Comments on: Game dev ditches Android over fragmentation

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:44:00 +0000

What are some of the apps you have out if any?

By: schwinn8

schwinn8 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:27:00 +0000

In the end, if the dev isn’t making much money, then so be it – it’s a wise business decision to skip that segment. I don’t blame them for making this decision.

Blaming fragmentation and other such buzzwords is what annoys me. From what I see, the developer is very happy with iOS development, and gets the work done there. Quick-porting to another OS is not a solution, and will always lead to problems. It sounds like this is what they are running into… and if that’s the case, then that’s no one else’s fault but their own. Maybe they simply don’t know how to program (properly) in Android. It certainly sounds that way as, from the blog post, it’s clear that the software was designed for one platform/device, and he just wants to make it work (with no effort) on a very different platform: “We could re-engineer how Battleheart accesses its data to work with this
new system. This isn’t an impossible task, but it doesn’t make a lot
of sense to dedicate resources to it.”

In other words, he made design choices on iOS that can’t work on another platform, but instead of addressing them, he just wants to blame the platform. That would be like me saying that I made a program that requires EVERYTHING to be CONSTANTLY loaded into 16GB of RAM, and that when it’s installed on a lower spec machine, that’s the computer’s fault, because I’m too lazy to release memory along the way.

Again, that’s no one’s fault but the dev’s. He designed it for one platform with assumptions relevant to it, and it’s the new platform’s fault that it doesn’t easily port to another… because the assumptions don’t line up.

By: renGek

renGek — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:15:00 +0000

That sounds like a nice rationalization.
I stink as a developer therefore I’ll just blame fragmentation. Real developers deal with fragmentation on a daily basis on any platform including DB2 cobol for the past several decades. Wannabe developers….they get confused and run off to cry in the corner because they don’t have a good solid foundation in software engineering.

By: Magnesus

Magnesus — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:40:00 +0000

Some bad reviews come from people with devices that have software or hardware problems (for example I had a review that my games hangs Asus Transformer – which I have so it’s very thoroughly tested on it – I checked other reviews from the guy and apparently more games hang on his device, someting is wrong with his tablet) or Chinesse strange compilations of Android (some have broken OpenGL 2.0) – they make a very little percentage of devices but people with them can put a lot of bad reviews – I’m a (still small) developer Magory on Google Play if someone wants to check (please e-mail if you have any problems). I experience some fragmentation issues (like a simple problem with folder location), but come on – nothing ground breaking. And most of them are resolved by using a proper library (I use libGDX for most games, very good one). I must admit though, that every bad review makes me panic and search for posibble reasons and fixes. :)

By: Magnesus

Magnesus — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:40:00 +0000

By: tastygroove

tastygroove — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:37:00 +0000

Read the reviews of all the apps you download. The issues are real, no matter if you choose to dismis or rationalize.

Rarely will you find android apps with solid 5 star reviews (that aren’t full of obvious shills.)

By: prestone1

prestone1 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:30:00 +0000

mike sounds smart. not sure how this is news worthy. dont forget to update the world on my neighbors cat that passed away too.

zombieville 50k+ downloads
battleheart 50k+

wow this guy has like .02% of the android marketplace. what a travesty

By: theinvisibleduck

theinvisibleduck — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:22:00 +0000

Nope, not typical, it just depends on the developer. There is a general trend where iOS sells more paid for apps and Android dev’s make more money on ad supported apps, though.

By: theinvisibleduck

theinvisibleduck — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:22:00 +0000

Nope, not typical, it just depends on the developer. There is a general trend where iOS sells more paid for apps and Android dev’s make more money on ad supported apps, though.

By: Eleeflyguy43

Eleeflyguy43 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:48:00 +0000

Better games, more stable code, and marketing can change that

By: JohnJohnJ

JohnJohnJ — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:39:00 +0000

You are an Android developer? Somewhere between unlikely and very inexperienced.

By: JacobJanson

JacobJanson — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:32:00 +0000

Cuz he’s a lazy ISO dev that thought “oh, i should port this and make a bit more cash.” Who the hell cares really? he has two apps and together they hardly break the 8,000 install mark (and they are kinda pricey)

By: Jrpbulk

Jrpbulk — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:24:00 +0000

never heard of either game or this company.

By: kenyu73

kenyu73 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:59:00 +0000

If Android devs can create/port life like real 3D games like BackStab, Asphalt and Modern Combat which run fine, why cant this dev get these cheesy cartoon looking games to work.

By: Anthony Topper

Anthony Topper — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:31:00 +0000

Is Android accounting for 5% of sales typical for dual platform apps That seems really low.

By: Myles Monkey

Myles Monkey — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:18:00 +0000

Its been proven by many other developers that while porting is nice if you make an android app from scratch and use built in developing features the app will scale and work with most if not all android devices (excluding the dual creen ones the app will just work on just one of the screens). Developers who are just being lazy and porting the app and then doing bug fixes complain because its a different platform. Of course android will not work like ios they are different os’. Although porting might seem easier its proven to be more time consuming. If you make an app once right you don’t have to worry in the android world about scaling and hardware acceleration with Android 3.0 and up. Also scaling has been in Android since the beginning. I am an android developer and Mika Mobile is purely uneducated in the Android world or is bias towards iOS…

By: n900mixalot

n900mixalot — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:05:00 +0000

i wonder what Rovio thinks… Zombiewhatever was a fun game, I think. But my phone isnt for games. I have a PsP for that.

They do bring up a good point. Needs to be addressed asap.

By: micrappoogle

micrappoogle — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:57:00 +0000

Mika Mobile? I have download thousand of apps but never heard of this one. Who cares.