAgent blog to be a place to “discover Mac gaming.” To keep things equally simple for you guys, though, we’ll do our best to clearly label and categorize any and all stories and posts.
Does the separation of the commerce and news feeds help you? Did you like it better the old way? Let us know what you think in the comments! 
