Costs for Xcode and OS update

Hi fellow devs,

recently i got to the point where i think about porting my current project to the Mac after having successful tests on Windows, Ubuntu and Android.

The plan is to get a used model, the one i intend to buy has MacOS 10.9.5.

What i do not know, which hidden costs there are. An update to 10.13 and Xcode will be needed - it seems they can be downloaded from the Macstore, but you can only access it with a Mac.

Can anyone provide information as to how much the update and the coding tools cost ?

Sorry for the ignorant question but i couldn't find anything up-to-date regarding this.
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
But alternatively, to buying Mac, you can put together Hackintosh.
Bad idea... Apple have a strict policy that you can only develop using a legit Mac. Now, whether they enforce that or not I do not know, but I wouldn't like to spend money on something then use it to create and publish a few games only to have Apple pull them from the store for breach of contract or whatever.

As for upgrading, I'm pretty sure that both Xcode and the macOS are free, BUT you should make sure that your machine has the required specs for both before buying. I have a Mac Mini and an old MacBook Air, and the MacBook can no longer be updated as it doesn't meet the minimum specs for the current generation OS.
 
Hi folks,

thanks a lot, that means i will certainly try this out. :)

Will keep an eye on the specs for sure. Just didn't want to end up with a few hundred bucks of update costs.:eek:
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
Xcode is also free.

To codesign your app for easy distribution, whether on the official appstore or anywhere else - $100/year apple developer subscription fee.

However, you can distribute your app without codesigning, (for free), but you will probably need to link your gamers to this tutorial so they can get it running.
 
So this morning the parcel arrived. As it was quite cold recently i waited till the afternoon to avoid damages due to the temperature difference.

Then i started updating to High Sierra and just about every app that was out of date.

Installed GameMaker 2, loaded my game project i tranfered from the PC and played Klomanager Regurgitated for the first time on an iMac. :D

So far all went as smooth as it gets.

Next challange will be to create .zip version for distribution, seems i need an Apple dev account for that.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
So this morning the parcel arrived. As it was quite cold recently i waited till the afternoon to avoid damages due to the temperature difference.

Then i started updating to High Sierra and just about every app that was out of date.

Installed GameMaker 2, loaded my game project i tranfered from the PC and played Klomanager Regurgitated for the first time on an iMac. :D

So far all went as smooth as it gets.

Next challange will be to create .zip version for distribution, seems i need an Apple dev account for that.
You actually do not, if you are ok with using that tutorial i linked. You just need to leave the developer id for codesigning field in your game setings backspaced and left blank before building. YoYo made it so it doesn't stay empty, and the default string they put comes back after a few saves. So make sure you always check that and make sure you get the field empty before each build, at least, if you don't want to pay for distribution.

I asked YoYo to remove that dumb field getting filled again automatically, i have no idea why they did that, but they refused to take my advice and they said "just backspace it if you don't want to codesign, we're not going to change it".
 
Top