Put Bitfighter on Mac App Store

Put Bitfighter on Mac App Store
and also Windows' store whatever they have
And also I think Ubuntu has a store of some sort too.

I think this will be a very good idea.

It will also attract a lot of new players.

Maybe we could get into the list of top free apps

[Quartz]

Bad idea. Such fronts basically make it so everyone has to wait 2-3 extra weeks to get an update. Then you get people who bought it on the Mac App Store whining on the forums, like "why don't we have the update yet?!" and it's like "It's Apple's fault. And it's your fault for being stupid enough to buy anything on the Mac App Store." Seriously, I've seen it for other games, it doesn't go well.

Plus this game is free and probably thus below the standards of the Mac App Store anyway. Thank God.

Bad idea. Such fronts basically make it so everyone has to wait 2-3 extra weeks to get an update. Then you get people who bought it on the Mac App Store whining on the forums, like "why don't we have the update yet?!" and it's like "It's Apple's fault. And it's your fault for being stupid enough to buy anything on the Mac App Store." Seriously, I've seen it for other games, it doesn't go well.

Plus this game is free and probably thus below the standards of the Mac App Store anyway. Thank God.

If the players would know about the forums then the players would know how to download the newest version from the website.

I don't think there would be a lot of forum spam about it
Even if there is, we need players and activity.
And we need to keep it...


Also there are a lot of free apps in the app store, I don't see how bitfighter would be under a limit.

Bad idea. Such fronts basically make it so everyone has to wait 2-3 extra weeks to get an update. Then you get people who bought it on the Mac App Store whining on the forums, like "why don't we have the update yet?!" and it's like "It's Apple's fault. And it's your fault for being stupid enough to buy anything on the Mac App Store." Seriously, I've seen it for other games, it doesn't go well.

Plus this game is free and probably thus below the standards of the Mac App Store anyway. Thank God.

If the players would know about the forums then the players would know how to download the newest version from the website.

I don't think there would be a lot of forum spam about it
Even if there is, we need players and activity.
And we need to keep it...


Also there are a lot of free apps in the app store, I don't see how bitfighter would be under a limit.

[Skybax]

If the players would know about the forums then the players would know how to download the newest version from the website

This is the smartest thing Lamp has ever said. I think any further arguments against this idea would be fruitless after this sentence.

[Quartz]

If the players would know about the forums then the players would know how to download the newest version from the website

This is the smartest thing Lamp has ever said. I think any further arguments against this idea would be fruitless after this sentence.

Except that it's a superb waste of time. But ok

I actually like the idea of Bitfighter on the Mac App Store, because I'm all for more distribution outlets that we can use to spread the Bitfighter love. But I don't think expecting players to navigate to the forums to get a new update is particularly reasonable. It's our job to ensure everyone gets an update, not theirs.

If we went this route my suggestion for addressing the wait time on updates would be to just... deal with it. Bitfighter's updates are often spread weeks or months apart. We can wait an extra week to get an update. Just ensure the update on the forum is released simultaneously with the update on the Mac App Store approval.

The main concern I'd have is for game-breaking updates due to bugs, as we often have (a) and (b) and even (c) releases shortly after major releases. But this is a problem thousands of developers deal with every release, no? We could try shipping an update to a small pool of beta testers on a wide variety of platforms to test for bugs before the main release. Or see if there was a way to sneak in small updates via server connection that don't require an Apple approval.

Before we get to the Mac App Store we might want to try Steam first. For a long time I didn't think Bitfighter would be accepted to Steam due to its lack of a market. But then someone pointed out that there were other games without markets that made it in. And hey, it couldn't hurt to try, right?

Agreed.

Its interesting to note I already do that to some Degree Raptor and wattsimo give me builds then I test them for release.