Is it worth it? Porting indie games to consoles

Summary

Thomas Stewart, an indie game developer, shares his extensive experience in porting 12 video game titles across six platforms, including Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Atari VCS, and Nintendo Switch. He discusses the challenges of porting games to consoles, such as time commitment, complex SDKs, and the financial cost of acquiring dev kits. Despite the difficulties, Thomas finds porting worthwhile, with the majority of his revenue coming from console sales. He emphasizes that coding knowledge, time, extra funds, and the use of Unity can make the porting process easier for indie developers.

Takeaways

• 🎮 Thomas Stewart has successfully ported 12 titles across 6 different platforms, including Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Atari VCS, and Nintendo Switch.
• 💻 He has done this entire process by himself, including setting up business identities, handling SDKs, dealing with developer kits, and filling out backend paperwork.
• 🕰️ Porting games to consoles is extremely time-consuming, taking almost as much time as the actual development of the games themselves.
• 📈 Stewart believes porting to consoles has been financially worth it, as console revenue has been a major source of his income compared to Steam alone.
• ✅ Porting games to multiple consoles provides a sense of legitimacy and accomplishment, especially as an indie developer.
• 💼 Porting experience has expanded his skill set and increased his employability, making him more appealing to potential publishers and employers.
• ⚠️ The process can become monotonous and frustrating, particularly when dealing with issues like certification failures and tedious tasks like localization.
• 💵 Certain platforms require developers to purchase dev kits, which can be expensive, sometimes costing hundreds or thousands of dollars.
• 🤖 Developers comfortable with coding and using Unity will have an easier time porting, as Unity is the most supported engine for console porting documentation.
• 🕹️ Stewart advises developers to consider their game's complexity before porting, as larger games with multiplayer or more content will require significantly more effort.

Q & A

What platforms has the speaker ported games to?

The speaker has ported games to six unique platforms: Steam, Xbox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Atari VCS, and Nintendo Switch.

Why does the speaker believe console porting is worth it?

The speaker believes console porting is worth it because the majority of their revenue comes from game sales on consoles, and porting games across multiple platforms provides consistent income.

What are some challenges of console porting mentioned by the speaker?

Challenges include the time commitment, handling proprietary SDKs, managing store pages, age ratings, localization, QA testing, and navigating various backend dashboards.

What intangible benefit does the speaker get from seeing their games on different consoles?

The speaker feels immense satisfaction and legitimizes themselves as a professional game developer rather than just a hobbyist.

How does console porting affect the speaker's potential employability?

The speaker's experience with console porting makes them more employable, as they have expertise in a complex process that many game studios and publishers value.

What makes console porting feel monotonous to the speaker over time?

After multiple porting experiences, filling out localized game descriptions and dealing with certification processes can feel like drudgery, making the process monotonous.

What factors does the speaker consider when deciding which consoles to port to in the future?

The speaker now considers the difficulty of porting to certain platforms and the revenue generated by each, using past data to make more selective decisions.

Who does the speaker think is best suited for console porting?

According to the speaker, individuals who are comfortable with programming, have a lot of time, extra money for developer kits, and use Unity as their game engine are best suited for console porting.

What is the speaker's opinion on the use of Unity for console porting?

The speaker believes that Unity is the crowd favorite among game engines for console porting due to its extensive and clear documentation, which makes the porting process easier.

Why does the speaker caution about the cost of developer kits?

The speaker warns that some platforms require developers to purchase developer kits, which can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, so developers need to be prepared for this financial commitment.