GENERAL
How hard was it to port your respective games from the PC to the Mac platform?
Civilization: Call to Power was a mixed beast. Since it's a 2D turn-based strategy game, we didn't have to worry as much about things like frame rate and fast network packet updating. But the flip side is that CTP is composed of roughly 500,000-600,000 lines of C++ code; it's a fairly huge system. The main thing we underestimated when we did the port was how much memory the game would take on the Mac. The PC version Civ:CTP is a veritable RAM hog! We've done our best to minimize this on the Mac, but it still gobbles up resources like Homer Simpson at an all-you-can-eat buffet!

Based on your experience and personal opinion, is it easier to develop games for the Mac or the PC? From that, do you believe it is easier to port from PC to Mac, Mac to PC, or neither?
Over the past 10 years I've worked on 20 games. I've done original development for both the PC and the Mac, and I'm currently working on my 13th (knock on wood) Mac port. Original development, especially for the PC, is a terribly difficult task. You need a lot of time, a lot of people, a lot of resources, and a LOT of money. For most PC developers this usually translates into a lot of Rolaids.

I've found that PC development is generally more difficult than Mac OS development. Although Windows can be somewhat forgiving about things like memory usage, and it gives you "freebies" such as sound hardware, it's a very over-engineered system which makes it difficult to program efficiently. On the other hand, the Mac OS is fairly well organized and straightforward. And although hardware conflicts exist on the Mac, they're usually nothing like the mess that exists in the Wintel world.

I've never ported from the Mac to the PC; not many people have ;-) But each PC-to-Mac port I've done has been a different experience. You're never really sure how difficult a port will be until you get the code for the game for evaluation. Even then, you have to make an educated guess based on experience as to how long the work will take. Despite our collective porting experience, we still occasionally underestimate how long a game will take to port. We've had some games that looked easy from the start, but once we got weeks or months into the project, we realized that we'd bitten off much more than we could chew!

Why do you think so many gaming companies give priority to developing titles where the platform that gets the greatest consideration is the PC?
Two reasons. First, the PC market is *HUGE* compared to the Mac market. A hit game on the PC will sell 300,000 units. Mega hits can hit 1,000,000 units or more. Those kinds of sales figures translate into serious bucks. In contrast, a hit game on the Mac may only sell something like 50,000 units. Although the ROI (Return On Investment) of developing a Mac game may be higher, large companies such as EA, Eidos, and Activision won't ever put serious consideration into developing Mac games until Mac game sales figures are much, much higher.

Second, Mac programmers are pretty scarce, and good Mac GAME programmers are even scarcer. Back in the mid-90's when Apple's market share bottomed out, Mac programmers fled the platform in droves. All these guys are either programming for Wintel or consoles. So just trying to find Mac developers can be difficult at times.

PERSONAL BACKGROUND / THE GAME
What is your background in working on the Civilization series? What is your personal history of playing Civilization games? :)
The Mac port of Civ: Call to Power is the first time I've worked on a game in the Civ series.

Many, many moons ago when I worked at Origin Systems I played a bit of Civ I. I didn't get into it as much as everyone else, but it was obviously a classic. I never got the chance to play Civ II, but I've played a bit of SMAC and of course a bunch of CTP. I'm mainly an RTS and flight sim nut, but I have a great deal of respect for the complexity of the AI in good turn-based strategy games such as CTP and SMAC.

In making the functions of the Mac port compatible with its PC counterpart, was this a major consideration of the team? How difficult was it ? In the case of SMAC, what was the outcome?
Making a Mac port "PC compatible" usually comes down to two things: files and networking. In the case of CTP, we had to jump through a TON of hoops to keep our files compatible with the PC version, and to make save games cross-platform. Much of this translates into thousands of lines of "byte-swapping" or "endian" code we have to write on the Mac side. The networking for CTP wasn't as difficult mainly because there aren't huge numbers of packets shooting across the net like there are in games such as Unreal or Quake.

Is there ever going to be a time that games that will not need a patch from "Day One"?
Sure -- most anything that comes out for a game console;-)

Seriously, Beta testing is one of the most difficult parts of software development. You work months and months on a game, you think you've got it in a fairly good state, you hand it over to a dozen testers, and WHAMMO! Bugs!

As a small developer, we have very limited resources for testing. We have to rely on out-of-house testers we find on the Internet for most of the work. Those guys do a pretty darn good job considering that a) They aren't professional testers, b) They've all got day jobs, and c) They're doing the work for free. We owe a lot to our out-of-house testers:-)

Although we do our best, bugs slip through. The only thing that might possibly decrease ship-day bugs would be to create an in-house testing staff. But Westlake and most other porting houses are operating on shoestring budgets. Heck, my office is my BEDROOM. We'd have to raise our rates a bunch to cover in-house testing. And given the current state of Mac game sales, it's not likely we'll be raising our rates anytime soon :-(

What is the possibility/feasibility of a port of CivIII and/or CTP2, or is it too early to tell?
It's way too early to tell at this point. Westlake's maintained pretty good relations with both Fireaxis/EA and Activision, so if those companies want ports done, I suspect they'll seek us out. But no talks have gone on at this point.

OTHER / DOWN THE ROAD
If an expansion pack for PC 'originating' game that was then ported to the Mac is released, what is the likelihood that the add-on would also come to the Mac platform? In other words, what are the consideration factors that result in a decision one way or the other?
I think what you're asking here is "What are the chances something like 'Alien Crossfire' coming to the Mac?" It mainly depends on the sales of the original Mac port. If the Mac port does well, the likelihood of a Mac expansion pack is pretty high. Usually expansion packs are fairly cheap, so it's easy for publishers like Aspyr or MacSoft to obtain the rights. But if the original port tanks, then there's really no reason to bring the expansion pack to the Mac.

In the case of Total Annihilation, where we shipped the expansion packs with the Mac port, we were basically trying to give the game some "added value" since it took so long to come to the Mac.

Is there a market for Mac games today? What does the future hold for Mac games?
There's definitely a market for Mac games, but it's still pretty limited. We've been hoping that the fantastic sales of the iMac would have translated into higher game sales by now, but that just hasn't been the case. Apple has done a fine job of selling the hardware, but the truth of the matter is that they don't seem to care much about software sales.
Just look at the marketing for the iMac. It's sold as an "all in one" machine -- buy it, take it home, get on the Internet, and you're done. As long as Apple's selling plenty of iMacs and iBooks, they're happy.

Apple needs to put some serious muscle into expanding the Mac retail market. Yes, we all know that you can buy Macs and Mac OS software at CompUSA, but so what? There are only a few hundred Comps across the USA, and that particular retail chain is having serious financial trouble to the point where they're having to close stores. Other than Comp, MicroCenter, Fry's, Electronics Boutique, and Sears (which doesn't sell software), I can't think of any other large retailer that carries Mac hardware or software.

Apple needs to take a serious look at this problem. Why hasn't the Mac returned to Best Buy? How about Circuit City? And what about the number one software retailer, WalMart? In most small towns and rural areas, WalMart is the ONLY place for people to buy computers and software. This is a grievous oversight on the part of Apple. Until Apple can make some major inroads into retail expansion, game sales on the Mac won't grow, and there won't be much hope for the major companies to step in and bring more games to the platform.

With your experience in porting PC games to the Mac in mind, do you believe it has been a worthwhile experience?
Yes! Coding for the Mac is a much more worthwhile experience than coding for the PC. Despite some quirky limitations, the Mac OS is so much better thought out than Windows. Add on Metrowerks' CodeWarrior, the best programming tool anywhere, and you've got a platform that's a real pleasure to code for.

But more importantly, it's the people you run across in the Mac world that really make things worthwhile. You won't find a better group of people than the gang here at Westlake. Mark and Suellen Adams, Ken Cobb, Mark Krenek, Brad Oliver, and John Butler are all true Mac fans and a real joy to work with:-)

Given the opportunity, would you work on another Civilization project, porting or otherwise?
Absolutely. The Civ series is one of the best in the history of computer gaming, and it's been a real honor to be a small part of it.

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