In response to a rapidly-derailed thread on the mac-games-dev list. Everything I was going to say has been said already, but I still feel the need to vent!
What can Apple do to help Mac game developers? They can carry on doing exactly what they are.
The Mac is a computer for users. It always has been, and hopefully it always will be. That means that in any situation, the user comes first. It means that developers need to abandon their arrogant Windows ways when they come to the platform, put the users first, and write games that play nicely with the rest of the system.
A game is just another application. It doesn't get special treatment. It should run off a disk image, install with a drag and drop, store its hidden files in ~/Library/, use the system's concept of user accounts rather than hacking on its own, use as little battery power as possible on laptops, leave the user's windows where they are, and so forth. These are all non-negotiable parts of being a Macintosh application, and there is absolutely no need for a game to violate them. If you think you have a good reason why these won't work for you, you don't. Think again, there's a better solution.
If Apple were to ship a gaming SDK, it would give the false impression that games are somehow special, deserving of extra attention, subject to special exceptions. They're not.
Games can perform self-update in the same way that Sparkle-enabled applications already do. Games can download content automatically to a location in ~/Library/. If the game wants to enable a competitive high-score table between user accounts, it can ask for administrator permission to create that table in /Library/Application Support. These are things which are well-known to application programmers, and don't occasion complaint. Why do game developers think they're special?
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