PSP Minis

1. 

   SifJar
   Member

   I was wondering, why do devs choose to release games under the "Mini" label, rather than just release it as a PSN exclusive, which would remove some of the restrictions of Minis (no internet stuff, 50MB limit etc.)? I was under the impression that to develop a Mini requires the same SDK as to develop a regular PSN exclusive PSP game, so there shouldn't be a cost difference there...do Sony charge less to publish Minis? Just curious as to why companies release Minis, and remove the chance for online play, leaderboards etc...

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   MickD
   Member

   There is a lot of reasons, but here are 2 of the most important :

   -QA is lot easier to pass since there is no multiplayer to test and other simplified QA tests.

   -PS3 Emulation

   There is some other reasons too, PSN Titles being full fledged (more often than not) title, Minis is a platform for somewhat smaller games. It's hard to compete with games like LocoRoco with production values we have as indie dev.

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   SifJar
   Member

   OK, good to know. Just always wondered...

   BTW, whats "QA" mean? I'm assuming that's something to do with classification?

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   James @ FuturLab
   Member

   Quality Assurance.

   The process by which bugs are ironed out, and basic functionality tested.

   Minis publishing QA is a lot less stringent than regular PSN publishing QA.

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   onmode-ky
   Member

   Incidentally, SifJar, the size limit is 100 MB, not 50 MB.

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. 

   SifJar
   Member

   Oops, my bad. Actually now that I think of it, 50MB may be WiiWare. I'm pretty sure one of these sorts of services has that limit...

   Posted 1 year ago #
7. 

   JeremyR
   Member

   I thought WiiWare was 40 megabytes?

   Anyway, isn't another advantage that Minis don't have concept approval? There was a PDF flyer about the program when it was first announced, didn't get too technical or business-y but I thought it mentioned that.

   Posted 1 year ago #
8. 

   evanac
   Member

   No concept approval is a HUGE plus. The other thing is that minis can be turned around more quickly and generally don't need to be over-engineered as full-on PSN games sometimes are...

   We're not really worried about QA - it's there for a reason, you know. The SCEE guys really do hammer games, but they're fantastically helpful with it - you end up with a better game as a result. The quicker turnaround puts more pressure on you to create less buggy minis, TBH!

   That's my two cents (two pence) anyway...

   Posted 1 year ago #
9. 

   thumbbandit
   Member

   Well I for one am a lot quicker to buy a Mini, as opposed to buying a PSN exclusive.
   I have 11 PSN exclusive games, and that’s nothing in comparison to 74 Minis.
   I LOVE MINIS!!!
   ;)

   P.S. I also love the devs and all those involved in getting these great games out there... well done guys (and gals).

   Posted 1 year ago #
10. 

    blacklabgames
    Member

    And we love you too thumbbandit! So much love in the forum, it's so beautiful!

    Posted 1 year ago #
11. 

    evanac
    Member

    Sob!

    <<can't speak, just nods>>

    ;_;

    Posted 1 year ago #
12. 

    onmode-ky
    Member

    . . . Can't . . . breathe . . . forum's oxygen displaced . . . by love . . . !!!

    By the way, I thought for a moment that evanac Al was calling blacklabgames an S.O.B. Hardly love, that!

    Posted 1 year ago #
13. 

    onmode-ky
    Member

    By the way, Laughing Jackal, I got you a Cubixx sale over at AtariAge a couple of days ago, while explaining the details of the Minis program (stuff mentioned above) to another member.

    Posted 1 year ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.