Zmonk’s Game Cage
Dysfunctional family: Apple’s relationship with its game developers
By Zmonk (zmonkey@macedition.com), 14 July 2000
Part 3: What Apple can do better, or “Hello my name is Dave, and I’m a Mac game developer”
In the spirit of wild fantasy, here’s my take on what Apple could do better to win and keep new game developers. I’ll even throw in some ballpark budget figures for these programs, just so we have some idea of how much money I’m talking about here. A company that has a successful Mac product is likely to continue making Mac products. It’s getting the team and infrastructure in place to start shaping a game company’s culture that’s the hard part. Once those key elements are in place, you’ve got inertia on your side. It’s simple, really. Apple has done great work in rebuilding the Mac game market. These programs are designed to follow through on that success, and not waste the momentum they’ve worked so hard to gain.
First off, Apple should bring back and promote the Game Kitchen as a regular event. The Game Kitchen concept is simple: developers bring in their code under development, and go over it with Apple engineers and other game developers, sharing techniques and optimization tips. These sessions are known as intense code-fests with Apple engineers helping tweak and improve developers’ code. They have a reputation for motivating developers, as well as being a great way to show attendees some hands-on techniques for improving their games. Have four of these a year: one on the West Coast, one in the Midwest, one in Boston or New York, and one in the South – say, Austin. Apple could spend $50,000 per event. Throw in a few good parties on the folks in Cupertino, and you’ve got an event game developers will love to come to. Raffle a few new Macs at each one, and they’ll be beating down your door to get in. Cost: 200,000 bucks.
Apple needs to be a big presence at E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, held each year in Los Angeles. E3 is where game companies come to show off their latest to the press and public. Apple needs to be there in a big way. I’m talking Big with a capital B. A nice, centrally located booth with game demos running, dual-platform development demos, and all manner of cool Apple tech on show. AirPort, OpenGL, nVidia cards, whatever. The point is to get your logo burned into attendees’ brains. Apple needs to do this in a big way. Were they even at E3 last year? Why not? Give away a few Macs here as well, and copies of the latest games. Be nice to the PC game geeks, hand out plenty of swag, but really be there to meet and greet the developers. Seek out and befriend the small developers, the ones who are building the next big thing. Have small offices and people who can make or coordinate deals on hand at all times, and make sure the staff on hand knows both the industry and how to hook developers up with the people they need to talk to. Nothing is worse than a nice-looking booth run by clueless PR drones, with all the bigwigs too busy to talk to the little guy. Cost: 500,000 bucks.
To follow through in a big way, Apple should have a dedicated Office of Game Developer Relations in Cupertino. They should have a staff of, say, 5 top-notch engineers under blanket NDA whose sole job is to help game developers solve problems related to Mac game development. Let’s say you’re a developer with a thorny problem you can’t solve. You fire off an e-mail to the GDR, and you’ve got a human being actively working on your project. Send in your code, so they can replicate your problem and help you fix it. These should be the same engineers who are working the Game Kitchens, so people can get to know each other. Pay them well, make sure they get lots of free games, and they’ll go a long way towards helping the Mac in the game market. Cost: 500,000 bucks.
Apple should also make sure that all the projects that need test Macs can get them. For free. If a developer wants to do a Mac version of SuperSplat 3D, Apple has to make it as easy as possible for them. They simply have to. Any barrier between the developer and the platform choice should be eliminated. Make the developer prove that they’re serious about the project, but make sure they have the resources they need if they are. This won’t cost much – say, five grand worth of hardware per top-tier project per year. There are only about ten top notch games each year, so for $50,000 Apple makes new friends. A simple equation, really.
So what have we come up with? A grand total of 1.25 million dollars in investment. If Apple makes $200 on an iMac (a guess), then they need to sell 6,250 iMacs to cover their investment. Apple sold close to half a million iMacs last year. And don’t forget, a lot of these investments will be tax writeoffs, such as marketing and capital improvement, so the real number is probably lower than that. Six thousand iMacs? If they succeeded in doubling the number of Mac games available each year, they’d sell a whole helluva lot more than that, and eventually people won’t snicker when they hear the words “Apple” and “games” in the same sentence anymore.