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Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

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Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#71

Post by anthk »

Vespasian wrote: post #54

How does that work with the MIT license? I presume they signed a rather restrictive proprieatary license and/or an NDA to get access to nintendos sdks and tool (as is common on other consoles). Then one person breaking the NDA would make the Switch Godotport (and therefore some of Nintendos property (method names /usage )) legally available to anybody else (they didn't sign an NDA after all and it's probably not a co…

MIT allows that. LGPL would in theory but you would need to release the potential changes you did to the game engine. GPL woudn't in any way.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#72

Post by mh- »

3836293648 wrote: post #41
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.

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

I believe you're right, but the first part didn't work. The Switch eShop has an incredible amount of shovelware.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#73

Post by 999900000999 »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #45
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.

"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.

Nintendo doesn't owe you a cheap way to deploy your custom binaries to devices.

Buy a Steam Deck if you want that. Build it for Web GL or Android. Plenty of options exist.

I'm not sure what OP actually wants here. Even if you can get your game running on your own Switch, it's not easy to get it up on the store.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#74

Post by ekianjo »

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…

you dont need any of that shite to run your own game on the Steam deck

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#75

Post by derefr »

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…

> Having the ability to launch a game with a modded Switch, doesn't mean you have access to the SDK, or the documentation.

The very same websites and forums and Discord servers where the people who come up with jailbreaks for the Switch hang out, can also point you to leaked copies of SDKs, and ways to use these with a jailbroken switch and/or an emulator like Yuzu. (After all, while most published console homebrew — including jailbreaks — use ground-up rewrites of support libraries, it's a lot easier to tinker on Proof-of-Concepts for exploit chains using the official SDK.)

> and dev hardware is basically necessary as well. That's only coming from a deal with Nintendo.

Funny enough, you can find all sorts of dev hardware for old consoles on eBay... and yes, that's despite all such kits being closed-lifecycle systems that are supposed to be returned to the OEM when no longer used. (I think the main way these make it out into the market, is through the company that owns them going bankrupt and getting its assets liquidated.)

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#76

Post by JoshTriplett »

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…

> Even with that though, home-brew games are almost nonexistent on the Switch, or extremely minimal.

One major reason for that is that Nintendo aggressively permabans Switch devices that appear to be modded, preventing them from ever being used online.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#77

Post by weinzierl »

robertlagrant wrote: post #59
bjtitus wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won't anyone think of the giant multinational corporations instead of the kids learning to program for once.

> Won't anyone think of the giant multinational corporations instead of the kids learning to program for once. It's not a binary choice. Kids can learn to program in 1000 different ways. Getting social Brownie points for pointing out someone else isn't being incredibly generous is pretty poor behaviour, I think.

Kids can learn to program in 1000 different ways, but will they?

The biggest motivation is to show-off your creation and if all your friends play on the Switch and your game isn't there, it might as well not exist at all.

I learned programming on a Commodore 64, because I wanted to make my own games. Back at that time the playing field was fairly level as evidenced by the fact that a couple of the prominent game developers were almost kids themselves.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#78

Post by tombert »

I know "asymptotically close to zero" about game development and the like, so if someone who works in this space could answer this I'd be appreciative: what, if anything, would make you use Unity or Unreal instead of Godot for making a game today?

This isn't meant as a passive aggressive question to push some kind of open source narrative, but a genuine curiosity. Since I know basically nothing about the industry, I'm curious to what something like Unity or Unreal still offers over an engine that has no licensing fees.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#79

Post by hitpointdrew »

diggan wrote: post #57
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.

Make the game available on the Switch store for like $5. 450/5 ~= 100, so after 100 purchases you've made back the money. Sure, you'd have to spend extra time to polish stuff, and that would probably not be super easy, but afterwards you have a fully published game the daughter and all her friends could install.

This might not be feasible. If you are making a game for yourself and your kid, you might not be using assets (art, sound, etc.) that you could distribute/sell in your game.

I made a game for my daughters 3rd birthday, recorded some Blipi and Coco Melon songs off youtube that I put in the game. I would not have the right to sell the game without securing rights to the songs (unless I want a lawsuit on my hands).

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#80

Post by sbergot »

tombert wrote: post #78

I know "asymptotically close to zero" about game development and the like, so if someone who works in this space could answer this I'd be appreciative: what, if anything, would make you use Unity or Unreal instead of Godot for making a game today? This isn't meant as a passive aggressive question to push some kind of open source narrative, but a genuine curiosity. Since I know basically nothing about the industry, I'…

I am also not from the industry but here are some godot downsides from what I understand:

- script performances are worst than unreal or unity

- no asset market place

- 3d features are not up to par with other engines (level of details, shadows, etc)

For a classic 2d game it seems to have no significant downside. For a resource intensive 3d game it will depend.

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