Porting games to the Mac is a tricky business

Remember back when Apple made the switch to Intel and it suddenly seemed as if all those PC games would be more easily ported to the Mac? So do I, and I’m still wondering where everything is. We saw some big name titles from EA, but after their initial release of four A-list titles (Madden, Need for Speed, etc.), nothing. Companies such as Aspyr and Feral continue to release popular games such as Call of Duty 4 and Tomb Raider Anniversary, but certainly no more so than when Macs were happily chugging away on PowerPC chips.

So, what’s been going on? Alex McLarty at The Mac Gamer finds some answers from one of the best sources in Mac gaming: Glenda Adams, Director of Development for Aspyr Media:

TMG: We’ve had Intel in our Macs for a few years now. Has how the switch changed game development for the Mac?

Glenda: It’s lessened some of the work we have to do, but unfortunately the graphics side of games has just exploded. The amount of shader code and complex rendering is probably 2-3 times as much work as it was for games a couple years ago, so that has more than offset the efficiency gains we had from theIntel switch.

More questions answered and a bleak future predicted after the break.