Actually, your argument is flawed, and incorrect. I am a 3rd year student working on a BA in game design. I've taken several classes on tablet gaming, it is a major part of the curriculum at most schools now as it it assumed to be the wave of the future. It is not harder to develop for Android, this is a common misconception, it is less profitable, and this is why most devs develop for Android last.
For your comment to make sense, you would have to assume that all PC's are the same resolution, chipset, screen size, OS etc. In fact, there is way more variation in the PC medium than in the tablet, yet PC versions always come out first.
Edited for spelling.
Sorry, but you took offense and either misread or wrongly conflated different parts of my post. You'll note the only time I mention traditional desktop/laptop operating systems is the very start, as a reference to gamers on those platforms being relatively up-to-date (along with iPhone/iPad users). The Windows and Macintosh setups aren't that important for the mobile OS discussion, except to point out the similarity in low usage rates for badly-outdated operating systems.
After that, it's strictly Android vs iOS for the core content and vast majority of the post. In that regard, funky resolution and chipsets and weird variables actually do matter, even aside from basic profits and piracy rates. When you cannot deliver a standard experience across a generation of devices, the user experience suffers.
Actually, your argument is flawed, and incorrect. I am a 3rd year student working on a BA in game design. I've taken several classes on tablet gaming, it is a major part of the curriculum at most schools now as it it assumed to be the wave of the future. It is not harder to develop for Android, this is a common misconception, it is less profitable, and this is why most devs develop for Android last.
For your comment to make sense, you would have to assume that all PC's are the same resolution, chipset, screen size, OS etc. In fact, there is way more variation in the PC medium than in the tablet, yet PC versions always come out first.
Edited for spelling.
Having spent the last 5 years in mobile games development and having worked on several #1 titles on Android, iOS and a number of other platforms I would have to disagree with you.
It's not necessarily hard to develop for Android if you target only a limited subset of devices and OS versions. The Android toolchain is pretty nice to work with as are the dev features of the platform itself. As Mr Golem points out it's the variety of devices with their various chipsets, non-standard input methods (Sony Xperia I'm looking at you) and, in my experience, variable quality GL drivers that presents the challenge.
Lots of times the developer can hit 90% of the audience pretty easily but the publishers will always tend to push for 100% and that's where a lot of the work can occur; tracking down the bug in a particular chipset driver and delivering the workaround. There's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that most consumers don't see that make it desirable for devs to support platforms that wouldn't otherwise be economical to target (embed deals and the like).
Android is now being considered seriously by all the publishers and with the maturing cross-platforms tools that are available (Unity, Marmalade etc) much of these fragmentation annoyances are slipping away. I'm confident Android will really start to compete in 2013, it certainly has the numbers.
Anyway.. good luck with those final issues.. looking forward to having BG land on my Nexus 7 and not having to swap CD's this time.
Actually, your argument is flawed, and incorrect. I am a 3rd year student working on a BA in game design. I've taken several classes on tablet gaming, it is a major part of the curriculum at most schools now as it it assumed to be the wave of the future. It is not harder to develop for Android, this is a common misconception, it is less profitable, and this is why most devs develop for Android last.
For your comment to make sense, you would have to assume that all PC's are the same resolution, chipset, screen size, OS etc. In fact, there is way more variation in the PC medium than in the tablet, yet PC versions always come out first.
Edited for spelling.
Having spent the last 5 years in mobile games development and having worked on several #1 titles on Android, iOS and a number of other platforms I would have to disagree with you.
It's not necessarily hard to develop for Android if you target only a limited subset of devices and OS versions. The Android toolchain is pretty nice to work with as are the dev features of the platform itself. As Mr Golem points out it's the variety of devices with their various chipsets, non-standard input methods (Sony Xperia I'm looking at you) and, in my experience, variable quality GL drivers that presents the challenge.
Lots of times the developer can hit 90% of the audience pretty easily but the publishers will always tend to push for 100% and that's where a lot of the work can occur; tracking down the bug in a particular chipset driver and delivering the workaround. There's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that most consumers don't see that make it desirable for devs to support platforms that wouldn't otherwise be economical to target (embed deals and the like).
Android is now being considered seriously by all the publishers and with the maturing cross-platforms tools that are available (Unity, Marmalade etc) much of these fragmentation annoyances are slipping away. I'm confident Android will really start to compete in 2013, it certainly has the numbers.
Anyway.. good luck with those final issues.. looking forward to having BG land on my Nexus 7 and not having to swap CD's this time.
I'm very curious if BGEE will play well on 7", or if it will need a 10" tablet to be able to play well. I'm a bit worried about how small the interface buttons will be on a 7". With some games I have a hard time hitting the right spot on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 7".
And another thing I'm worried about is gaming in the train: that's what I use my Android tablet for, but when I play BG, I shout and curse if a fight is hard, I forget the time and I want to be all by myself: me and BG. I don't think I'll like playing on the road, people looking funny at my curses and shouts, missing the exit station, feeling uncosy.
Comments
@TrentOster
We're hopeful Android is only a week or two behind. We've got a few sneaky bugs left
Sorry, but you took offense and either misread or wrongly conflated different parts of my post. You'll note the only time I mention traditional desktop/laptop operating systems is the very start, as a reference to gamers on those platforms being relatively up-to-date (along with iPhone/iPad users). The Windows and Macintosh setups aren't that important for the mobile OS discussion, except to point out the similarity in low usage rates for badly-outdated operating systems.
After that, it's strictly Android vs iOS for the core content and vast majority of the post. In that regard, funky resolution and chipsets and weird variables actually do matter, even aside from basic profits and piracy rates. When you cannot deliver a standard experience across a generation of devices, the user experience suffers.
It's not necessarily hard to develop for Android if you target only a limited subset of devices and OS versions. The Android toolchain is pretty nice to work with as are the dev features of the platform itself. As Mr Golem points out it's the variety of devices with their various chipsets, non-standard input methods (Sony Xperia I'm looking at you) and, in my experience, variable quality GL drivers that presents the challenge.
Lots of times the developer can hit 90% of the audience pretty easily but the publishers will always tend to push for 100% and that's where a lot of the work can occur; tracking down the bug in a particular chipset driver and delivering the workaround. There's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that most consumers don't see that make it desirable for devs to support platforms that wouldn't otherwise be economical to target (embed deals and the like).
Android is now being considered seriously by all the publishers and with the maturing cross-platforms tools that are available (Unity, Marmalade etc) much of these fragmentation annoyances are slipping away. I'm confident Android will really start to compete in 2013, it certainly has the numbers.
Anyway.. good luck with those final issues.. looking forward to having BG land on my Nexus 7 and not having to swap CD's this time.
And another thing I'm worried about is gaming in the train: that's what I use my Android tablet for, but when I play BG, I shout and curse if a fight is hard, I forget the time and I want to be all by myself: me and BG. I don't think I'll like playing on the road, people looking funny at my curses and shouts, missing the exit station, feeling uncosy.