Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

rawrlab.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 228 posts

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#41

Post by 3836293648 »

troupo wrote: post #38
nogridbag wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is the insanity I don't understand. Developing for desktop systems is essentially free. Developing for iOS devices is $99 a year (plus store commission) for literally anyone. Developing for consoles? Oh, you have to be a business entity, you have to pass approval process, you have to buy a dev kit, you have to... And then also pay a commission.

It's because they want(ed) to keep a higher standard of quality on their store and keep homebrewers and cheaters away.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#42

Post by tslater2006 »

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #37
magic_hamster wrote: post #28

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.

In what way? The website says there is C# support. What facet are you describing needs it? Curious, because would also like to use C#, and website says it does, you say it doesn't. I'm wondering what is up.

The linked page says the following:

No C# or GDNative/GDExtension: Only GDScript is supported. Native extensions are not supported, but you can try to convert them into internal modules.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#43

Post by ammar2 »

troupo wrote: post #38
nogridbag wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is the insanity I don't understand. Developing for desktop systems is essentially free. Developing for iOS devices is $99 a year (plus store commission) for literally anyone. Developing for consoles? Oh, you have to be a business entity, you have to pass approval process, you have to buy a dev kit, you have to... And then also pay a commission.

> Developing for iOS devices is $99 a year (plus store commission) for literally anyone.

Don't forget having to buy a MacOS device in this equation.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#44

Post by troupo »

ammar2 wrote: post #43
troupo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the insanity I don't understand. Developing for desktop systems is essentially free. Developing for iOS devices is $99 a year (plus store commission) for literally anyone. Developing for consoles? Oh, you have to be a business entity, you have to pass approval process, you have to buy a dev kit, you have to... And then also pay a commission.

> Developing for iOS devices is $99 a year (plus store commission) for literally anyone. Don't forget having to buy a MacOS device in this equation.

I bought an XBox, too.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#45

Post by BiteCode_dev »

nogridbag wrote: post #27
weinzierl wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"only"

If it's to dev a game with your kid, that pricey. Pricier than the console itself.

Pricier than to dev for android or iphone, or any laptop. Or the steam deck for that matter.

Expensive dev kits made sense for devs 20 years ago, but today they are just a way to lock the ecosystem.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#46

Post by weinzierl »

Aissen wrote: post #14

It's interesting that they did not keep this a paid product, and use that as a lever: 1. to either get more customers 2. or to get Nintendo to remove the terms forbidding the open source release of software built on their platform I am guessing that 1. will happen anyway, and 2. isn't needed since they have found a middle ground with Nintendo hosting details on their developer portal.

What does 2. mean exactly? That I am not allowed to publish the source code of my Switch game as open source? What if my Switch port shared code (for example all the GDScript) with other ports. Does Nintendo also forbid me to publish this as open source? Can you use open source assets in a Switch game?

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#47

Post by gundamdoubleO »

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…

I wouldn't recommend using the mig unless you're willing to risk a console ban from all online services (if you care about that).

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#48

Post by gjsman-1000 »

ukd1 wrote: post #40
koromak wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Which then is MIT licensed - so why can't that then be further shared?

You aren’t prohibited under the license, but you are prohibited under the contract you agreed to, to get that code.

For example, imagine a company hired you to write a library they want to later release as GPL. They still might have rules that you can’t release that library except under certain conditions.

The real purpose of the MIT license is not free sharing with the world in this case - it’s so that developers don’t feel legal risk by using this port and building it into their games.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#49

Post by wly_cdgr »

Very cool project, but if they want this to matter for commercial indie devs, it needs to have C# support. It's not so much about performance, it's more about working with a marketable-skill language, ease of coming over from Unity / Monogame, and expertise level of developer community.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#50

Post by sureglymop »

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.

Overall this is very interesting. The game switching mechanism seems a bit fiddly though and I hope there will be a version with a button. I wouldn't be surprised though if the whole operation will be shut down completely by Nintendo so it might not be a bad idea to buy one. The same thing happened with the DragonInjector (small payload runner for jailbroken switches that fits in the cartridge slot).
Post reply on HN