
Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad - mason240
http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/21512-why-we-are-no-longer-developing-for-the-ipad/
======
mark_l_watson
I think that becoming the most profitable company in the world has negatively
impacted Apple, at least how I view them.

I wrote the chess program given away free with the early Apple IIs, made some
good money on a Mac app in 1984, and until recently favored Mac laptops: a fan
boy. That is changing. I bought an incredibly cheap and underpowered Windows
8.1 laptop in January (HP Stream 11) for $199 and like it quite a lot. I plan
on getting either a Surface 3 or Surface 3 Pro soon, and will put my old MB
Air on the shelf next to my Linux laptop to be used just as needed.

Microsoft seems to be heading in a good direction, Apple less so. Things like
living in a web browser and a platform neutral IDE (I use IntelliJ for
Clojure, Java, Python, PHP, and Ruby) make OS platform less impactful on using
a computer. I am looking at Surface 3 Pros and Surface 3s, price and feature
wise, vs. Apple products and I find Apple losing ground. The comparison is
especially bad for Apple re: cloud services: Office 365 is such a good deal
for $100/year compared to iCloud, with way more and better services.

As software engineers, money for hardware, software, and cloud services might
not mean much, but I think it is good to look at what the general public will
be using.

~~~
Zarel
> Things like living in a web browser and a platform neutral IDE (I use
> IntelliJ for Clojure, Java, Python, PHP, and Ruby) make OS platform less
> impactful on using a computer.

Really? I'd think this would make the remaining things matter more. Things
like:

\- International text input: in OS X, out of the box, é is opt+e, e (or the
now even easier: hold down e and choose é from the menu). In Windows, é is
alt+0233 or something, or change your keyboard layout and relearn how to type
apostrophes. Everything else related to international text input is also much
nicer in OS X.

\- Trackpad quality: I've yet to find a trackpad as nice as the ones that come
on Mac laptops

\- emacs keybindings in every text box! Anyone? ...Anyone? Maybe it's just me.

~~~
sjm
Not just you — love the Emacs bindings everywhere. It always throws me off on
Windows when I'm trying to C-n and C-p around, getting hit with new document
and printing dialogs all over the place :)

~~~
silon3
What I find intolerable on a Mac is the behavior of ctrl+left/right. I expect
it to jump to previous/next word and nothing else.

~~~
LiquidFlux
I use a Windows keyboard with Mac in the office, for me the ALT key replaces
the CTRL key.

I don't prefer it, but it works.

~~~
ericwood
I just swapped the two and it feels more natural! I prefer having the cmd key
next to the spacebar.

------
aresant
It is fascinating how much the "micro-transaction" model on the iOS platform
continues to bury everything else.

Spiderweb throwing in the towel I would guess has a lot more to do with their
#1 point "Competition on the App Store has risen to a frenzied level." than
the others.

The top two grossing games - Clash of Clans and Game of War - receive
metacritic scores of 74 and 67 respectively.

Whereas the most recent SpiderWeb release I can find - Avernum 2: Crystal
Souls - sits at 81

The organic discovery issue is only a small component of the problem when you
look at the sheer amount of money that the micro guys can afford to dump into
the mobile-advertising economy.

And as anybody who's spent 5 mins on app-store "optimization" knows - the
better your paid, the better your organic - by a right mile.

I hate ending comments like this without a solution but the best context we
have is watching Zynga get eroded / replaced on FB at some point.

But their death blow was the rise of FB's platform selling ads to the mobile
OS guys mentioned above who essentially just out-zynga'd Zynga.

When you create an app economy that provides outsized rewards to the vultures,
of course they'll control the board, wonder where this winds up.

(1) [http://www.metacritic.com/game/ios/clash-of-
clans](http://www.metacritic.com/game/ios/clash-of-clans),
[http://www.metacritic.com/game/ios/game-of-war---fire-
age](http://www.metacritic.com/game/ios/game-of-war---fire-age),
[http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/avernum-2-crystal-
souls](http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/avernum-2-crystal-souls)

~~~
pivo
> And as anybody who's spent 5 mins on app-store "optimization" knows - the
> better your paid, the better your organic - by a right mile.

Sorry, I guess my English is bad. I do not understand this sentence. Could you
explain?

~~~
mbesto
I think a few people missed the mark here (in the sub-comments). The point is,
if you're already have paying customers, you will get more. Users looking to
download new apps discover them on the Top Paid charts more than anywhere
else. The exception is to get featured, but this is a crapshoot. In other
words, social proof is the strongest indicator for the long term viability of
revenue for iOS apps, and it's hard to be gamed.

So (as others _have_ rightfully pointed out) many app developers solve this
issue in their early days by using paid ads...mainly FB ads, as their
conversion rate analysis is so ridiculously well engineered. Which means you
can theoretically turn off paid search/discovery and rely on on your high
position on the Top Paid charts to drive you more even traffic. (Note - Many
of them do not turn off paid acquisition channels as they are still highly
lucrative anyway)

------
freehunter
I own a couple of Spiderweb Software games on Windows, and play them on my
Windows 8.1 tablet. They almost play like they were made for a touch screen
(and they run great on the ancient dual-core Atom and stupidly non-existent
video card in my Thinkpad Tablet 2).

Actually the only thing I need a keyboard for is if I have selected a magic
spell and want to cancel casting it. Then I need to pair my Bluetooth keyboard
just to hit the escape key.

So, Jeff, let the world know that your games run un-altered on x86-based
Windows tablets, even quite old ones. You don't even need to change any of
your development processes to target the platform. It's already Windows.

~~~
thechao
I enjoyed the heck out of developing drivers for that thing—it was a constant
uphill battle to even get correctness, nonetheless, the pretty decent
performance we got. In the end, my tablet's battery died, and it now sits in a
drawer, forgotten.

~~~
freehunter
Drivers for the Tablet 2? Yeah the drivers are awful. Half the drivers I'm
using are downloaded from Dell because the Lenovo drivers are useless. Getting
to the point where I could have Bluetooth and Wifi connected at the same time
was a nightmare. I still use mine, but only when I don't want to start up my
PC or something where touch feels more natural, like Hearthstone or Avernum:
Escape from the Pit.

------
drawkbox
The app stores need what Steam has added a touch of lately, other lists
curated by anyone that highlight good games. The Appstore top lists are full
of bad games and ones I am tired of seeing. You can't hide them and they still
show even if you bought them.

Places like Touch Arcade and other curations also highlight lots of great
games. There needs to be the ability to make curated lists like a mall within
the app stores just like Steam or the actual internet.

The markets and stores should always be open to developer submissions, they
should always have top lists of different types and categories, but they also
need curated lists of games that you can browse and find within the store.
This alone would put more quality games in the top lists that actually have
gameplay and are worth it.

~~~
bisrael
Sadly, this will never happen:

All of the bullshit f2p apps out there generate incredible revenue for Apple.
Clash of clans alone generates 1M/day. That's 300k/day Apple gets for doing
nothing.

Apple would have to give up that free cash.... Not happenimg.

~~~
interpol_p
I can't see Apple looking at it as "free cash."

The App Store generates such an insubstantial amount of cash (for Apple, as
compared to their other platforms and products) that it would be completely
insane for them not to focus on the long-term quality of the store — which
would be a driver for their hardware sales.

I am absolutely certain that they realise this, but it just happens to be an
incredibly difficult problem to solve without basically rejecting 90% of the
apps that get submitted.

------
eridius
> _Competition on the App Store has risen to a frenzied level._

This is a curious argument to make. The platform is _too popular_? Would it
have made any sense at all if anyone made the same claim about, say, Windows
game development?

I suspect what this really means is "there are more games than ever, and the
iOS App Store is becoming increasingly difficult to rely on as a discovery
mechanism, thus requiring advertising to users with other mediums", but that's
kind of always been true, and it's certainly been true of all desktop
platforms. Which makes me wonder why iOS can't simply be treated the same way
non-mobile platforms are and rely on more traditional marketing channels?

The only other way to interpret this that I can think of is "it's becoming
increasingly difficult to justify a >$5 price for a game", but I haven't seen
any sign of that being true. iOS has had a "race to the bottom" mentality for
prices since the app store first opened. There's always been a ton of free or
$0.99 games, and a relatively low number of pricer-but-higher-quality games. I
don't think this has changed in years, with perhaps the only real difference
being that game developers are becoming increasingly sophisticated about how
they apply F2P techniques. And as a bit of anecdata, the most impressive game
I've seen on iOS in a while is a brand new one called Implosion that costs
$9.99 and, at the time of this comment, has a solid 5-star rating with 311
reviews.

~~~
ThomPete
The problem isn't that it's popular. The problem is that it's not designed to
it's current popularity.

5000apps added every day yet no way for developers to build meaningful
relationships with their customers or creating trials make it a very
irrational platform to be on.

Its nothing like how Google deals with popularity and quality. It's a huge
problem Apple will have to solve. On the mac app store they completely given
up.

~~~
olefoo
Apple doesn't necessarily want to solve that problem.

Apple is working hard to commoditize the complements to their hardware [0];
namely the software, games and media that make their hardware useful. Software
in the app store is a viciously competitive low-margin market; just like most
other commodity markets. Which is why you need to treat it skeptically and
work on building a name outside the app store before you are putting money
into it.

Look at Twitter as an example. They give away their app to drive usage of the
service, and in the early days they were totally OK with other developers
making and selling twitter clients. This was because twitter clients are a
complement to Twitter the service and their money comes from selling the
analytics and advertising that the service enables.

0\.
[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html)

~~~
saidajigumi
> Apple is working hard to commoditize the complements to their hardware [0]

I've heard this argument before, and if it's true, it's suicidal. Apple will
have failed to learn a critical lesson from Microsoft's dominance of the early
PC era: it's the apps that matter. Even once there was a significant potential
market of would-be platform "switchers" who wanted something beyond what
Windows was offering, these switchers remained on Windows because the critical
apps in their day-to-day usage (be that Office, CAD software, or whatever)
only ran on Windows.

If Apple's view is truly so narrow that they kill the ability of their
"complements" to make good money, then Apple is pushing hard to kill the goose
that lays the golden eggs. Even if Apple had unquestionably the very best
manufacturing processes, hardware design, and platform software design, it
would all be worthless if no one other than Apple can afford to write and
support high-quality software for that platform.

Now, I'll agree that from Apple's publicly observable positions with its App
Stores that they (incredibly) don't seem to understand the need and necessity
for maintaining a virtuous cycle between developers and their platforms.

A wild-a __-guess: This may stem from a deep misunderstanding of the nature of
software. Sure, a random tapping game or timer app or whatever is essentially
a replaceable one-off, a fungible commodity. But software that 's a fungible
commodity fundamentally doesn't create any platform stickyness. If it's really
so easy to recreate, it can and will trivially show up on a new platform. This
is especially true in a world where many software organizations really are
getting better at delivering on multiple platforms.

Beyond the fungible stuff, there's the important category of software that I
increasingly view as a "living" thing rather than a static artifact. Such
software requires ongoing maintenance and care. This allows it a lifespan
across the changes of its underlying platform(s), and to absorb and embody
deep problem domains. I pose that these apps, no matter the genre (games,
"creative", technical, etc.) are the ones that can create platform stickyness.
This, in turn, implies that humans must be able to make a living supporting
that software. Undermining this is like cutting off the "oxygen" to a vital
part of a platform's ecosystem.

~~~
walterbell
Once upon a time, Apple invested to own 19% of Adobe, which went onto become a
powerful software anchor of Apple's hardware ecosystem. Perhaps a bit too
powerful for Jobs' liking, hence the modern strategies to commoditize ISVs on
iOS.

~~~
eridius
> _the modern strategies to commoditize ISVs on iOS_

What modern strategies?

I've seen this theory proposed multiple times, that Apple wants to commoditize
software, but I've never seen anyone actually demonstrate ways in which Apple
is doing that, just speculation that it would be in Apple's interests.

~~~
walterbell
It's more about what they _don 't_ do to help developers make money. A web
search will find research papers on software ecosystems, which discuss best
practices for mutually-reinforcing, virtuous circle, feedback loops between
platforms and developers.

Stardock's 2014 report touches on related topics,
[http://www.stardock.com/press/CustomerReports/Stardock2014.p...](http://www.stardock.com/press/CustomerReports/Stardock2014.pdf)

~~~
Steko
For not helping developers make money, developers sure do make a lot of money
on iOS compared to other mobile platforms.

~~~
walterbell
How about comparing instead to money made by Apple, enabled by iOS developers?

~~~
sbuk
It sounds like you feel Apple owe developers a living?

~~~
walterbell
Apple could attract more developers (and thus more iPad users and more
corporate revenue -- reversing declining iPad growth) if developer success was
more closely aligned with Apple success.

~~~
rappr
Attracting more developers does nothing to attract more users.

~~~
walterbell
How about attracting financially successful (not hobbyist) developers who can
drive new use cases for the platform?

------
takasc2
I follow Ipad gaming quite closely because it is perfect for my commutes. I
would consider myself as close to a hardcore ipad gamer as it is possible to
get - I read specialist sites like pockettactics and spend well over a hundred
dollars a year on ipad games. I had never heard of this company or its games
before.

The ipad is a marketing platform in the best and worst way I can mean that.
Looking at this company they seem aggressively anti-marketing. Their entire
presentation style and format is opposed to the kind of experience the ipad
offers. They are the anti-flipboard. The fact that someone as interested in
ipad gaming as me was not even aware their games existed until now suggests it
is probably not the best platform for them at all.

~~~
quietplatypus
Do you think there is still the chance for a well-made, expensive up front
iPad game (we are talking like $10 to even $30) to make it based on word of
mouth from hardcore gamers and Gamespot/IGN/etc. ? I know that the ecosystem
itself optimizes f2p, but still.

~~~
LoSboccacc
Well I just bought space program manager, got many more before and will pay
ten bucks for prison architect, even more for tiny trek or if ever rimword
would get a porting

Fact is all iOS categories and ratings are useless to me, mostly rubbish game
built for freemium and with loads of marketing wind behind get visibility on
the store, while real games get buried and I've had to follow third party
website just to even know their existence

~~~
oblio
App-store-sarcasm-on: Oh, the curated library of applications and games is
failing? You have to resort to 3rd party sites to actually filter things?

At this point App Stores are nothing more than extremely expensive anti
viruses for all the applications installed. We'll see on the long term if
giving up so much control is worth it for a security scan :|

~~~
LoSboccacc
given the many malicious app that pass trough, I guess not.

anyway, even steam has given up, but at least they added curators before
opening the early access floodgates

------
untog
I'm interested to know what changed in 8.3 that broke their game engine. It's
supposed to be a minor update, after all.

~~~
eridius
So am I. I'm also interested to know why the engine can't be fixed, rather
than being forced to replace it with an all-new engine.

~~~
Someone
It might be technically possible or even trivial to fix the engine, but
impossible for other reasons.

They are talking of licensing a new engine. If they licensed the current one,
too, it might just be a matter of a vendor that went out of business or killed
the product.

------
PythonicAlpha
That is one of the reasons, I avoid Apple as much I can. The hardware is
really good and also the software often is. But the company politics just
kills it off for me.

They just don't care about the small developer (and sometimes not even about
the customers). When they have an idea, how the world should be, they change
everything needed and don't care about the effects on small software vendors
or even some customers.

Apple once made this genius tv spot about 1984. Apple for me has become, what
they accused IBM to be at 1984. The crazy thing is, that the normal Apple
customer does not care.

------
waynecochran
I teach both iOS/UIKit and OS X/AppKit in some of my courses and I have to
rewrite my solutions every year. So much is deprecated and so much changes. If
you write mildly sophisticated apps for iOS, just prepare to rewrite them
every year.

Just look at the evolution of memory management from retain/release, to gc, to
ARC, throw in properties, etc... Not to mention the API's that are constantly
deprecated. Even my model (non-IU) classes get overhauled.

In the end the apps are doing anything better...

~~~
jawngee
What would you recommend they do then? Not evolve the platform? Retain
deprecated methods?

I don't get it.

~~~
waynecochran
Good retort. They certainly should push it forward. The continual overhaul is
tiresome though... Now they have an entire new language! Not only will I
rewrite all my solutions next year, I'll have to rewrite my notes from scratch
and learn yet another language.

If all I did was develop iOS/OS X apps I would enjoy the continual
improvements, but its tough to keep up with when you also have to keep up with
a variety of other technologies (like OpenGL! -- which I have used since Iris
GL).

The fact remains, rewrite your iOS apps every year.

Of course this pales compared to the crazy ADHD pace of JS frameworks -- that
is truly beyond reason.

------
jokoon
> 2\. Changes in iOS 8.3 completely broke the engine we have been using for
> the last several years.

This. Apple has been a specialist at breaking compatibility. Microsoft has
been much better at that. Backward compatibility is so important, not having
it is pretty risky if you want to keep mac developers.

XCode is a good example of that. At every new XCode versions, things have to
be reconfigured.

------
jnem
That's too bad, but I do understand the sentiment. Ive been playing Spiderweb
software games since I was a kid, and did in fact buy one of the Avernum games
for my iPad, which I quite enjoyed (though the graphics were a bit to small,
and hard to click on in some places).

Still a great source of classic RPG gameplay.

------
gmisra
Honest question: how/why is it legal for Apple to ban any other "app store"
from existing? I understand the motivation to require the presence of an
intermediary to combat malicious software, but it seems blatantly anti-
competitive to forbid competition within the domain of providing this
intermediation service.

Similarly, why haven't any major app companies challenged Apple on the 30% app
store charge, and how it is inconsistently enforced? For example, rdio charges
a premium if you purchase a subscription through the app store, but MLB radio
does not.

I don't know much about these things, but as a user I think it's fair to
conclude that Apple has not done a very good job of app store stewardship, and
I personally would welcome potential new overlords.

~~~
Finster
They don't have to ban other app stores. All they have to do is require that
apps that run on your device be signed by Apple's certificates... which
requires the App Store ecosystem.

If you jailbreak device to be able to run unsigned code, of course this
restriction goes away and you can use whatever app store you want... like
Cydia, for instance.

------
amelius
> Competition on the App Store has risen to a frenzied level. As a result,
> sales for our games has dropped massively and the cost of advertising them
> has shot through the roof.

Indeed. It seems nowadays, with Apple and Google, that the company with the
deepest pockets for advertisement takes it all.

Money is screwing up the evolutionary game that capitalism is trying to be.

------
verelo
You know something is wrong when I find myself not only agreeing with
everything the author writes, but when I'm also fearful to publicly state that
I agree for the concern that it might hurt my own app store submissions if big
brother notices.

Every iOS update breaks our app, in stupidly unexplainable ways. It takes
months of work just to maintain a steady state between app store versions, and
I feel that the magnitude of work required to keep up with iOS 7 and now iOS 8
was much worse than going from 5 to 6.

Android is not much better, but I feel that iOS is slowly getting worse and it
makes me sad.

Edit: Spelling

------
api
Sort of "meta," but I am getting the feeling that the whole "mobile is the
future everything else is dead make everything for phones!" era is going the
way of "web/cloud is the future everything else is dead write everything for
the browser!"

Obviously mobile ain't going anywhere any more than the web is... I am
referring to the mobile-only and everything else is dead mania. I feel like it
has maybe a year or two left in it.

Question is: what is the next thing that is "the future" and will make
everything else "dead"? Internet of things?

~~~
BinaryIdiot
I really miss native applications on the desktop. I want to use something
responsive, snappy and can work offline. Almost no productivity app beyond the
usual suspects do this anymore; it's all web or mobile based. I'm fine with
cloud syncing just give me my native apps on the desktop that I miss!

------
clutterjoe
Apple isn't changing, they've always wrested control of their platform from
developers. This approach is obviously working for them, this time next year
we'll all be talking about "watch first web development."

I read the article and while Jeff made valid points, I wonder if he would've
benefited from having a PR/marketing person vet his messaging. His article can
easily be dismissed as hyperventilating about change and as a reader it's
unclear what action I should take after absorbing his point of view.

~~~
BringTheTanks
> this time next year we'll all be talking about "watch first web
> development."

This doesn't diminish your overall point, but a little side note - Apple Watch
has no browser, and it'll never have one.

------
kuebelreiter
This is a single twist of fate. It has no meaning except for the individual.
He just doesn't want to keep up any more. His decision. But it has nothing to
do with Apple.

~~~
extc
Nothing to do with Apple? Since iOS7, Apple is constantly breaking apps that
are already in the store and running fine. This is because they don't provide
a backwards compatible runtime. For example, your app that's compiled and
working well for iOS 8.2 can have new bugs (like text fields not appearing)
after the user upgrades to iOS 8.3. To re-iterate, the user has not re-
installed your app. They are still using the same great app compiled for 8.2
and now it doesn't work correctly. And the bug is caused by bad code from
Apple in their runtime. To use an ironic comparison, if you made a Flash game
in Flash 9, it would always run exactly the same way until the end up time,
even after Flash 13 is released, because Adobe/Macromedia kept the runtime for
each version and did not change it after it was released. New version meant a
new runtime engine.

Anyway, so Apple breaks your app. It's possible you don't notice this because
you don't test every feature of every app you've created for every new iOS
version on the day it comes out. So within a couple weeks, most of your
clients are asking you why your app doesn't work and you have to scramble to
replicate the problem and then someone how fix it, sometimes having to rewrite
a core part of your app. This happens over and over and it's tiring, costs
your company money, makes you look bad to your clients and is very
demoralizing. This is no one's fault but Apple's.

------
galfarragem
_> Competition on the App Store has risen to a frenzied level._

I'm portuguese. I've an Ipad but I never bought any app. The market is so full
of good free apps that I never needed to buy any. Most of my friends don't
spend much in apps also. This makes me think that App store gets money only
from very specific countries. Will App Store become like Google Store as soon
as these countries get used to get apps for free?

------
meritt
Curious why a developer of low-tech-requirements games like these wouldn't use
something like Unity and eliminate most of the multi-platform hurdles.

~~~
robterrell
From the screenshots it appears that Unity would be a great choice. Cocods2dx
would probably be a good choice too. But the post specifically mentions the
costs of licensing & learning a new engine as one of the reasons. Some people
just don't want to learn new stuff.

------
douche
There was a story on here a month or two ago interviewing the founder of the
company. This is basically a one-man shop, and from the few games I have
played in their offerings, they look like a little more work to put together
than Flappy Bird.

If it's too much of a hassle for the return he's getting on it, then it makes
perfect sense to refocus efforts.

------
gdubs
Understandably, most comments are gonna focus on App Store discovery, etc.

But one thing that stands out for me is a reliance on 3rd party frameworks and
a lack of desire to learn new technology.

The problem with a framework is that when things break they can be a nightmare
to fix. Work closer to the system frameworks and you face a steeper learning
curve, but you gain confidence for when things go wrong.

As far as ever-evolving technology -- well, maybe it can feel daunting, but
it's also exciting and fun.

------
Shorel
Because it was a bad idea to split the developer ecosystem in two
destkop/mobile parts from the start.

My ideal computer before iPads existed was a convertible 2-in-1 Macbook Air.
It will never be manufactured, and therefore, I will never be my main machine.

Ubuntu and Windows are working in unifying them again. Let's see what happens
in the future.

I'm writing this in a Dell Inspiron 7000 2-in-1 running Ubuntu, the closest
thing I could find to my dream machine.

------
jheriko
i agree with a lot of the moaning about competition etc, but the tech argument
is basically an admission of incompetence. the complaint is that "you used
rubbish tech and didn't plan for the future"? thats not the fault of apple or
ipad...

poor workmen blame their tools.

its funny how my hand rolled stuff rarely hits these problems and is easy to
fix. but then years and years of working on every major gaming platform helps
make you forward think these things properly...

as far as a platform to adapt to goes ios is on the very easy end of the
spectrum. you want to see what microsoft have been trying to do... at least
apple let us do native code with only minimal layers of their crap, and don't
break too heavily the standard libraries that have served us so well for the
last 40 years. android is almost as bad... i'm convinced google want to kill
native code for whatever insane philosophical reason they have

------
coldtea
The first and main reason they give:

"1\. Competition on the App Store has risen to a frenzied level. As a result,
sales for our games has dropped massively and the cost of advertising them has
shot through the roof."

Probably had the idea that mere hard work in creating a game is rewarded in
the market (any market).

------
ianstallings
Only one of those reasons is legit - you need a marketing budget to win at
games on iOS.

The rest? Weak excuses imho.

------
ufmace
I wonder if they're still developing for Android, the site and article seem to
imply so.

------
tempodox
The politics around software updates (both OSs & apps) in recent time show
that whoever builds on Apple is building on quicksand.

Overall software quality began to deteriorate visibly with the introduction of
OS X and hasn't gotten better in the meantime. This is not because the bugs
would be hard to find, or fix, but due to a deliberate policy change. And iOS
is no different. Just look at both AppStores, you can see the middle finger
sticking out.

They changed their stance from “We care about users” to “My way or the
highway.” This works as long as the current fad is all the rage, but when it's
gone there will be nothing left.

Apple has gotten too stupid for their own good, i.e. a company like any other.

------
justinpaulson
> My brain no longer has the time and energy to deal with Apple forcing me to
> relearn how to program every few years.

Is this just kind of how developing software works on every platform?

~~~
quietplatypus
Well, compared to Windows, which up until Windows 7 let you run a bunch of
very old games (and even then you could still get some of them to work in
compatibility mode), I'd say no.

And that's a software platform that has to run on a bunch of different
hardware.

Also, your Xbox 360 games will all still work on your Xbox 360, as long as you
have the hardware around. AFAIK all the Xbox 360 software updates never broke
any Xbox 360 game.

~~~
yellowapple
Up until recently, consoles have been a bit of a weird case, since "game" in
that context usually meant something more like "game plus a baked-in operating
system communicating directly with the hardware". The Xbox360 and PS3 were
among the first major systems (outside of the PC realm) to run games on top of
an existing operating system. Even somewhat-recent consoles that ran proper
operating systems (original Xbox, Wii, PS2, Gamecube IIRC) treated them more
like really complicated firmware/bootloaders; execution would be transferred
to the game itself even as late as the Wii (where each game would implement
certain things like the Wii home-button menu individually).

In such cases, most console games were thus mostly protected from software
updates on the consoles themselves, but this also made it much harder for
developers to patch their games after release (they'd basically have to
rerelease or otherwise introduce fixed copies of the game alongside broken
ones). On the plus side, it meant that the only time one would likely have to
learn a new programming method/framework/etc. was when programming for a new
platform.

~~~
jamesgeck0
The baked-in operating system thing is especially visible with Nintendo DS
games, where the network stack and configuration UI was shipped on the
cartridge. Wifi has to be configured in each individual game, and it only
supports WEP, even if the game is run on a newer handheld.

------
SSLy
Hugged to death?

------
al2o3cr
To sum up:

* "we have competition and that's hard"

* "writing code is hard"

* "no srsly, it's really hard yo"

------
shurcooL
I expect this may happen to Apple Watch sooner rather than later.

------
angelbroz
WebGL

------
lnanek2
Don't really understand. I searched out YouTube videos of his games, they are
very low visual quality graphics RPGs. If his engine is dead, he could make
something better anyway by just taking a week out to watch Unity tutorials.
And that is without even buying one of the many RPG kits off the asset store.

------
MarkG509
Back in the time-frame of the Leopard to Snow Leopard transition, I visited an
Apple Store (for the last time), where upon I informed a 'genius' that on
Windows, I had code that I needed to (or was required to) run everyday that
was older than him, and that Apple's complete disregard for backward
compatibility lost me (and everyone I know) as a customer for ever.

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
Good job for getting upset a retail clerk making not much more than minimum
wage for CEO-level decisions?

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
And were you seriously running binaries from 1987 (+/-) because you might as
well stuff that thing in a dosbox.

------
dyarosla
I admire the developer, but the whole post feels like a cop-out blaming Apple.
Too much competition? Let's give up. Engine broke from some change, don't want
to try fixing it? Let's give up.

Ads cost too much? Not, 'let's stop advertising on iOS', instead, Let's give
up.

I can understand as much as the next iOS developer that changes that require
large workarounds due to software/hardware updates that aren't backwards
compatible are a pain. But as a developer, you suck it up, modify your
content, and continue (Edit: Of course, if it makes financial sense, positive
ROI, etc, to keep selling on the Appstore).

Why do developers feel entitled to hardware devices that will always work with
legacy code? Apple makes changes that try to push their technology forward to
the latest and greatest, all the while removing legacy cruft at the expense of
sometimes trading off backwards compatibility. It makes sense that they expect
their developers to keep up with the latest trends and produce content that's
formatted to the current specs, not simply relying on old tech specs.

~~~
kbenson
It makes sense to get out when it's not profitable. In this case, it's a small
segment of their sales. They said so directly in their explanation. If there
were _no_ sales on iOS, would that be giving up, or just accepting it's not a
profitable segment for your business?

> Why do developers feel entitled to hardware devices that will always work
> with legacy code?

First, I'm not sure where you are getting that sentiment from. They simply
said they aren't going to support iOS devices, and listed why. They didn't
complain Apple was doing something wrong.

Second, how is this in any way related to the _hardware_? An OS software
revision caused the latest problem for them.

~~~
dyarosla
I think I got the sentiment from 2. and 3. Both seemed like the developer was
blaming Apple's changes and the forced efforts they set on the developer for
stopping iOS production. In reality however, the real problems surrounding the
app not being financially viable don't seem to be hinged on Apple's changes
here.

Hardware was just another instance from my own experience where Apple makes it
a tinge more difficult with new device sizes/specs and so-on every year or so.
This wasn't the case in this article, but it's something that Apple developers
face, but come to think of it I guess this doesn't really apply solely to
Apple.

------
mahouse
> Competition on the App Store has risen to a frenzied level. As a result,
> sales for our games has dropped massively and the cost of advertising them
> has shot through the roof.

So... Actually make good games? I don't know what the games of this studio
are, but if you can't shine anymore in an app store just because there are
more competitors, maybe your products weren't that good to begin with?

~~~
izacus
Unfortunately the definition of a "good" game and a game that earns money on
App stores is slightly disconnected at this time. Skinner boxes that rely on
practically scummy ways of selling expensive IAPs for basic amount of gameplay
are the ones that dominate the earnings.

~~~
freehunter
Which sucks because some of the games are quite good, or could be without the
IAP stuff. I do enjoy Peggle and would be willing to pay a few bucks for it.
Instead the only option I have is to get it for free and only play a few
rounds per day until it's begging me for money. And not a one-time purchase,
literally 99c per day. No thanks. And an Age of Empires style game would be
awesome on mobile! But not a "it takes five hours to build this building
unless you pay lots of money" style game.

It would be nice to have a platform that outlawed that kind of stuff, so real
games for real prices could go back to being competitive. It's to the point
where I won't even download a game that they won't let me pay for upfront (and
even then, I find some $1.99 games that have stupid IAP requirements, and that
pisses me off even more).

