Correct, DS carts are still region free but I think region free portable gaming will go away thanks to the R4 cart and similar devices.
Not only are these jerk-offs making it harder for homebrew development but they'll ruin one of the best aspects of the DS and Gameboy systems and that is getting games easily from all around the world. I have legit copies of games from Japan, the US, Europe and they all play fine. I don't expect to see that in the DS successor. So thanks to all the mongs who thought it was best to download DS roms rather than pay for games.
A crime doesn't have to involve murder and often it doesn't. While it's not the end of the world and the game made loads of money anyway, I do believe if we want to keep the internet free, not live with all our software in the cloud and not see valid transfer forms, like bit torrent blocked for good then we need to help put an end to people that do stuff like this.
I don't think there is a problem with playing emulated old games even if it may technically be wrong and the game may be re-released. It's not a big deal and I don't think companies care as much. But releasing a brand new game and before it is released is just wrong.
Like anything else, I think bending the rules a bit is ok but flat out breaking them is wrong.
It doesn't work that bad for people with a clear accent. The problem is getting the software to work as well with Southerners from the US or Scottish people. But I am glad Google is continuing to work on it despite it it not being perfect.Someone has to keep pushing it if it's going to improve.
Producing games for live is much different from producing 360 disc based games. Likewise Nintendo is more lenient if you want to develop Wiiware rather than disc based games.
That and according to the developers invtered last year in Edge, it's very hard to make money on live because there's so much shit on it. That doesn't really sound attractive to me.
Sony phones, like the K750 can play games like Galaga and it's certainly not a smart phone. Hell you can probably get landline phones that play Galaga now.
Oh btw, I forgot, you can declare part of your home, like a garage, as a business providing the local government allows you to have a business in that area. That is one way to get around having a separate office location and would likely be acceptable and may be what 2D Boys did.
Because it would be an instant disqualification. Please allow me to quote from the page at that URL: "We require that companies are working from secure business offices. Home offices are not considered secure locations."
I had noticed that but opted to ignore it because, if what 2D Boys' wiki entry says about their office is true then they don't have an office as such. Perhaps one exists for legal reasons but I would assume they don't just rent a building to have an address for Nintendo and yet World of Goo is on WiiWare.
The application is clearly aimed at scaring off time wasters and kids wanting to sign up for whatever reason. I'm sure if you presented solid proof of a game concept and were an actual business they wouldn't turn you down. There seems to be an assumption as well that, since you're receiving proprietary information from them, if you're just using your own personal equipment then you'll be storing their document less securely. Just prove them wrong.
Alternatively, develop it as a PC game first where there is no barrier for entry and once it's out there, contact Nintendo. Which may be more or less what happened with 2D Boys.
I want to start a video game development business. Can you recommend a guide to doing this? I would use Google, but I'm not the most skilled at judging the reliability of random Internet sources, and I wanted to know whether you knew of a guide that covers all bases that you find important.
It will be like any other business. You can start out as just an individual, earn money and file taxes for it. If you want to be recognised as a business then, depending where you live, contact the appropriate people. Like Business Link in the UK http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073858805
Regarding the actual development work, I think for any independent really the only options are the PC or iPhone. Anyone can do it for little money. The only issue is making yourself stand out by getting people talking about your game. If it's a success and you make a fair chunk of money then you can consider consoles.
The Wii dev kit is only $2500 (range is $2500 to $10000 so I assume one kit is $2500) to encourage small independent developers to use their system for Wiiware and all signs point to them being much more open if you opt for the Wiiware route rather than a disc based game. But you do have to be a legit developer.
Console development won't be easy and you may not not enjoy it. That's why I would start on a PC and not worry about the financial investments, NDAs, etc up front until after I've decided I want to actually develop games for a living and I'm good at it.
Why can't your home be your office? I suspect if you had an established business and already working on a title you could put your first title on a Nintendo system but if you are remotely serious about publishing a full console title then you'll need to have a business anyway. Whether your office is your bedroom or not, you should have a business set up. You can't really expect to be potentially taking in millions without having a business established otherwise you're just making it harder on yourself when it will come to business costs, taxes, etc.
Which is about Nintendo's history. It'll show how strict Nintendo was during the NES days but will also give some insight on what Nintendo was up against after Atari screwed up console gaming.
I think everyone is a bit wary about moving to the next generation. I think MS and Sony would like to milk this generation as long as possible and there should be no reason not to if the best selling system has nearly last gen graphics.
I do think Sony will do its best to beat MS to launching a system. Quite frankly the PS3 has performed better than the 360 when compared to the same time frame (ie launch year vs launch year) and that's why the PS3 has managed to catch up and could possibly over take the 360 by the end of this year.
So if Sony gets out the door first then the odds are pretty good they'll have the lead over Microsoft.
Games sell on quality and brand recognition. So you do get some good games that don't sell well or some awful games that sell well because they feature something popular. Mario games are generally high quality and to a lesser extent so are Sonic games. So it's no surprise that Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, which combines those two names with a hugely popular event from that time would sell well.
No More heroes didn't sell loads but it must have done well enough for them to consider a sequel on the Wii. Most of Grasshopper Manufacture's games don't do big numbers on most systems and again that's down to recognition.
Personally I think the media is more critical of the Wii because it's by far the number one system and historically 3rd parties have had it harder competing against Nintendo which is no surprise when Nintendo probably has the highest, on average level of quality out of any developer.
If they would analyse 3rd party sales even more for other system you'd probably find similar trends. Edge magazine ran an article a few months ago where developers were complaining that the Xbox live isn't the money maker it's made out to be for indie developers. I don't think that's a surprise. Most games are unknown but then there are so many games it's hard to get noticed. If gamers try a few unknown games and they're shit they'll give up on that and stick to the well known ones like Doom.
You have to remember the fact that console gaming died because of the pile of shit that was being dumped onto those systems. Nintendo was strict but to be quite honest it was needed at that point. Nintendo isn't that strict any more. Perhaps the last time they were was on the N64 which arguably helpful towards publishers as well since it was such an expensive platform to develop for due to the use of carts.
Nintendo's requirements are going to be the same as any other console developer except for maybe those creating indie games for xbox live and to be quite honest their requirements aren't that bad. You can see them here: http://www.warioworld.com/apply/
Asking that you're actually proper business isn't that bad and considering Wiiware game are developed by small timers including 2D Boys' World of Goo so it's not like you have to even be a big company. You just have to be a legit development company and in return they'll do more to promote your game than Apple will.
People forgot that, as you mentioned, Apple does freely let anyone start development and you can publish your app easily as long as you don't compete with them or do something that will run unapproved code and you can deal with your app potentially being removed after its launch. Something that won't happen on the consoles. So I would agree that it is worse on the iPhone.
If people want true freedom then need to develop for any other phone using an OS like Symbian, Windows Mobile or Android. Then you can do whatever you want but live with the fact that you have to consider many more variations in hardware.
That will be the same for any console developer. iPhone is different in the sense that is much cheaper and anyone can buy a licence but then you also have to deal with the fact you can't compete directly with Apple or that your app will disappear from the app store or stupid reasons like mentioning Android.
I think you're under-estimating Apple's nazi-like control over the app store. At least Nintendo won't let you release a game and then yank it off the shelves after it has launched and they will allow you to make Mario-like games where as Apple won't allow you to create a browser, anything that runs code they don't approve, etc.
Personally I think it's a bit silly to claim one system is better than the other. If you want complete freedom develop for Symbian or Android. The trade-off is that you have to cater for multiple phone types rather than having one set of hardware like the iPhone or Wii.
I'm sure it will be much easier to pump out shit games on the iPhone and make a bit of money.
From my experience most publishers/developers complaining about their performance on the Wii are release sub-par software and assuming it will sell because casual gamers are stupid.
One person parsing logs isn't the same, that is correct but a lot of people use Analytics-like services and it's not like all those free web counters are just providing you with a free service with nothing in return like collecting up loads all the visitor data to sell off.
If you were to remove Google Analytics and all similar services then you'd just end up with people buying server logs to build up Analytics-like databases.
There's just too much value in know what people are doing in order to sell ads. At least Google Analytics is easy to disable with No Script.
Because the odds of you having a collection of SS numbers and theft not being involved are nearly zero.
If I memorise your SS number after you handed me your SS card and then you go tell the police they aren't going to do anything about it so just knowing the number isn't illegal.
The user is interested in the book, not the licence and in fact is probably ignorant to the fact they're actually licensing it, so "buy now" is aimed at the book so for completely honest marketing it should be "licence now" or a long winded "buy a licence for this book now".
Which would be fine if games included the option to play online outside of XBL too as they should.
It's not like Xbox live is being shut down or that people don't pay to use it. It's because as far as publishers are concerned playing old games is just as bad as buying used games because it means you're not buying new games and MS is not going to encourage that.
Just like EA killing off online play for sports games more or less as soon as the next version is out, it's pure greed and nothing else.
How about we make companies get a licence to prove they can provide safe secure software? I'm sure MS would like that.
While I do think people need to take more responsibility and learn how to use their computer but forcing them to get a licence will probably prove nothing and just make it easier to track people and earn the government more money.
Driving can cause death and yet driver's tests are nearly impossible to fail. It's because everyone thinks it's their right to drive. Stopping people from driving would cause an uproar. The same will happen with computers.
There are advantages to both and I don't think physical books will ever go away. Publishers though liked when they could charge a high price for a hardback for those too eager to wait and then publish the cheaper paperback later and they're afraid they can't keep that up with e-books.
Knowing someone's SS number is not theft. If you dropped you SS card and I hand it into the police yet remember it are you saying implying a photographic memory is criminal?
What is criminal about having an SS number is how you obtained it (theft of SS card or hacking) or what you do with that info. If I use it to apply for credit in your name that is not theft but fraud.
How can you moan about Google Analytics? Everyone does some sort of web analytics and have been doing it for ages. What do you think all those hit counters were doing?
And even if someone isn't using an external service they will, at the very least, be getting that info by parsing their logs for it.
There are definitely some raised concerns about privacy with some Google products but you can hardly complain that they're offering web surfing monitoring just like hundreds if not thousands of other companies.
Apparently you haven't been around much because there is generally a daily "Google steals your information" post to go along the daily "Microsoft steals your children" post so no I don't think the majority of people commenting feel it's acceptable for Google to do it.
I personally prefer it to be in the hands of Google (if given a choice) because more often than not they give me better options than most to decide what to share with them and it's not tied directly into the my OS either where as MS has the ability to track to track most people online and offline at all times without giving you a choice since more people won't give up windows.
That said I try to provide little to no information to Google and I just ignore Microsoft's solutions and in fact blocked Bing completely since Firefox was taken over by Bing. I can't say whether it was Mozilla or MS that did it but I'm not impressed at all so Bing is blocked. Once I get an equivalent to Live HTTP Headers on Chrome then Firefox is gone too.
Unfortunately I do play games and I don't like the idea of Wine on my two Linux machines so I'm stuck with a Windows computer as well as long as I want to play games.
Slashdot Mirror
Correct, DS carts are still region free but I think region free portable gaming will go away thanks to the R4 cart and similar devices.
Not only are these jerk-offs making it harder for homebrew development but they'll ruin one of the best aspects of the DS and Gameboy systems and that is getting games easily from all around the world. I have legit copies of games from Japan, the US, Europe and they all play fine. I don't expect to see that in the DS successor. So thanks to all the mongs who thought it was best to download DS roms rather than pay for games.
A crime doesn't have to involve murder and often it doesn't. While it's not the end of the world and the game made loads of money anyway, I do believe if we want to keep the internet free, not live with all our software in the cloud and not see valid transfer forms, like bit torrent blocked for good then we need to help put an end to people that do stuff like this.
I don't think there is a problem with playing emulated old games even if it may technically be wrong and the game may be re-released. It's not a big deal and I don't think companies care as much. But releasing a brand new game and before it is released is just wrong.
Like anything else, I think bending the rules a bit is ok but flat out breaking them is wrong.
It doesn't work that bad for people with a clear accent. The problem is getting the software to work as well with Southerners from the US or Scottish people. But I am glad Google is continuing to work on it despite it it not being perfect.Someone has to keep pushing it if it's going to improve.
Producing games for live is much different from producing 360 disc based games. Likewise Nintendo is more lenient if you want to develop Wiiware rather than disc based games.
That and according to the developers invtered last year in Edge, it's very hard to make money on live because there's so much shit on it. That doesn't really sound attractive to me.
Sony phones, like the K750 can play games like Galaga and it's certainly not a smart phone. Hell you can probably get landline phones that play Galaga now.
Oh btw, I forgot, you can declare part of your home, like a garage, as a business providing the local government allows you to have a business in that area. That is one way to get around having a separate office location and would likely be acceptable and may be what 2D Boys did.
Because it would be an instant disqualification. Please allow me to quote from the page at that URL: "We require that companies are working from secure business offices. Home offices are not considered secure locations."
I had noticed that but opted to ignore it because, if what 2D Boys' wiki entry says about their office is true then they don't have an office as such. Perhaps one exists for legal reasons but I would assume they don't just rent a building to have an address for Nintendo and yet World of Goo is on WiiWare.
The application is clearly aimed at scaring off time wasters and kids wanting to sign up for whatever reason. I'm sure if you presented solid proof of a game concept and were an actual business they wouldn't turn you down. There seems to be an assumption as well that, since you're receiving proprietary information from them, if you're just using your own personal equipment then you'll be storing their document less securely. Just prove them wrong.
Alternatively, develop it as a PC game first where there is no barrier for entry and once it's out there, contact Nintendo. Which may be more or less what happened with 2D Boys.
I want to start a video game development business. Can you recommend a guide to doing this? I would use Google, but I'm not the most skilled at judging the reliability of random Internet sources, and I wanted to know whether you knew of a guide that covers all bases that you find important.
It will be like any other business. You can start out as just an individual, earn money and file taxes for it. If you want to be recognised as a business then, depending where you live, contact the appropriate people. Like Business Link in the UK http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073858805
Regarding the actual development work, I think for any independent really the only options are the PC or iPhone. Anyone can do it for little money. The only issue is making yourself stand out by getting people talking about your game. If it's a success and you make a fair chunk of money then you can consider consoles.
The Wii dev kit is only $2500 (range is $2500 to $10000 so I assume one kit is $2500) to encourage small independent developers to use their system for Wiiware and all signs point to them being much more open if you opt for the Wiiware route rather than a disc based game. But you do have to be a legit developer.
Console development won't be easy and you may not not enjoy it. That's why I would start on a PC and not worry about the financial investments, NDAs, etc up front until after I've decided I want to actually develop games for a living and I'm good at it.
Why can't your home be your office? I suspect if you had an established business and already working on a title you could put your first title on a Nintendo system but if you are remotely serious about publishing a full console title then you'll need to have a business anyway. Whether your office is your bedroom or not, you should have a business set up. You can't really expect to be potentially taking in millions without having a business established otherwise you're just making it harder on yourself when it will come to business costs, taxes, etc.
I'm talking about pre-NES console gaming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983 and if you can find a copy, read Game Over http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Over_(book)
Which is about Nintendo's history. It'll show how strict Nintendo was during the NES days but will also give some insight on what Nintendo was up against after Atari screwed up console gaming.
I think everyone is a bit wary about moving to the next generation. I think MS and Sony would like to milk this generation as long as possible and there should be no reason not to if the best selling system has nearly last gen graphics.
I do think Sony will do its best to beat MS to launching a system. Quite frankly the PS3 has performed better than the 360 when compared to the same time frame (ie launch year vs launch year) and that's why the PS3 has managed to catch up and could possibly over take the 360 by the end of this year.
So if Sony gets out the door first then the odds are pretty good they'll have the lead over Microsoft.
Games sell on quality and brand recognition. So you do get some good games that don't sell well or some awful games that sell well because they feature something popular. Mario games are generally high quality and to a lesser extent so are Sonic games. So it's no surprise that Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, which combines those two names with a hugely popular event from that time would sell well.
No More heroes didn't sell loads but it must have done well enough for them to consider a sequel on the Wii. Most of Grasshopper Manufacture's games don't do big numbers on most systems and again that's down to recognition.
Okami was awesome and didn't sell well on the Wii but again it did better than it did on the PS2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okami#Sales
Personally I think the media is more critical of the Wii because it's by far the number one system and historically 3rd parties have had it harder competing against Nintendo which is no surprise when Nintendo probably has the highest, on average level of quality out of any developer.
If they would analyse 3rd party sales even more for other system you'd probably find similar trends. Edge magazine ran an article a few months ago where developers were complaining that the Xbox live isn't the money maker it's made out to be for indie developers. I don't think that's a surprise. Most games are unknown but then there are so many games it's hard to get noticed. If gamers try a few unknown games and they're shit they'll give up on that and stick to the well known ones like Doom.
You have to remember the fact that console gaming died because of the pile of shit that was being dumped onto those systems. Nintendo was strict but to be quite honest it was needed at that point. Nintendo isn't that strict any more. Perhaps the last time they were was on the N64 which arguably helpful towards publishers as well since it was such an expensive platform to develop for due to the use of carts.
Nintendo's requirements are going to be the same as any other console developer except for maybe those creating indie games for xbox live and to be quite honest their requirements aren't that bad. You can see them here: http://www.warioworld.com/apply/
Asking that you're actually proper business isn't that bad and considering Wiiware game are developed by small timers including 2D Boys' World of Goo so it's not like you have to even be a big company. You just have to be a legit development company and in return they'll do more to promote your game than Apple will.
People forgot that, as you mentioned, Apple does freely let anyone start development and you can publish your app easily as long as you don't compete with them or do something that will run unapproved code and you can deal with your app potentially being removed after its launch. Something that won't happen on the consoles. So I would agree that it is worse on the iPhone.
If people want true freedom then need to develop for any other phone using an OS like Symbian, Windows Mobile or Android. Then you can do whatever you want but live with the fact that you have to consider many more variations in hardware.
That will be the same for any console developer. iPhone is different in the sense that is much cheaper and anyone can buy a licence but then you also have to deal with the fact you can't compete directly with Apple or that your app will disappear from the app store or stupid reasons like mentioning Android.
I think you're under-estimating Apple's nazi-like control over the app store. At least Nintendo won't let you release a game and then yank it off the shelves after it has launched and they will allow you to make Mario-like games where as Apple won't allow you to create a browser, anything that runs code they don't approve, etc.
Personally I think it's a bit silly to claim one system is better than the other. If you want complete freedom develop for Symbian or Android. The trade-off is that you have to cater for multiple phone types rather than having one set of hardware like the iPhone or Wii.
I'm sure it will be much easier to pump out shit games on the iPhone and make a bit of money.
From my experience most publishers/developers complaining about their performance on the Wii are release sub-par software and assuming it will sell because casual gamers are stupid.
One person parsing logs isn't the same, that is correct but a lot of people use Analytics-like services and it's not like all those free web counters are just providing you with a free service with nothing in return like collecting up loads all the visitor data to sell off.
If you were to remove Google Analytics and all similar services then you'd just end up with people buying server logs to build up Analytics-like databases.
There's just too much value in know what people are doing in order to sell ads. At least Google Analytics is easy to disable with No Script.
Because the odds of you having a collection of SS numbers and theft not being involved are nearly zero.
If I memorise your SS number after you handed me your SS card and then you go tell the police they aren't going to do anything about it so just knowing the number isn't illegal.
The user is interested in the book, not the licence and in fact is probably ignorant to the fact they're actually licensing it, so "buy now" is aimed at the book so for completely honest marketing it should be "licence now" or a long winded "buy a licence for this book now".
Which would be fine if games included the option to play online outside of XBL too as they should.
It's not like Xbox live is being shut down or that people don't pay to use it. It's because as far as publishers are concerned playing old games is just as bad as buying used games because it means you're not buying new games and MS is not going to encourage that.
Just like EA killing off online play for sports games more or less as soon as the next version is out, it's pure greed and nothing else.
I dislike iTunes and it is indeed slow to start but it's been anything but buggy when I have used it.
You're right Wal-Mart is always pushing the envelope by seeing how much fat they can stuff into those uniforms.
How about we make companies get a licence to prove they can provide safe secure software? I'm sure MS would like that.
While I do think people need to take more responsibility and learn how to use their computer but forcing them to get a licence will probably prove nothing and just make it easier to track people and earn the government more money.
Driving can cause death and yet driver's tests are nearly impossible to fail. It's because everyone thinks it's their right to drive. Stopping people from driving would cause an uproar. The same will happen with computers.
There are advantages to both and I don't think physical books will ever go away. Publishers though liked when they could charge a high price for a hardback for those too eager to wait and then publish the cheaper paperback later and they're afraid they can't keep that up with e-books.
Knowing someone's SS number is not theft. If you dropped you SS card and I hand it into the police yet remember it are you saying implying a photographic memory is criminal?
What is criminal about having an SS number is how you obtained it (theft of SS card or hacking) or what you do with that info. If I use it to apply for credit in your name that is not theft but fraud.
It isn't really that hard to figure out.
How can you moan about Google Analytics? Everyone does some sort of web analytics and have been doing it for ages. What do you think all those hit counters were doing?
And even if someone isn't using an external service they will, at the very least, be getting that info by parsing their logs for it.
There are definitely some raised concerns about privacy with some Google products but you can hardly complain that they're offering web surfing monitoring just like hundreds if not thousands of other companies.
Apparently you haven't been around much because there is generally a daily "Google steals your information" post to go along the daily "Microsoft steals your children" post so no I don't think the majority of people commenting feel it's acceptable for Google to do it.
I personally prefer it to be in the hands of Google (if given a choice) because more often than not they give me better options than most to decide what to share with them and it's not tied directly into the my OS either where as MS has the ability to track to track most people online and offline at all times without giving you a choice since more people won't give up windows.
That said I try to provide little to no information to Google and I just ignore Microsoft's solutions and in fact blocked Bing completely since Firefox was taken over by Bing. I can't say whether it was Mozilla or MS that did it but I'm not impressed at all so Bing is blocked. Once I get an equivalent to Live HTTP Headers on Chrome then Firefox is gone too.
Unfortunately I do play games and I don't like the idea of Wine on my two Linux machines so I'm stuck with a Windows computer as well as long as I want to play games.