Thread by @alienmelon

An update for those of you that can't run my games anymore on OSX because of Catalina.
I'm so sorry about this...
I'll probably write a post about this, breaking it all down for you, but the situation is as follows.
(from my point of view, and own experiences with Apple)
[thread]

Apple has a long-standing history of being pretty horrible to developers like me. My experience of having my work on the App Store for iOS has been nothing short of a nightmare.

It's impossible to exist on their stores outside of the realm of what they deem "normal". Having a history, or preservation of older work, is very much out of the picture.

You can argue that, but if ur a dev that works between Windows & OSX, tried to have things on the App Store u know how hard it is.
The conversations from devs that make games for OSX are difficult to hear, because it's really crushing. Makes me sad. Apple is not a friend.

Apple recently decided that you have to notarize your apps. Even if downloaded outside of their store. On the surface they say "security", but I question that. You can't lock out a huge history of work, games, from small & freeware devs, and call that sweeping decision "secure".

I'm of the opinion that totalitarian decisions that completely eliminate huge bodies of work aren't about progress. IF this were really about security then the policies would be different & more accessible to small devs. It wouldn't cost me this much just to exist on OSX.

Decisions like this are detrimental to having a history, preservation, or literally any body of work. It's counterproductive to art.
It's not necessary. It's so self-serving it hurts.
I'm sad that I'll have to leave OSX because of this.

I was looking into the new requirements for notarizing apps on OSX thinking that maybe I can do it, but it costs $100 annually. For all the other stuff that comes coupled with that, it's inexcusable & just wrecks using their platform for "games as art" & software experimentation.

"Games are art" (like they like pushing now since it suits their Arcade), happens outside of the mainstream. It's small devs that contribute to the discussion... not major monopolies. they come sweeping in after the fact.

It really upsets me because the iOS App Store policies basically prohibited art or anything interesting (nudity, glitch, error art...temperamental depending on who reviewed you for approval).

It was hell for me to get things approved, and even when I got them approved I had to change so much about my work it really wasn't my work anymore. A platform holder shouldn't dictate so much about someone else's work.

From where I'm coming from this (their new notarization program) is harsh, punishing, & just not justifiable. If u really cared about security this would at least be a one time fee. Not annual. I could do it if it was one-time & they weren't so heavy on quality control...

(quality is subjective in a lot of cases)
Most of the reasons that my apps got rejected from the AppStore (the visual things they had me change just to be allowed on) were extremely subjective.

You should NOT sweepingly control content from everyone that wants to exist on your platform. This is just horrible, and devastating to someone like me. My work is very experimental. There's no way a lot of it (if any even) would even get approved in their official storefront...

Turning the _entire_ platform (anything that runs on someone's desktop) into their "official storefront" and controlling the content that happens there looks less and less like it's about security and more like it's about controlling their market.

it's wild to me how all these platform monopolies have to say is "it's for security" and people don't question that.

can you imagine how devastating to places like itch.io, and freeware in general, this would be if Windows did the same?
It would completely wipe out small scale experimentation like my work.
I really hope PC doesn't follow suit.

Put it like this, I'm not a visitor on the computer that I own. My computer is my home. I don't want what I run there, or the level at which I choose to fuck myself up with downloading whatever I like, to be dictated by the platform holder.

As an artist, I want to make my error art, glitchy, weird games, & I don't want the AppStore arbitrarily telling me that they don't allow "simulated error" while allowing it from someone else...and then seeing that they're making the same moves for content OUTSIDE of their stores

The fact that they're asking for $100 a year, and that I'll have to keep paying and updating games and work (most of which are one-offs), that I distribute on itch (with no intention even of going through the App Store) makes Apple inaccessible to me.

I won't be able to keep supporting OSX as I can't afford an annual fee or the resources it takes to get things passed. When my stuff was on the AppStore it was a literal nightmare with them going as far as to control the visual style (they didn't want error art, glitch art = bad)

So I'll probably completely switch to Windows, but I'll wait and see.
For now, those of u that are sad that u can't run the Zine Maker on OSX because u switched to Catalina...Here's how to get around that: imore.com/how-open-apps-…

I'm sorry that this has affected you. It saddens me too!
Anyone that goes along with the argument that this is about security really should question their sweeping decisions and how they're even approaching this. The way Apple treats devs and our work is just wrong.

update to this thread:
i wrote that post about it, breaking it all down for you.
you can read it here: nathalielawhead.com/candybox/the-f…
it says it all for me...not sure what else to add. the ongoing discussion has been interesting. hope for a future where tech stays democratic.