Developing for PC, Mac, and Linux

In 1981, IBM launched their Personal Computer (PC). For many years it was only ever used as a business computer, with a few shareware games released. However, that changed in 1993 with the massively successful shareware title Doom. The next few years saw a massive boom in PC gaming.

I mention that brief piece of history because it is of great relevance to independent game developers in 2008. It is rarely referred to as such, but shareware is probably what you’ll be dealing with on the PC unless you are developing an on-line game.

The retail market is in a poor state, but the download market is very active, particularly in the casual space. Games tend to be based around the try before you buy model, whether limited by content, such as only the first level being free, or by time, 60 minutes gameplay for free by example.

PC - Pros

• Massive potential market.
• Mature and successful on-line market rather than retail based.
• Completely open download platform - no concept approval required; no restrictions of any kind.
• Huge variety of open source and low cost tools.
• Set your own price and sell where you want.
• Other revenue options, such as ad-based, micro-transactions, or subscription.
• Release your game whenever you want - no third party approval required.
• Immediate downloads for home/office web surfers.
• Generally lower cost of development.
• Easy to add additional content and updates at any time.
• PC boxed copy sales can be a useful extra source of revenue.
• Easy access to your audience.
• Massive on-line audience for web based games or MMOs.

PC - Cons

• PC hardware is variable, leading to unexpected problems on a number of machines. This is not to be underestimated.
• Lower profile than a console release.
• Rampant piracy. However, this could be debated forever so I’ll leave that discussion alone!
• Lack of a submission structure may lead to lack of development strategy if self-publishing or approaching publishers towards the end of a project.
• Lack of approvals mechanism often leads to much lower production values.
• Distribution platforms such as Steam and GameTap require approval from their owners and may incur exclusivity restrictions - if only with respect to other PC distribution systems and portals. Anecdotal evidence from developers is that such platforms are getting harder to reach as mainstream publishers are providing more content.
• Some resellers may take a large cut of the sales price, particularly true of many popular casual game portals.

Piracy is an issue, although evidence for the real effect on sales figures is shakey. Russell Carroll has written excellent articles on the matter over at Gamasutra. However, what isn’t arguable is that a good console download will usually sell many more copies than a good PC download, at least for indie games.

In terms of sales figures, expect around 10k sales if you do very well, 20-30k for a very significant hit, perhaps more if you have a track record and an audience.. Those are not big numbers, although they are big enough if your game is $20 and you receive 60-90% of the income which you will if selling through your own site, affiliates or Steam. Casual games can sell many more copies but the per unit revenue may be a lot less as many traditional portals do not pay high rates and have various customer bundling schemes.

It’s important to bare in mind that the vast majority of indie and casual games will be lucky to scrape past 2000 units. I’ll be writing an article on sales figures later this year, but you’ll find some hard figures here.

In my opinion, the PC is the best platform to get started with unless you already have experience of professional game development. The console learning curve is steep, and for most people it’ll be extremely difficult and frustrating to even get through the approvals stage. By all means aim for console, but keep a PC version in mind and in progress where possible.

A brief note on Mac and Linux based projects. They may well be worthwhile if you are doing PC, but it’s debatable otherwise. Both platforms benefit from an active user base and seemingly less piracy. Supporting the Mac can get your title more press attention too and that can be very important. Mac may increase sales by 10-25%, and Linux by a few percentage points. It will depend upon how the game is promoted and how it resonates with the audience.

If you wish to consider these platforms, I’d suggest using a cross platform library or engine.

EDIT: Great opinion piece on Gamasutra where 2D Boy (World of Goo) explains issues with XBox Live Arcade for indies.