Hi everyone,

I JUST found this amazing website, and am currently in the process of trying to absorb everything as fast as possible!

I work a regular day job doing consulting work, but am endevouring to release some games on the side through my company (aren't we all).

I'm sorry if I'm targeting the wrong forum, but I've finished some design docs for my first few commercial projects I want to tackle, and I'm hoping to get a little bit of "advice" from others who are in a similar situation as me..

Because of time/resources I'm only really focused on developing titles for the win32 platform. My first question, is is there a business/sales advantage for including an OS like NT4.0 in your games? Or do new projects nowadays simply focus on win98+??

(Sorry if this is a n00b question, I'm still trying to dig through any business material I can find)..

thanks!

NT4 has been dead for years and it was never a consumer gaming platform. Ignore it. Likewise ignore 95 and Linux for the purposes of making money. Ignore MacOS at your loss.

Cas :)

Linux may will stir a little after release Linux cell phones. But it would require porting from PC linux propbaly, recompilation would hardly be enough...

As said on other threads in the past, you can expect that with the large number of Windows users that you can make a profit. No one uses WinNT except businesses and only for legacy systems that for some reason can't run on Win2000 or XP.

Mac OS users are used to getting their best software through shareware, so even though they make up a smaller percentage of the people who might play your demo, they make up for it by higher conversion rates (I believe someone mentioned 50% as opposed to 1%-2% for Windows).

Gnu/Linux users may account for more users than Mac OS, but there are three problems with this demographic in terms of game sales:
- a significant portion of Gnu/Linux users are using their system as a server only. This cuts the likelihood of them downloading your game in the first place. For the rest, if they game, they probably have a dual-boot with a Windows system for that purpose.
- A significant portion of Gnu/Linux users are used to getting their software for free (this means no-cost AND with source). A relatively small percentage would be willing to pay for their games through shareware.
- Support is difficult. If the end-user has hardware that is minimally supported by the vendor, they're the lucky ones. New hardware doesn't get as much support here as it does on a Windows or Mac platform.

This explains the low conversion rates for Gnu/Linux ports. My intention is to still produce a Gnu/Linux port, because I think it is a promising platform that needs games.

thanks a lot for the reply guys!

That's the kind of information I was hoping to get.

I'll just target win98 and up and hope for the best for my first release while I keep learning from this site.

I love this site!