The Official Guide to Game Development

Chapter 5 Mac Game Development: garden of digital delights

Key Chapter Questions ■ How do standalone Mac games differ from online or Windows games? ■ How do art requirements for games change when working on higher resolutions available with the Mac’s Retina screen? ■ How can GameSalad Creator be used to develop and publish games for Mac? ■ How do the distribution paths differ for Mac versus Windows games? ■ How will Mac game development continue to evolve in the future?

Is There an App for That? Not Yet! Stunt Copter Source Duane Blehm/HomeTown Software. Dark Castle Source Silicon Beach Software, Inc.

OS Wars Mac OSX Lion desktop Source Apple Inc. Image courtesy of Kimberly Unger. Windows 8 desktop Source Microsoft Corporation.

Graphic Considerations Apple’s high-resolution Retina Display preference window Source Apple Inc. Image courtesy of Kimberly Unger.

Graphic Considerations Bumps Image courtesy of Utopian Games and Kimberly Unger.

Graphic Considerations Mac Creator links directly to GameSalad’s online Marketplace. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Systems of Information Gem Breaker Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Core Components The sample game Pachinko Madness demonstrates how to work with collisions using Mac Creator. Image courtesy of GameSalad® and Kimberly Unger.

Core Components Setting the Scene Selecting the “Scene” button allows developers to work with the broaderbased scene characteristics such as gravity. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Core Components Setting the Scene After selecting the “Images” tab at the bottom of the Mac Creator screen, all game images may be imported. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Core Components Building with Nodes Within the Behaviors list, different instruction nodes can be determined by the icons to their left. Image courtesy of Kimberly Unger. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Core Components Tags Behaviors can be set to work with designated tags rather than specific objects. This allows the developer to change the actions associated with a single tag, and it will cascade to affect all objects that have that tag. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Core Components Assigning Behaviors All images become “Actors” on import and show up under the Actors tab. However, these images will also appear under the “Images” tab and can be assigned to new Actors as needed. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Core Components Assigning Behaviors The collision can be set to work with any object by name or with a particular tag. It’s important to check the collision shape—getting it as close a match to the actual in-game object as possible. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Core Components Scoring Systems Within each Actor, a set of characteristics may be modified as needed—such as changing the associated image or denoting whether or not it’s moveable. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Testing as You Go Clicking on the “Preview” arrow generates a quick playthrough of the Scene. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Publishing for Mac The “Publish” button at the top of the screen in Mac Creator allows the game to be sent to the GameSalad servers. Image courtesy of GameSalad®.

Summary ■Is There an App for That? Not Yet! ■OS Wars ■Graphic Considerations ■Systems of Information ■Core Components ■Testing as You Go ■Publishing for Mac ■A Brighter Future?