Slashdot Mirror
Inside the PlayStation Suite SDK
New submitter Serapth writes "Sony recently released the PlayStation Suite SDK to open beta. Using PSS, people are able to write games for various PlayStation certified devices in a C#/Mono based environment. This post takes a look at what's included in the SDK, which, surprisingly, is quite a bit."
...but I'm guessing "respect for the customer" was one of the things left out.
Can anyone be a developer?
We can't provide detailed information at this stage, but we are now making the necessary preparations to allow developers to smoothly move through the contract stage. We will post information on this website as it becomes available.
...it's probably never going to make you a penny developing for these devices.
I think it's a great thing actually. Now that they introduced that you can develop for all Windows, XBOX360, WP7 and PS3 using .net. For example C# really is an awesome language to code with, and Visual Studio is a great piece of software that totally kicks any other IDE's. I have tried Objective-C, Java and their IDE's several times and they come nothing close to how good it is to use C#/.NET. This is great.
and PS3
Nope! PSP Vita only. Well, PSP Vita and "PlayStation phone" devices only. And I guess some Sony tablet thingies.
This is basically Sony trying to compete with iOS and Android as far as I can tell.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
A lot of the top selling iOS/Android games are done with Unity; which also uses C#/Mono. Actually the PS Suite SDK looks very similar to Unity in a lot of respects.
(Actually to take it a full loop; Unity pushes to the PS anyway, Rochard and a few others have gone cross-console with Unity)
#!/bin/csh cat $0
There was a time that I worked for a video game publishing company and Sony's testing software had ZERO ZIP ZILTCH documentation. Specifically I worked on the online department. Microsoft had its Network Emulator for Windows Toolkit (NEWT) and Sony had its equivalent. It was backwards, awkward, and for a period time didn't event work (this was also around the time of the Sony network being hacked so we couldn't even release our titles if we wanted to). Figuring out how to hook their software up to our PS3s, let alone monitoring, was a GOD-DAMNED-NIGHTMARE.
People dreaded being assigned to work on the PS3 for version reasons just like this (among some others).
Sony's own website makes mention of the supported devices requiring a touch screen, so, that kind of rules out the PS3:
You can develop games and applications that utilize physical buttons and touchscreen by using the integrated development environment (IDE) and simulator for the PC which are both included in the PlayStation(R)Suite SDK. [emphasis mine]
Then again, it's still in beta, and there are currently no requirements on what a game needs to support, so maybe the touchscreen support will be optional and you'll be required to support physical button controls as well, in order to support the PS3.
Plus, the FAQ explicitly says you'll still need a separate contract to develop PS3/PSP "Mini" games, so at present, it really doesn't sound like PS3 support is in the cards.
It seriously sounds like they're doing this solely to go after the cellphone games market. Apparently one of the demo games in the SDK is an Angry Birds clone, to give you an idea of the type of games they appear to be pushing.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
No PS3 support. Only one device (PS Vita) that has a chance to be ever used by anyone.
Windows-only release based on Mono (and loudly proclaimed announcement that not even OSX will be supported).
Proprietary language controlled by a major competitor (yes, it is proprietary -- C and C++ are open, C# is proprietary).
2D only.
Free (in either meaning of the word) applications and games are not allowed.
Sony reserves the right to prevent anyone from using it after beta.
Everyone who will be allowed by Sony to use it after beta, has to pay Sony.
That's like Nokia and Sony had a baby.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
I had to scratch my head over this one until I realize that it's a kick at Microsoft... blessing the non-Microsoft incarnation of C# and making it, by definition, compatible. Truthfully though, I think Sony would be better served by sticking to the mainstream of what first string game devs are actually using. Not that I really care about the welfare of these two abusers. They make a great pair for a death spiral.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Sony are infamous for being crap and dev support. A friend who has worked on a number of game projects says that they hate dealing with Sony. When they hit an issue developing for Xbox, they email MS and get a reply, often with a code snippet/workaround and by the end of day, On the other hand, they have to chase Sony over and over and eventually, weeks later get an email saying 'Look in the documentation'.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
Seemed pretty bizarre to me too. He got the PS3 bit wrong but flamebait? Don't think so. There seems to be a number of users who regularly get knocked back on quite reasonable posts. I'm starting to suspect an organised group of users down modding people whose politics they disagree with or something.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
It's not an organized group. Slashdot works like this country does. If it were a single group then it would be totally fucked because all the bad moderation would be in a single direction. Instead there are multiple groups, and some of them aren't really even groups, just masses of like-minded people (kind of like Anonymous?) There's the faction of people who want to vote to correct bad voting. There's the faction of people who only vote up (or down) humor. There's the troll faction. And then there's several astroturfer factions; Microsoft is clearly well-represented, as is China. Don't forget the fanboy factions, either; I won't name them to dodge their downvotes :)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This seems to be exactly what Microsoft's XNA is for the XBox. Almost to the letter.
XNA uses C#/.NET despite this not being a native language for the XBox. It doesn't expose the full capabilities of the device, so you are relegated to 'arcade-like' games which are nowhere near as complex as a real, on-the-disc game written in a proper lower-level language with hardware optimizations.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits