1. Console Game Development
John Meister
Console Game Development
Owner and Technical Director
How many people use Unity?
How many programmers?
Intermediate to Advanced talk, but there will be lessons for beginners

2. Making Games in Lexington, KY
Started company is 2011

4. Agenda Console Development Process Overview
Porting Your Game To Consoles
Game Certification
Becoming An Approved Developer

5. Process Overview
Much easier as indies to get approved for consoles and publish
Can self publish on major consoles
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Nintendo Switch
Used to require publisher

6. Process Overview Consoles are closed platforms
Get game approval and developer approval
Sign legal agreements
Get access to development hardware and software
Game gets tested and certified
Platform sells license of game and gives you a royalty

7. Applying You apply to publish a particular game
First time you also get approved as a developer/partner
Check content

8. Sign Agreements Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
Sign Licensing Agreement
You agree to let them sell licenses of the game
They send you royalty payments
You should really sign these agreements as a business
Not sure if I can say how much royalty payments but very similar to Steam/App stores

9. Sign Agreements Easy to setup a LLC in Kentucky $40 to register
Annually file with SOS
Local taxes and annual tax forms
Register with IRS to get Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN)

10. Software and Hardware Get access to developer websites
Software and Tools (SDK)
Unity addons
Order dev kits
Documentation
Webinars

11. Dev Kits Specialized version of the console
Lets you run uncertified software
Extra hardware to help development and debugging
Connect your PC to the dev kit to copy over game, debug, capture video, etc.

12. Unity & Consoles Need to get a Unity license through each platform
Free for indie developers

13. Unity & Consoles
Get access to addons
Addon to base Unity

14. Porting Game
Game engines do most of the work to get games to run the same on consoles
Saving and loading data is different
Performance is likely an issue
Platform integration to think about
Achievements / Trophies required
Leaderboards, Friends, Stats, Status
Similar to steam integration

15. Porting Game Unity Allows you to run PC version in editor
Have to deploy to device to actually test
Takes a long time (10 to 30 minutes)
Can connect with profiler and debugger

16. Certification
Platforms make sure that the games meet technical and content requirements
Game should interact with platform in specific ways
How to handle errors?
How to interact with SDK?
Content
Images specific to platform
Terms / Trademarks
Very specific
How logo should show
What image format
What bitraite for the video
Volume levels

17. Certification Store Content Age Rating Required
Create specific media content
Translate into multiple languages
Age Rating Required
International Age Rating Coalition (IARC)
Free to get rating for digital games

18. Platform Specifics

19. Microsoft https://www.xbox.com/developers/id
Can publish as an individual
special indie program
Get 2 free dev kits
Simplified process - Creators Program

20. Nintendo https://developer.nintendo.com/register
Can publish as an individual
Not guaranteed free dev kit ($450)
Same as publishing program
No longer need an office

21. Sony https://partners.playstation.net/ Business based in US with FEIN
Static IP address
Non-public domain address
Can potentially get free dev kits
Personalized account manager

22. John Meister
SuperSoul.co
SuperSoul.games @SuperSoulStudio