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Comment by markcerqueira | Hacker News Reader

If I'm reading this right, it'll cost at least $2,285.00 to get the minimum setup needed for development. Said that I can't use my existing Nintendo 3DS, 3DS XL, or new 3DS. Thanks, Nintendo! :/

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That is about half the common cost for a devkit. Plus the 3DS and WiiU devkits are not just regular devices with a swapped ROM. They are special hardware run. If you have a publisher you could ask to borrow theirs. My last company was using one borrowed from the client.

Sadly Nintendo less connections oriented. Sony lends devkits for free pretty often if you can convince them your game is going to be good.

Well, if you need to run flashed carts, then yes, they are custom hardware. Downloadable titles can be debugged and run on normal 2DS/3DS hardware with the IS-SNAKE according to the site, which still costs over $2K. The dev units themselves are fairly reasonably priced considering they'll have additional memory for debug builds, etc, and cost a reasonable amount - the problem is the flash card writer and debugger hardware that is needed to actually use them.

couldnt they just do some sort of dev signing?

Actually, I was wrong, the IS-SNAKE is a complete "New 3DS" dev kit. These devices are resource constrained, so you need more memory, CPU, etc to be able to properly debug anything on these devices.

I remember writing games for a gameboy in an assembly class in college. We had to use an unofficial emulator because Nintendo wouldn't even give an official dev kit to schools. That should be an obvious opportunity to gain some new Nintendo game developers...

I liked writing PowerPC assembly to turn LEDs on but your class sounds way more fun.

Playstation is more or less expensive depending how you go. XBOX is way cheaper, almost free (to start development). I would explicitly say but there are a ton of scary documents you have to sign.

This isn't too big of a cost if you're looking to actually publish on the platform, but it is a pretty big fixed cost if you're just looking to goof around on the platform.

Maybe someone can clarify if this is the starting cost. From my reading, at minimum you need one of the CTR devices or (EDIT)IS-SNAKE devices to do anything.

Would have loved if I could just buy one of the dev-only Pandas 3DSs for $200 even if it meant not being allowed to use carts (since I didn't have a writer).

Given how dirt-cheap DS flash carts are, us hobbyists are probably better sticking to that for now...

3DS: Cheapest/minimum option for small teams with download-only titles

    *IS-SNAKE-BOX

*Note: A single IS-SNAKE-BOX unit is enough hardware for developing a download-only title. Card title development requires a CTR flash card for guideline checks.

==== WiiU:

Engineers

Each engineer will need a CAT-DEV kit for development.

Testing

For testing, CAT-R kits will need to be used. They closely emulate a retail Wii U. CAT-R kits can run games that have been burned to CAT-R discs, and they can also run images installed to the system via SD card. They cannot run retail Wii U games.

And you can run your soft on CFW'd 3DS or WiiU, but don't tell N about that.

You can purchase an IS-SNAKE and develop download-only titles with normal 2DS/3DS hardware according to the site.

10 years ago our studio (indie in pre-indie times) tried to purchase the NDS dev kit and it costs something like 50k USD (if I still remember it correctly) and tons of due diligence for a chance to play with it as having game actually published involved another process.

Hopefully that's a good thing though. It's not a completely inaccessible price but hopefully it should be enough to stall an Apple Store type race to the bottom of flappy birds and other clones.

Quite cheap given how developer programs are usually set up on the games industry.

Not really, considering that PC development requires no special licenses or hardware, beyond what the average consumer already has.

I was thinking about the console developer programs.

The PCs are just a part of the games industry.

That's not true. My gaming PC costs about that much, and normal consumers don't have something like that.

Would you have been able to develop for it on a budget rig?

Of course a nicer computer always helps, but honestly, even nano and gcc on a Pi can get you pretty far. There's a huge difference between "download this free software on your existing computer" and "beg us to sell you this $2k+ machine that will ONLY work for this one task".

I would not develop software meant to run on specialized hardware like a modern gaming computer on something less powerful than the target platform. That's just asking for trouble.

Actually seems pretty reasonable.

Is unofficial homebrew on consumer hardware an option?

3DS homebrew scene is thriving right now. Do not ever attempt to use these docs or toolchains to create HB. Or have your ass litigated, your choice.

https://www.3dbrew.org/wiki/Main_Page http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/List_of_3DS_homebrew https://www.reddit.com/r/3dshacks

I meant you could do the development on inexpensive consumer hardware, without even a developer license. Then, when you have something worthwile to show a publisher, you could arrange a devkit.

I think low level system libraries (homebrew FLOSS libctru vs whatever is inside the NDA'd sdk) must differ a lot. So much porting would not be feasible.

Looks like there is some slight activity[1], but the old Wii had a pretty active scene[2].

[1]: http://wiiubrew.org/wiki/Main_Page

[2]: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Main_Page

Well, if you are a business in Europe, that cost will be tax deductible anyway.

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