Releasing on Mac OS

Forgive me if this has been asked a lot. I tried my best to search this forum and the web for the answer, but could not find a satisfactory one.

So I had planned on releasing a Mac version of my game on Steam, thinking I could just skip any certification or whatever with Apple by simply avoiding their App Store. I should have done my homework first. As far as I can tell, the games RPG Maker MV spits out will be seen as an "untrusted developer" by most Mac users. I do not consider this is an acceptable issue for players to run into when launching my game from Steam. Steam might also feel the same way, for that matter.

As far as I know, the only way to give my players a program that opens like normal would be to become a part of their developer program. That program comes with a $99/year subscription for that privilege. I didn't mind paying the fee for Steam, but this is much more expensive and on a much smaller platform. My game is free.

Am I missing something that I can do to skip this requirement? Or am I just spoiled by Steam/Windows in expecting something easier from Mac?

Simply registering as an Apple developer is free.

EDIT: Apparently registration alone won't get the developer ID needed for selling Mac Apps that pass the security test on Macs.

https://developer.apple.com/support/compare-memberships/

in the MacOS community, it is known that a lot of free tools are unsigned because the developer can't keep it free and pay for the developer licence. And that message can be disabled after it was read once.

So while yes, this might be a minor disadvantage with the inexperienced or very critical user, it is not something that would break your distribution. You can compare this to microsofts licenced driver models - that also requires payment and a few other rules, and there are companies that intentionally release untrusted drivers (or had done so a few years ago), exactly because they do not want to follow the required restrictions for trusted drivers (some of those restrictions would slow down some driver functions), and people still installed them because that was also known.

If you're still determined to get the trusted status you should keep in mind that all what counts is your status when the program is created and updated - if you don't plan to update it, you'll only need the developer licence for the year in which you created your program.

[move]RPGMaker MV Deployment[/move]

I could go along with this. I myself have been such a user in the past to navigate treacherous waters to use a program. However, the UX of this is just too negative to allow through; it could be really damaging to my... uh, "brand." Ugh. I sound like a corporate stooge saying that, but I don't know a better way to say it. Also, I ran into some critical/blocker level issues with my build when trying to bypass this security feature. I'm hoping those will clear up with a proper ID since I believe they were caused by the Mac security preventing my game from making/changing files (creating saves).


That actually doesn't sound too bad. I think what I'll do is wait until my next game is ready/close to ready to publish, then I'll drop that subscription fee to push out both. And then cancel it once I'm satisfied it doesn't need more patches, hehe. Thanks for the advice!