作者：Heather Newman

Jeff Vogel做事从不会手下留情。当他的独立游戏公司最近在iOS上发行了角色扮演游戏《阿佛纳姆2》又在不久后撤销了游戏后，我们知道他将能和我们分享一些重要的内容。

他表示并未对此感到失望。以下你将看到，虽然Spiderweb Software过去在平板电脑上赚取了巨大的销量，但是你之后却不会在iPad上看到他们的游戏的原因。

Avernum 2(from venturebeat)

GamesBeat：你已经开发了iOS游戏一段时间了。为什么选择现在放弃？

Jeff Vogel：对于苹果产品，我们需要意识到的最重要的事是它们总是会很快便过时。苹果的工程师总是不断改变他们的硬件和软件。根据我的经验，任何诞生了几年的设备都不可能再运行一些全新的操作系统。

我做了20年的苹果设备程序编程工作也始终是一项复杂的工作。苹果总是不断淘汰一些早旧的代码，并迫使程序员需要不断学习并修改所有内容。有时候这些改变能够成就一些更出色的设备和软件。但有时候，这却是不能带给开发者和用户任何好处的讨厌的改变。而在你完全放弃前，这都是你需要忍受并学习的东西。

而对此苹果并未作出任何反应。2014年，每天iTunes上会出现500款新游戏。所以我认为如果90%的游戏开发者一夜间全部消失，苹果可能会为此欣喜落狂。Steam也是如此。

在某种程度上苹果是很仁慈的。通常情况下当他们在设备编程方面做出巨大改变时，他们都会再沿用早前程序几年去帮助开发者们进行调整。而《阿佛纳姆2》所遇到的问题在于时机不对。

GamesBeat：为什么你们要撤销《阿佛纳姆2》呢？

Vogel：对于iOS 8，苹果对程序如何创造一个窗口和注册事件（游戏邦注：碰触，旋转设备等）做出了巨大的改变。我开发了一款游戏并在iOS 8.2上对它进行了测试。游戏中的所有内容都能有效地运行于之前的系统上。于是我便提交了游戏，它也通过了测试并准备发行。

但是在游戏发行前几天iOS 8.3出现了，并造成了一些巨大的变化。一些内容不能再正常运行了，并且在不同设备上也会出现不同的变化。

我找不到任何解决问题的方法，即使我这么做了，我也不可能违背自己的良心去发行游戏。据我所知8.4或8.5版本将破坏掉之前的所有内容，我也不敢保证自己能否不断修改代码，因为苹果肯定会再次让我使用全新的代码。

所以我需要拥有一个全新的游戏引擎。我花了几个月的时间去寻找并学习引擎，移植游戏并测试游戏。但是最终的销量却不能与我的努力持衡。要知道我每一天可是在与500款全新游戏相较量。所以我最终选择了放弃。

我猜在过去几年里已经有许多开发者离开了这里。而他们可能并未像我一样注意到这些。

GamesBeat：为什么现在iOS的改变会影响到你现在的游戏，但是之前的改变却对早前的游戏没有太大影响？

Vogel：我将不得不变得更擅长技能。我们的全新游戏是一款64位体的应用。而之前的游戏都是32位体。它们使用的是苹果已经淘汰但仍然可行的早前的代码基础。但是我认为现在的苹果有可能彻底淘汰所有的32位体应用。因为他们已经明确所有全新提交的游戏都必须是64位体的内容。

如果我能够创造32位体的《阿佛纳姆2》，我便可能创造出一个1小时左右的有效版本内容。

苹果宣称支持32位体应用的时代已经完全过去了，所以我将只能永久地撤销我的所有iPad应用。因为我并不想欺骗用户。

GamesBeat：那Mac OS呢？你们从一开始便一直支持着苹果的台式机不是吗。

Vogel：对于Windows，微软始终支持反向兼容性。所以我仍然能够使用我在20年前为Windows编写的代码，即我只需要做出一些较小的调整便可。但是我在20年前为Mac编写的代码却在10年前便过时了。当你在开发一款苹果产品时，你可能每隔几年就需要重新创造一些内容。如果你曾经好奇为什么Windows在企业环境中拥有如此强大的主导地位的话，你现在便能找到答案。

对于Mac，苹果并未像在iOS那样残忍地淘汰某些内容，因为有很多公司都在使用Mac，而那些大公司通常都很讨厌各种不确定性。所以我可能会更长久地面向Mac开发游戏。

同样地，比起Windows我也更喜欢为Mac创造内容。而这纯粹是我的个人喜好。

Avadon 2(from venturebeat)

GamesBeat：那Android平台呢？你对此有什么计划？

Vogel：Android真的是一个很难开发的平台。这里有无数不同的设备，你很容易在这里出错。这里还存在许多有关编程和支持的问题。

重要的是，我只是一个人，虽然我还蛮聪明的，但是我却只能精通一定的事物。我也想要面向Android和Linux发行游戏，但却是心有余而力不足。

Gamesbeat：所以为什么你最初会决定面向iPad发行游戏？

Vogel：因为我认为iPad真的非常酷。它很简洁且很神奇。并且这里也存在巨大的利润。所以我才会选择面向该平台发行那么多游戏。

但是现在的我已不如过去那般精明能够赚到更多的钱。现在更多钱流向了免费游戏和简单的益智游戏。该平台上最受欢迎的游戏并不是我所编写的那类型游戏了。

GamesBeat：是否存在任何可能性能够将你从新带回这一平台上？

Vogel：说实话，也许某一天当我醒来时我会迫切地想要研究全新代码并创造一些与时俱进的新内容。那么我便会找到一个iOS引擎并尝试着自己是否能够使用它去创造想要创造的内容。如果它是可行的，我便会认为它将持续发挥作用几年，然后我便会因为有趣而回到这个平台上。尽管它可能仍和几年前一样不能帮助我们创造出更多收益。

这种情况是有可能发生的，但是时间不可能持续很长。而在长期范围内我将会专注于编写《阿瓦登3：Warborn》。

GamesBeat：这对于Spiderweb和整体的手机平台有什么意义？

Vogel：这对于手机平台来说没什么特别意义。没有人会在意我的。

对于我个人来说，我会非常难过。我热衷于成为一名iOS开发者。我认为这是一件非常酷的事，但是这次退出却让我觉得自己越来越不像是一名开发者。我也找不到其它自己所信赖的游戏发行方式。是的，我仍然不想欺骗任何人。

GamesBeat：你期待人们会有什么反应？

Vogel：我敢保证有些开发者会这么说，“这个人太愚蠢了。他就是个菜鸟。是个失败者。他是一个比我还糟糕的开发者。”也许这并没错。我的主要专业是设计。我并不是一名优秀的程序员。我很认真地学习如何让所有内容有效地运行于我们的目标平台上，然后我便离开去做下一件重要工作。这就像是一个小小的家庭产业。如果我们有能力聘请一名iOS专家的话，我们便不会遇到这样的问题了。

但事实就是如此，有时候你想要做的事并不能帮助你轻松获得回报。而我们所从事的这份工作的部分任务便是去识别出这样的时刻并适时作出正确的选择。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

‘Apple doesn’t care’: Why one longtime indie role-playing game maker has left iOS

HEATHER NEWMAN

Jeff Vogel never pulls any punches. So when the longtime indie success story released the Avernum 2 role-playing game recently on iOS — then yanked it days later — we knew he’d have some pointed things to say.

He didn’t disappoint. Here’s the story of why you won’t be able to get future Spiderweb Software games on iPad despite the company’s successful sales for tablets in the past. Also, a suggestion: Better move fast if you want the company’s older works on the platform (Avernum, Avadon, Avadon 2).

GamesBeat contacted Apple for this interview as well and didn’t receive a response.

Oh, and he dropped a teaser about the new Avadon game, too.

GamesBeat: You’ve been developing for iOS for a while. Why stop now?

Jeff Vogel: So the most important thing to realize about Apple products is that they are designed to become obsolete fairly quickly. Apple engineers constantly change up the hardware and software. In my repeated experience, any device more than a few years old loses the ability to run the new operating systems.

Programming for Apple devices has, for the 20 years I’ve been doing it, been a continuous hassle. Apple constantly makes the old code obsolete, forcing programmers to relearn and revise everything constantly. Sometimes, these changes lead to better devices and software. Other times, it’s just obnoxiousness with no gain for developers or users. It’s just something you learn to live with, until you give up.

And Apple doesn’t care. Why should they? In 2014, 500 games came out on iTunes a day. A day. I suspect that Apple would be ecstatic if 90 percent of game developers disappeared overnight. See also: Steam.

Apple is merciful in one way, though. Usually, when they make a huge change in how their devices are programmed, they let the old code work for a few years to help developers keep up. The problem with Avernum 2 HD is that this didn’t happen this time.

GamesBeat: Why did you pull Avernum 2?

Vogel: For iOS 8, the current version, Apple made huge changes in how programs make a window and register events — touches, rotated devices, etc. I developed the game and tested it on iOS 8.2. Everything was fine with the older system. I submitted the game, and it passed testing and was ready for release.

Then, a few days before release, iOS 8.3 came out. It caused a wide variety of massive breakages. The thing didn’t work, and it broke in completely different ways on different devices.

I couldn’t find a way to work around the problem, and, even if I did, I couldn’t release the game in good conscience. For all I knew, 8.4 would break everything, or 8.5, and I couldn’t be sure that I could always fix the code, as Apple is determined to make me use entirely new code.

So I’d need to get a whole new game engine. It’d take weeks to find it, learn it, port the game, and get it tested. The likely sales didn’t justify the effort and hassle. Remember, I’m competing against 500 new titles a day. So I gave out.

I suspect a lot of developers have disappeared over the last few years. They just didn’t get noticed like I did.

GamesBeat: Why did the iOS change affect that game in ways it didn’t for your earlier ones, which are still available?

Vogel: I have to get boring and technical. The new game is a 64-bit app. The earlier games are 32-bit apps. They use an older code base that was frozen by Apple and still basically works. However, I expect, any day now, that Apple will obsolete all 32-bit apps. They already require all new submissions to be 64-bit.

If I could make Avernum 2 HD 32-bit, I’d have a solid working version in about an hour.

The moment they make noises about 32-bit app support being entirely removed, I will remove all of my iPad apps from sale permanently. I do not want to rip people off.

GamesBeat: What about Mac OS? You’ve been supporting Apple desktops since the beginning.

Vogel: For Windows, Microsoft is all about backward compatibility. I can still use code I wrote for Windows 20 years ago, and it’s fine with only minor tweaks. Code I wrote for the Mac 20 years ago became obsolete and unusable about 10 years ago. When developing for Apple products, you usually end up having to redo a ton of stuff every few years. If you’ve ever wondered why Windows has such impenetrable dominance in the corporate environment, this is a major reason.

Happily, for the Macintosh, Apple can’t make things obsolete quite as mercilessly as it does on iOS, because a lot of businesses use Macs, and big business hates uncertainty. So I’ll probably develop for the Mac for a long time to come.

Also, I prefer to work on Macs instead of Windows. This is a personal preference. I don’t get into passionate arguments about whether Windows or Mac is better, as I am no longer 19 years old.

GamesBeat: What about Android? Any future plans?

Vogel: Android is really hard to develop for. There’s a million different devices, and something will go wrong on many of them. Lots of coding and support hassles.

Here’s the important thing. I’m only one guy. I’m pretty smart. I can hold a lot in my brain. However, I can only maintain mastery of a certain number of things. I would love to release games for Android and Linux, but I just don’t have the brain space.

GamesBeat: So why did you originally decide to release games for the iPad?

Vogel: Because I think iPads are really really cool. I still do. They’re neat and magic. Also, there is a ton of money in it. So, so, so, so much money. Infinite money. That’s why so many games are released for it.

I’m just not big and savvy enough anymore to get a good chunk of that money. The real money goes to free-to-play money-drainers and simple puzzle games — that are also free-to-play money-drainers. The games most popular on the platform just aren’t the sort of games I write.

GamesBeat: Is there anything that would woo you back to developing for that platform?

Vogel: Honestly, someday, I may wake up and have a weird urge to dig into new code and do something techie and funky. Then I’ll get an iOS engine and play with it and see if I can get it to work. If it works and I believe it’ll keep working for a few years, I may jump back into the platform for fun. It’ll never make as much money for us as it did in the early days, though.

It might happen. But not for quite a while. For a long time, I’m going to be pretty jazzed about writing Avadon 3: The Warborn. [That’s the first time Vogel has publicly announced the new game’s title –Ed.]

GamesBeat: What does this mean for Spiderweb and mobile platforms in general?

Vogel: It doesn’t mean anything for mobile platforms. Nobody cares about me.

For me, it just makes me really sad. I loved being an iOS developer. I though it was really cool, and quitting made me respect myself less as a developer. But, well, I saw no way to release a game I could believe in. Again, I don’t want to rip anyone off.

GamesBeat: How do you expect people to react?

Vogel: I’m sure some developers are going, “Wow, this is is such an idiot. And a noob. And a loser. He is such a suckier developer than I am.” And it’s probably true. My main expertise is design. I’m not a great coder. I learn enough to get the thing running reliably on my target platform, and then I’m off to do the next huge job. It’s a small family business. If we could afford to hire an iOS person, it wouldn’t be a problem at all.

But as it is, sometimes a thing you want to do is too much hassle for the rewards. Part of being in business is recognizing those moments and making ugly choices.(source:venturebeat)