Cross-platform developing... To buy same OS phone I got home or different

Hi,

let me explain. Want to start with Unity, C#... I got home Windows 8, will be using it to develop games, but I want to develop for mobile phones too. I am going to buy me a new phone. Should I buy the one with same OS I have at home, in PC ( Not sure, readed just too much bad headed articles about how Windows phones s*cks)? Or its better to buy another (iOS, Android) so I can test my apps on different platforms ? And if so, should I choose Android or iOS ?

I just cant decide which one to buy, as it isn't the cheapest thing, and I cant buy all of those

Thanks for all suggestions.

 

Awaiting replies like... Yes, definitely buy another OS for bugfixing! or... Don't bother bugfixing on another OS, us XY instead. Buy Win Phone as you can continue develop where you stop for example in train!

Buying one of these costs here 1/2 of monthly jobs pay. So its like I need to save money for 6 month to buy one of these

 

Get an android my experience with ios is it sucks, my experience with android is it's beast and has the most marketshare (80%) so that means more people playing your game, also my friend has bad experience with windows phone because it's S*** and it only has 4% of the marketshare meaning little to no users ios has 16% of the marketshare

 

iOS is not necessarily a bad thing - I mean there are a much larger portion of users who PAY MONEY for games up front on iOS than there are on android. This of course is skewed somewhat by the fact that many many more people own an android - but the fact still stands - if you want to sell your game for a few bucks or something - it is more likely that users on iOS are more willing (by percentage not total users obviously) to buy your game.

The real downside to iOS development (or upside for some) is that you require a Mac to develop on. This barrier has stopped me from developing for iOS (as well as the lack of a iOS device) for some time now. I plan on eventually getting on the ball and grabbing a mac mini or something, but for the time being I am pretty much linked at the hip with my windows 7 machine... so keep that in mind.

Developing for android has not brought any real financial gain on my part (though since I spent almost nothing developing on android it hasn't been a loss either) that is significant enough to say... quit my regular job and start doing it full time haha. But then again, I am happy developing games. I enjoy staring at an IDE for hours on end... and for me I could have to pay somebody to play my games and I might just do it haha - or just play them myself

So considering those points, it is really a matter of what hardware/software to develop with you have available, which I guess in your case is windows - and that means to build out to iOS devices your gonna need a mac, plus that shiny new iWhatever to test on...

While for android you need the Android SDK and any old android device with like gingerbread OS or newer...

PLUS it cost more to keep an active developer account on iOS, I think like 100 bucks a year USD or something, while android requires only a one time fee of 25 dollars to perpetually keep an active developer account. I suppose if you have a game turning profits of at least a 100 a year it makes it worth it (which 100 a year is totally doable... its the success of those 50k a day guys that is so elusive!) and in that case you won't mind paying for the iOS fees.

Good luck!

 

So, I can forget about iOS then. Android vs WP... Android really has a far way step before WP with users and apps. But If I look at it by future developing, I have better chance to develop something new and special on WP then on Android. And, lets say I will use Xamarin or something like that, or develop in Unity, I can easily develop on WP and then make it availible to Android phones too, am I right ? I am not the one saying Android s*cks or WP... Want to develop for both. But maybe as I have some experince with C++ and C#, and I have bigger chance to get succesful developer on WP as it has only few apps ( like 5x less than android), it will be for me WP better choice. Little bit risky tho, but with look into future I maybe going to do right thing. Can any1 agree with me ? Or missway me really hard ? There is so much android devices, we got one in fammily ( my GF), so maybe WP wont be bad idea.

Thanks for replying. Really helpful. Thats my last question up here

 

I don't think any one platform "sucks" per say, haha, I think they all have benefits and downsides - but the more platforms you can reach the better the exposure I suppose, but then again you don't wanna stretch yourself thin trying to buy up all the platforms fees and perhaps pro licenses to unity and whatnot, plus devices to test out for each platform, plus the hardware to develop for certain platforms (iOS may be the only one requiring specific hardware, but I am not 100 percent sure of that)...

Maybe it is best though to focus in on a single platform to launch from and see how the app will do before investing a lot of time and money into several - and once it seems to be catching on somewhere, like on windows phone, then move to android and iOS when you think you might stand a chance to do well on those platforms. Remember that the market for windows phone is very small. So maybe the competition of the flood of poor apps hitting google play doesn't happen there, but then again neither does the flood of players!

Now also there is the fact that much fewer devices run windows phone apps, so you don't need to worry quite as much as the fragmentation of hardware/screen size that android has - which there you must ensure your app looks right on many sizes and aspect ratios, plus runs on the oldest hardware that will be viewing your app in the store (or make sure they can't see it in the store if it runs too slow!). While on iOS you have a very select few devices you must meet the requirements for - a few tablet sizes and a few phones sizes. This might make iOS a little more convenient in that aspect.

 

Lern basic of unity on PC, then try android as mobil device. And then you are ready for win10 as one platform for all devices

 

Apple is the most expensive and Windows the most inexpensive. Windows is truthfully more advanced and modern than Apple software wise. It's not 'sucks' or 'doesn't suck' that's simple fact.

As far as any game you'd play on any of the platforms well that's why Unity is so popular - you games look and play the same unless you've shot yourself in the foot by 'optimizing' for specific HW and SW deficient platforms to gain potential customers such that it's a headache to see that they all play the same on all those platforms. As an Indy, you must be practical and publish to newer platforms so that you must not have to optimize beyond what Unity does and not getting greedy with how much you game has in it's scenes. No one is going to get good performance with a Unity terrain maxed out with topographic details, trees, waters, and buildings without very heavy optimizations, so that should tell you a certain style of game you should avoid because you don't have the resources to complete without seriously limiting how much of those style resources you allow in your scenes.

You can buy a cheap quad core 7" tablet only CPU/GPU Windows 8.1 or Android 4.4.2 with 1GB RAM @ 1024x600 for less than $100. Today. It's less than 30% of the non-Apple market though. However, the market is such that in 2 years if you learn and develop using that very capable HW now in 2 years when that type HW or better is the vast majority of the market your games will already be ready to grow with the market.

iOS has retina and the others don't but count on retina imitators in non-iOS in the next 2 years and those will eventually be sub-$100. The 'retina' aspect is just about maxed out at these screen sizes but it'd ideal for game makers because a good looking retina game should look as good in HD and 4K HD televisions.

Cheapest iOS is $299 for the latest iPod touch at less than 7". At 7" it is $399. Plus $99 for yearly iOS Developer subscription. There is also the added expense of more expensive Apple Macs (the cheapest new model is $499 and already borderline obsolete as far as Unity 5 and Direct X 12 go if you plan to install Windows with Parallels in your osX) that tend to stay so expensive used that it makes only sense to buy the newest models.

 

In terms of business, iOS Market is better than Android if you seek for users who want to buy a game. Sure barriers of entry is higher than Android due to requirements of an expensive computer and develop license price ($100) but it's worth it in some way.

 

He's starting out, before he spends a lot of money on Apple products, fulfilling their dreams, not his, he should start cheapest with Android or Windows because the fact is he's not liable to make back his money spent on any of those platforms.

He needs to approach this so he's out a minimum of money if it should turn out that he doesn't like game / app as a hobby.

It's OK to dream buying lottery tickets if you spend a dollar or two every week for the excitement and anticipation of a dream, but when with start spending $25, $50, and more dollars a week and still haven't substantially increased your chances of winning the lottery and deprived yourself of some really useful things with that money then you have a problem.

So if he's posting in these forums with his Windows computer he already has his answer.