Is it worth it? Porting indie games to consoles
Summary
TLDRThomas 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.
Outlines
🎮 Porting Expertise: A Journey Across Platforms
Thomas Stewart introduces himself as a self-taught console porting expert, having successfully ported 12 titles across six platforms. He shares his journey of learning everything from scratch—setting up developer programs, reading documentation, acquiring dev kits, managing store content, handling age ratings, localization, QA testing, and pricing models. Thomas emphasizes how console porting has been financially rewarding, with most of his revenue coming from consoles rather than Steam. He explains that the work, though difficult, is worthwhile as it provides consistent income across various platforms, making it a key factor in sustaining his game development career full-time.
⏳ The Time Investment of Console Porting
Porting games to consoles takes a significant amount of time, according to Thomas, sometimes equaling the time spent on developing games themselves. Despite becoming more proficient after multiple launches, Thomas admits that porting remains a time-consuming process. He questions whether focusing only on Steam would have been more productive, but he finds an intangible satisfaction in seeing his games on major consoles. He reflects on how this achievement legitimizes his work, makes him more employable, and opens doors to opportunities with publishers and studios. However, Thomas also acknowledges the repetitive and sometimes frustrating nature of the process, which can feel monotonous and tedious after multiple iterations.
🧑💻 Who Should Consider Console Porting?
Thomas provides insight into who might be best suited for solo console porting. He highlights five key qualities: 1) comfort with programming, as there are many proprietary SDKs and systems to integrate, 2) a significant time commitment, as porting requires extensive documentation and problem-solving, 3) access to extra funds for purchasing dev kits, which some platforms don't provide for free, 4) a simple game design, as more complex games (e.g., with online multiplayer) are harder to port, and 5) the use of Unity, which has the most robust documentation and support for console porting compared to other engines. He notes that using Unity makes the process smoother.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Console Porting
💡Developer Programs
💡Dev Kits
💡SDKs
💡Localization
💡QA Testing
💡Build Pipelines
💡Pricing Models
💡Revenue
💡Indie Developer
💡Unity
Highlights
Thomas Stewart has ported 12 titles across six different platforms single-handedly.
Porting games involves establishing a business identity, acquiring static IPs, applying for developer programs, and setting up hardware and dev kits.
He mentions the complexity of integrating various SDKs and backend dashboards for different platforms.
Porting to consoles takes as much time as developing new games, showing a nearly one-to-one time commitment ratio.
The majority of his revenue comes from console game sales, not Steam, indicating the financial benefit of console porting.
Porting to consoles provides intangible benefits like personal satisfaction and a sense of legitimacy as a game developer.
Console porting has improved his skill set, making him more employable and desirable to publishers and game studios.
He discusses the repetitive and sometimes frustrating aspects of porting, such as failing certification processes and filling out localization pages.
Stewart warns that console porting can become monotonous after the third time, leading to feelings of drudgery.
He emphasizes the need to be selective about which consoles to port to, using past experiences to guide future decisions.
He advises aspiring developers that programming comfort, time, and some money are critical to successfully porting games to consoles.
He stresses that some platforms require purchasing dev kits, which can be expensive.
Porting simple games is easier than more complex games with features like online multiplayer or large amounts of content.
Unity is highly favored for console porting due to extensive documentation, making it a preferred choice for many developers.
Stewart is glad to have gone through the console porting process and sees it as a worthwhile experience despite the challenges.
Transcripts
hello my name is Thomas Stewart and I am
a console porting expert not really but
I have ported 12 titles across six
different platforms so I'd know a thing
or two about what it means to develop a
video game and put it on different
consoles so I've launched 12 titles on
six different consoles completely
single-handedly learning how to do
everything myself establishing a
business identity acquiring a static IP
address applying for all these developer
programs getting all the dev kits
setting up all the hardware reading all
the documentation filling out support TI
tickets incorporating all of the
different sdks into my projects getting
my games to run on each different system
rumaging through dozens of different
backend dashboards setting up the
content for store Pages dealing with
things like age ratings and localization
and QA testing and build pipelines and
pricing models and I've done this twice
on Steam and then 10 other times on all
different console platforms so these
platforms that I'm talking about are six
Unique Systems that you're familiar with
you know Steam and Xbox and Playstation
4 and PlayStation 5 which are actually
very separate from each other and have a
whole different process Atari VCS and
then lastly Nintendo switch which my
first game on Nintendo switch should be
releasing fairly soon and let me tell
you it's a lot of work but is it worth
it and that's the question that I want
to talk about I'll give you the short
answer first yes I think that it is
worth it because the majority of my
Revenue has come from game sales on
Console platforms if I only had my game
sale Revenue from my steam launches then
I would have way less money but the fact
that I have consistent income dripping
in from six distinct platforms gives me
hope that I'll be able to continue doing
this
fulltime okay so that's the short
version but let me give you the long
version I already told you that console
porting is a difficult thing to do
especially as a solo Indie developer but
difficulty isn't the only Factor it also
takes a huge amount of time now I'd like
to think I'm actually getting pretty
good at the process there are some
consoles that I've launched three
different titles on now so I'm kind of
getting the Cadence of things and
getting familiar with how everything
works but even then it takes a lot of
time now it's hard to measure exactly
what the time effort is on these because
I'm always working on multiple projects
concurrently but the time period that I
spent developing both tanks but no tanks
and bridges and docks is comparable to
the amount of time that I spent porting
to consoles so it's almost a one: one as
far as it comes to time commitment so I
have to think to myself would would I
have been better off this past year if I
had ignored consoles and instead been
able to release two more games onto
steam probably not but maybe but when
I'm talking about whether or not porting
to consoles is actually worth it I think
there's also a there's an
intangible benefit seeing my own games
on each different platform fills me with
like an immense amount of satisfaction
it makes me feel like a more legitimate
game developer instead of just a a
hobbyist like if I could go back in time
and show my 10-year-old self that I had
released games that I had developed all
by myself on Xbox PlayStation and
Nintendo I think that the younger
version of me would think that the
current version of me is super cool oh
young and naive Thomas not only that but
it has legitimized my work in the eyes
of potential Publishers and employers it
has expanded my skill set so that I'm
actually much more employable if I'm
looking for contract work or trying to
publish game because I know the ins and
outs and intricacies of what it takes to
bring a game onto consoles I've had
conversations with Publishers and game
studios that are willing to pay me for
my expertise which makes me feel a lot
better about being able to earn money if
I have to return to the workforce but
hopefully that won't happen knock on
wood but I will say
this the shininess wears off after a
while like once you've done this the
third time around it becomes a bit more
monotonous filling out pages and pages
of localized game descriptions just
isn't as fun as it used to be and it can
feel mundane and like pure drudgery
sometimes failing a certification
process can just take you out at the
knees and make you wish that you could
just start on the next project already
and more than a few times I have checked
my analytics on launch day and been
disappointed with the results so even
though I'm making games it's not all fun
in
games so yeah that's kind of the long
version of it yes I think think that it
has been worth it but going forward I
might be more selective over which
consoles i port my games to in the
future because now I have enough data to
go off of of which ones are hardest to
port to and which ones make the most
money at least for my games it's not
consistent over the different titles
that I've launched but some are trending
higher than others for sure so I know
that a lot of people that watch this
channel are game developers or aspiring
game developers so you might be asking
yourself well could I Port my games to
consoles and I think that's a great
question to be asking and let me give
you my opinion of who is best fit to be
able to single-handedly Port their own
games to consoles number one if you are
comfortable programming there's a lot of
proprietary sdks and you have to tie
into different platforms accounts and
how to figure out how to do the save
systems and all of that stuff there's
actually a lot of good documentation
depending on the platform and a lot of
times you will actually have a code
snippet that you can just copy and paste
and just tweak it a little bit so that
it fits into your game better but I
think that there is a big hurdle for
people who aren't super comfortable in
code having a background and
comfortability in code I think helps a
lot number two if you have a lot of time
now I won't beat a dead horse here but I
will say it takes a lot of time to
figure out how all this stuff works be
prepared to read a lot of documentation
and put your head down and just try and
trudge through all of the confusion
number three if you have some extra
money because believe it or not uh some
platforms when you sign up for their
developer programs they will gift you a
developer kit other platforms will not
gift you a developer kit and you have to
buy them out of your own pocket this can
be in the hundreds or thousands of
dollars I don't think I'm allowed to
disclose but it's like a good chunk of
change so if you are not anticipating
that you might be very sorry so if you
plan on pursuing console porting just be
aware that you might have to Shell out
some cash in order to get your hands on
a devkit and devkits are vital because
you have to be able to test your game on
the actual Hardware to make sure that
everything's working properly number
four if your game is relatively simple
porting gets a lot more complicated if
you have things like online multiplayer
or a lot of content I can Port my small
games in a matter of days or weeks but
for bigger games it'll easily take
numerous months and number five and this
one might be controversial but if you
use Unity I hate to say it but after
going through each ecosystem for each
platform it's abundantly clear that
Unity is a crowd favorite now it's
definitely possible to Port a game to
consoles that's made in gdau or unre
engine or game maker or your own custom
engine but the documentation speaks for
itself out of all the documentation that
I read Unity is definitely highlighted
above all the other game engines I
didn't even see a mention for a lot of
these other game engines Unity is
definitely the one that is highlighted
the most when it comes to documentation
so if you use Unity then your job will
probably be a lot easier than using
anything else so those are some of my
thoughts around my console porting
experience it's it's not a no-brainer
but I'm glad to have done it if you want
to check out any of my games I will
leave links below to all the different
platforms and you can check it out
thanks for sticking around blah blah
blah see you in the next one
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