Behind the veil of Mac game development
Today I'd like to take you all behind the scenes of a particular part of Mac game development. As reported on IMG earlier today, LucasArts/Raven released a new multiplayer map for Jedi Academy that allows you to use vehicles in siege mode. When I read that article on IMG, it was the first time I'd heard about this - that was around 11:30 am my time.
The map was distributed as a PC .exe, so I downloaded it on my PC and installed it, then copied it over to my Mac. I spoke to Glenda about it, and she mentioned that it would be cool if we made a true Mac installer out of it instead of just a "drag it and put it here" type of thing. It took about 10 minutes, and suddenly I had a working installer that put things in their right place. After a few minutes tweaking the readme, it was on its way to Aspyr World Headquarters, just a hair over 30 minutes after I first found out about it.
It then spent some time in QA to make sure it actually worked on the Mac. After that, it was off to MacGameFiles, where it was prepared for distribution. Finally, it was released, roughly 90 minutes after "first contact." Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug. Today seems to be a windshield day. :-)
Comments
Did Aspyr have to get quick approval from lucasarts to redistribute it, or is that covered by your existing contract?
Posted by: Ben Hines | February 27, 2004 07:44 PM
We already had permission to release bonus maps, from releasing a similar set back in December right when the game shipped. So that made things extra quick!
Posted by: Glenda Adams | February 27, 2004 09:32 PM
Kudos on the Jedi Academy port! It was my inaugural review for IMG!
Posted by: John Hood | March 5, 2004 03:08 PM