Greetings, We collected a variety of questions from various places and try to answer them all below. Most of them came from an AudioGames.net thread, also linked below. If you have follow up questions or anything we have not yet addressed, let us know here, on AudioGames.net, or on Twitter, where we can be found as @DracoEnt
http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=121215 Hi all, Quite a few points and questions to touch on here, so I'll do my best not to miss anyone. Keep the questions coming, and we will continue to try to answer them if we can. At this time, we are not planning to offer games in the Windows Marketplace. Windows users in general, and even more specifically visually impaired users, tend to stick with older versions of the OS, whereas Apple users tend to stay up to date. Too many of our customers on Windows will be running older versions of Windows, so we plan simply to offer them via the website for now. As, hopefully, more users upgrade their systems, this will probably change in the future. Regarding playable demos: This is a topic we plan to continually revisit and reevaluate. In the past, playable demos were essential, given the higher price tag on the games. We are trying really hard to bring down the cost of our games. Any time you add demo version, particularly unlockable ones, (though not exclusively), you're adding overhead development plus a heightened risk of piracy. We have to weigh the pros and cons between offering demos versus keeping costs down. We will, of course, continue offering audio trailers for most titles on our website. Regarding VI marketshare of Mac vs Windows: The VI Mac community is growing and vibrant, and largely made up of a younger demographic. The younger demographic is the more likely to enjoy and purchase games, and that demographic has been almost wholly unserved on the Mac platform before now. Raw numbers are not what is important in that regard, although I think many Windows users here might be surprised just how large the VI Mac community has become. In any case, there are a whole range of reasons why we expect sales on Mac to equal or surpass Windows ones, including these, the ease of purchasing applications from the App Store, and the ridiculously high levels of piracy on Windows. Regarding the responsiveness of ChangeReaction/SilverDollar: This is due in large part to the game engine we've written in-house from the ground up, though there may be other contributing factors. For example, most Windows PC's tend to have relatively low-quality hardware, which Apple doesn't even offer for its Mac products. As I mentioned before, many Windows users are using older versions of Windows, which may also be effecting performance/stability. All of that said, though, we do not anticipate a significant difference in performance between Windows and Mac versions of the games that are running on comparable hardware and relatively current operating systems. (XP is not relatively current. *wink*) Regarding the switch from Windows to Mac: Someone mentioned that a primary reason they would not switch was the library of software and games they already have built up for Mac. There are a number of ways to run Windows software on Mac, the most accessible being VMWare Fusion, which permits the Windows OS to run side-by-side with Mac OS X. For about $70 and a Windows installation disc, you can have the best of both worlds. You can also, fairly easily, set up a Mac to dual boot to either OS X or Windows, though that is not an ideal situation. It is kind of ironic that, with VMWare Fusion, a blind user can totally accessibly install Windows without sighted assistance, scripts, or anything specialized whatsoever on Mac OS X. Really glad you are all enjoying the releases so far. Plenty more on the way. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
