Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch • Hacker News Board

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#21

Post by koromak » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 2:25 PM UTC

drzaiusx11 wrote: post #16

I thought Godot was already being used in Switch games for the past couple years; for example, Sonic Colors used Godot for the engine. What differentiates this release? Did the sonic team make their own port or something?

In the PC-to-console world, there is no open solution. Everyone either builds their own ports, or (more likely) pays a porting company to do the work for them, who in turn have built there own solution. Console developer kits are proprietary, no one is allowed to share the API or source code.

This seems to be unique in that, if you get a License from Nintendo, you're allowed to access this companies kit for free.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#22

Post by koromak » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 2:26 PM UTC

ufo wrote: post #20

What was the status quo before this?

You find a company who does Godot ports and pay them, with zero visibility into the underlying tech

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#23

Post by miohtama » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 2:28 PM UTC

utf_8x wrote: post #6

tussa wrote: post #4

Does Nintendo take a 50% cut if you publish on their eShop?

It's most likely around 30% which seems to be the norm for stores like this

Also, physical retail distribution is likely around the same 30% ballpark.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#24

Post by weberer » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 2:29 PM UTC

stavros wrote: post #19

weinzierl wrote: post #10

My 12 year old and I made a little game in Godot and it turned out pretty playable. I think in her peer group the second most popular device after the iPhone is the Switch. It would be incredibly cool if we could get our game to run there. I already found two GitHub repos with Godot ports, and this RAWRLAB announcement confirms that it will be doable on a technical level. However, I reckon that we do not qualify for…

How does the Mig Switch site not say at all what the product is? I clicked around for two minutes and still have no clue what it is or does.

It is a flashcard. It lets you load copies of games onto a SD card and the Switch will read them as official cartridges. The site mentions that its only for backups of your own purchased games, but most people buy them for piracy.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#25

Post by coffeebeqn » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

weinzierl wrote: post #18

realslimjd wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo really wanted to encourage indie gaming on the Switch, so any individual can register to be an authorized developer: https://developer.nintendo.com/ .

I saw that initially and was encouraged, but my further research suggests that you need to buy a development kit about which I could find virtually no info. I can only assume that it is expensive.

It’s not going to be crazy but you should expect to spend like a $1000 total for everything and have a real company set up

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#26

Post by jchw » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

weinzierl wrote: post #10

My 12 year old and I made a little game in Godot and it turned out pretty playable. I think in her peer group the second most popular device after the iPhone is the Switch. It would be incredibly cool if we could get our game to run there. I already found two GitHub repos with Godot ports, and this RAWRLAB announcement confirms that it will be doable on a technical level. However, I reckon that we do not qualify for…

If you're dealing with a Nintendo Switch that has the RCM exploit, that is probably the easiest path to getting unsigned code. I think Mig Switch is probably only useful for commercial game backups and piracy.

I have only used the RCM exploit to boot Linux, but I believe you can also use it to boot custom firmware like Atmosphere, and presumably that is the path to which you could see your own games running in Horizon.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#27

Post by nogridbag » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 2:41 PM UTC

weinzierl wrote: post #18

realslimjd wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo really wanted to encourage indie gaming on the Switch, so any individual can register to be an authorized developer: https://developer.nintendo.com/ .

I saw that initially and was encouraged, but my further research suggests that you need to buy a development kit about which I could find virtually no info. I can only assume that it is expensive.

It looks like a Switch dev kit is only ~$450 from Googling. I believe dev kits in the past were far much expensive.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#28

Post by magic_hamster » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 2:43 PM UTC

This is great news! Too bad there's no C# support as of yet. But it's definitely a step in the right direction. Plus, not all projects need the performance boost of C#. Seems like Godot is about to grab a bit more market share from Unity.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#29

Post by thejsa » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 2:47 PM UTC

weberer wrote: post #13

My Switch is hacked. Can I still use this to make unsigned Godot games and run them on my Switch?

Not without a Nintendo SDK license agreement and signing their NDA.

On the other hand, there’s a nice homebrew port you could certainly use that’s been around for years:

https://github.com/Stary2001/godot

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#30

Post by stavros » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 2:47 PM UTC

weberer wrote: post #24

stavros wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does the Mig Switch site not say at all what the product is? I clicked around for two minutes and still have no clue what it is or does.

It is a flashcard. It lets you load copies of games onto a SD card and the Switch will read them as official cartridges. The site mentions that its only for backups of your own purchased games, but most people buy them for piracy.

That's very interesting, thanks, I didn't realize you could load downloaded games onto a Switch like that. I imagined they have some sort of hardware verification.