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Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

rawrlab.com

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Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#61

Post by delecti »

TheRoque wrote: post #3

What these people do is super cool. How can one learn to be in a team that does things like this ?

Best bet is probably to start by making a game. One option is to start by building a simple game using an existing engine, and eventually get deeper and deeper into the libraries you're using until you decide to contribute back to that engine, or create your own. Alternatively you could just start by making something incredibly simple, a Pong or NES Mario clone, and then work your way up through the generations to something more modern. The first approach is probably easier, as you'd have lots of tutorials from the community around the modern engine.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#62

Post by amalcon »

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.

A chunk of it is copy protection. Dev devices can necessarily run software not signed by the manufacturer, which means copy protection can be bypassed using PC-like methods and loaded to a dev device. Thus, they want to make sure the dev device is not the device that most consumers purchase.

I think it's a poor tradeoff for such a locked down environment, and anti-educational at that. Obviously console manufacturers have a different opinion on the matter.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#63

Post by joenot443 »

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…

Your best bet would be to buy an unpatched Switch from eBay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/144952360896, etc), make or purchase an RCM jig, and dive into the homebrew scene. GbaTemp is a good place to start.

Outside of buying an official dev kit, I think that may be your only option.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#64

Post by prophesi »

miohtama wrote: post #23
utf_8x wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And is why Apple chose 30% when they launched the app store; it was already an acceptable charge, and could be justified with storage/bandwidth costs and the suite of tools/services built for it.

That doesn't seem to line up in my books, but we'll see how the next few years go while the 30% commission standard still has a target on its back.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#65

Post by gjsman-1000 »

amalcon wrote: post #62
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.

A chunk of it is copy protection. Dev devices can necessarily run software not signed by the manufacturer, which means copy protection can be bypassed using PC-like methods and loaded to a dev device. Thus, they want to make sure the dev device is not the device that most consumers purchase. I think it's a poor tradeoff for such a locked down environment, and anti-educational at that. Obviously console manufacturers…

It's a little more complicated than that.

Dev devices are typically physically different - containing debug lines and connections that are not present in retail. The Switch itself has 2 different types of dev console: One that looks very much like retail, and another that is about 4x as thick and has every port under the sun.

Secondly, these consoles are physically fused differently. Instead of having retail encryption keys burned into the SoC, they have custom keys issued to the developer installed. This means dev consoles cannot run retail software for lack of a key to decrypt it - but they will decrypt, and run, anything the developer signs.

Both of these things are physical modifications, ultimately. Dev consoles, thus, do not come off the same production line as retail; but are customized and modified devices with their own manufacturing process. That's not cheap.

Sure, the Xbox does get away with the retail console having a "Dev Mode." That's a testament to the Xbox's security having gone 12 years without a crack. Making physically different retail and developer consoles is a much safer solution for anyone who isn't Xbox.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#66

Post by Suweizhe »

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.

[flagged]

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#67

Post by BiteCode_dev »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #52
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

You’re kidding right? $450 for a dev kit is a steal compared to older console generations, which were thousands of dollars per device. Also, I think it is completely fair for Nintendo to think: If you won’t spare even $450 for a dev kit, there’s no way we want your game. By the way, consider what a Switch regularly costs: $299. You are paying Nintendo only $150 for the privilege of sending you a custom, low-run, modi…

"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

#68

Post by traverseda »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #58
lastgeniusua wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure the Mig Switch will allow you to play homebrew, it is designed to replicate the (apparently reverse-engineered) security protocol of game cards signed by Nintendo. The Github repos you've seen previously are probably your best bet, they're designed for homebrew development, but to launch these you'd need to mod your Switch: with an unpatched original model (could easily be verified on https://ismyswitchp…

Even with that though, home-brew games are almost nonexistent on the Switch, or extremely minimal. Having the ability to launch a game with a modded Switch, doesn't mean you have access to the SDK, or the documentation. Without those things, you really can't write any useful programs. It's like gaining access to the cockpit of a plane, and having no manual or labels on what all the buttons do. If you truly want to de…

You can run full ubuntu on it, so I guess people don't see much need for "homebrew". You can just run any game that compiles for arm linux on it.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#69

Post by Capricorn2481 »

I am interested in Godot, but seeing these projects makes me more nervous than not. I always wonder

- How seamless is it

- How screwed am I if it doesn't work

- Would the headache/risk of dealing with Unity be less than the potential catastrophe of not getting a working switch version

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#70

Post by anthk »

pjmlp wrote: post #60
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.

Thank US 1983 crash for that. Gatekeeping is a way to avoid a minium level of quality, instead of a dumpster copy cat trash that inudates all the stores where there is no control. Want to learn how to do consoles? Get a toy handeld using ESP32 or Arduino.

PC gaming had tons of shovelware since the beginning and even got both good propietary and libre software games with great quality.

So did the Game Boy, which the NIntendo seal of quality was almost given for free because lots of games were junk even under the GBC era.

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