Mine-Imator for Mac, ( along with other ideas for the future of Mine-Imator )

[Mart456 1]

MINE-IMATOR FOR MAC:

       This won't be a rant, about why I can't believe it isn't for Mac, or anything like that, this is my suggestion that Mine-Imator should be for mac, and how I think that it could be accomplished. It also has my visions for the future of Mine-Imator. This is mostly addressed to David, but anyone else is obviously welcome to read it and comment and so forth. Now, let's get into it.

Reason that people think that making programs like this for mac won't accomplish anything: 

- most people use PC's

-macs are user friendly so therefore people who use macs must not be as good with computers.

       A point I would like to make here is that this isn't true all of the time, and isn't true even most of the time. Also the most likely to get Mine-Imator for mac right after the bat are the people who went through all sorts of technical stuff to use it on their macs even though it was only for windows. Continuing on... 

Reasons that having Mine-Imator on mac would be good: 

- even though the majority of people use PC's, the rest use macs, obviously, so though that the percentages show that barely any people use macs compared to PC's think about how many people use macs, just in numbers, and then think about how many copies of Minecraft were sold for mac, and what percentage of those people would be interested in telling there own story in the minecraft world, but don't have experience yet in animating. That is a pretty large number of people despite it all. 

- also, relating back to the experience level of Mac users, I personally do a bit of 2D animation in flash, and art in Photoshop, and my Mac is perfectly sufficient of running both programs simultaneously, and it is six years old, just as I am perfectly sufficient of doing both tasks nearly simultaneously, and I am fourteen years old. (  ) 

-apple as a brand is associated with the more creative types of computer users, so any application for creative expression and storytelling for Mac reaches out to an audience that is more geared in that direction. 

-especially if you, (David), got it on the Mac App Store, it would reach out to a lot more people. I don't know if this would happen, or stats to support this, but Mine-Imator might get more copies downloaded off the Mac App Store than off the website. I know that new apps have a chance at the new and noteworthy sections, and I'm sure that Mine-Imator would make that cut by a mile. It is already super user friendly from what I know, and even if no improvements at all were made for the Mac version, I would have no hesitation to pay $10.00 for this program to get it on my Mac,*,(this little symbol means footnote), and that whole money this brings me to new things to address down below.

       Ok, so money: I believe it costs $99 to get an app on the App Store, and there will be other things to make up for like the commitment of time, whatever help you may have to enlist, among other things. So either the app will have to cost money, or you will have to use another method of financial supporting this project. You could start a Kickstarter or indie-go go campaign, rewards for supporting being fun little things next to you name of the forums, or a download of Mine-Imator for the backer's. Maybe even a tutorial bundle or something of that nature for backers who contribute slightly higher amounts of money. That can get complicated, and as you can probably tell by now I'm a problem solver, so not that I have personal experience with that stuff, but I'd be willing to help out, even if it's just contributing ideas, and I'm sure others would too. 

       Those are my only two money solutions I can think of right now, but that's not the only barrier you'd face. If you were continually updating both Mac and PC versions, it would be much more demanding of your time, and this brings me into what I want to discuss next: the general future of Mine-Imator. 

So far I've listed this much of what I think should happen:

-crowdfunding to start Mac version, or develop and put on App Store for a price 

-develop version for Mac 

but as far as I know, this will be a relatively large undertaking, and I think if you are to go this far, than certain things must be layed out as to the relatively near future of this amazing animation program. 

        In order to maintain this program on both platforms, you'd need lots of time, or you would need a team. A company built upon this idea that you've created, and maybe not just Mine-Imator, but maybe Note Block Studio as well, and red stone display maker. These minecraft based tools are pretty incredible, and I know that they have a future beyond sitting on your website and never getting updated**, they have a future out there, in the dramtically described fantasy world of the fourteen year old who is writing this. They have a future in the hands and on the laps of any creative thinker who wants acces to them. They have a future out in the world. I saw this program yesterday, and I'm writing this now. I realized that this was amazing, by one video***: not even an adequate demonstration, (no offense TrueMu), but it left me eager to explore the program thouroughly and also, with an urge to create, and tell a story. My point is, people everywhere have this urged to explore and tell stories, and minecraft is their means of exploration for a lot of them, and having that ability to express those feelings of discovery without having to go through a bunch of training to create it, is magic for some people, and just plain awesome for the rest. Ok, now that I've gotten my attempt in at a motivational speech, I'm going to get down to how I think this should all go down, so to speak. 

       So, let's say you pursue these ideas I'm laying down, you start a crowdfunding campaign, get enough support to hire some helpers, and recruit some friends. This team starts work first on making Mine-Imator a Mac program, the kind that can go on the App Store. Once that is complete the team works out any bugs, and then releases it to the App Store, and the new company's website. People start buying it, and it could potentially make the new and noteworthy list, which would boost sales Or downloads by a lot,(depending on the desicision to make it cost money of not). While whatever happens with sales happens, the team is basically becoming a tiny company, working on periodic updates that match in both programs and make Mine-Imator even better. The forums are still a large part of this updating process, providing feedback as they do usually and that being integrated as it usually is, but now those things can be done much quicker, and better with a team. Maybe there are more people now, and there is time for features to be added and things to be changed, and then tested by mods on the forums maybe, and then deemed worthy or not for the next update. Not to forget the epic new websites that will be the welcome mat for people interested, one for each app, or maybe one for the new company and sub sections for each app. 

       The other minecraft apps keep being updated and improved as everything expands and those become cool Mac apps too. Eventually it all gets to the point where you are successful enough, assuming that happens, which personally think it will, where mojang maybe gets interested. And the choice made at that point I can't predict. 

 

So, those are my visions for the future of Mine-Imator, and there is only one more thing I would like to address.

        All of this, is only possible if you choose for it to be so, but you must also know for sure that it is what you'd want to spend a good while doing, and that you would enjoy it. I really hope you choose to embark on a journey, whether it be like my ideas, or your own, and I strongly encourage you to go forward with your creation of tools to help others, and move forward with Mine-Imator. I think you should, and what's the worst thing that could happen? Answer: it could be a waste of time, and then this whole article thing would be a waste of time too, and then at least you'd have someone to relate to.

 

- sincerely, Mart456

(P.S. Hi! I'm new here!) 

 

 

* (the following footnote is directed towards the general audience, not David) I know what y'all are going to say... "Ten dollars mart!?! Are you crazy?" And I understand that one of the coolest features about Mine-Imator is that it is free and I totally agree, but if Mine-Imator goes on the App Store then there's a whole host of things that need dealt with, and I will adress that. Now stop reading this footnote and start with the rest. 

** I actually don't know the state of updatedness on your other projects, but I know Mine-Imator is still being updated and that's great!  

*** video most people who are reading this have probably already seen, ( the that hooked me):

 

[david 8.4k]

Hi, thank you for your post and inspiring speech.

Unfortunately one of many bugs with the underlying engine (Game Maker) prevents Mine-imator from being ported to Mac. I will look into making a Mac version once that's fixed, but I cannot give a date as to when that will happen. Other than that, I have no desires to add any major features to Mine-imator, Note Block Studio or any other of my existing Minecraft programs since they're built on such a sloppy foundation.

[AbAppletic 446]

Lost count of the MI for Mac topics. How much are there so far? 50?

[LoZFTW 0]

Well, Wine for Mac OS X is always an option, if it works.

Either that or bootcamp Windows and/or Linux with wine.

Unless you're on a PowerPC processor... like me...