PSP Minis

1. 

   Carson
   Member

   for the developers that are here,
   I want to know your reason for publishing you're games on the minis platform,
   why?
   I'm curious

   there's plenty of other platforms, for example, the xblig service for xbox (which a few developers here are also using), the app store for ipod touch, and good old self distributed pc games.
   so what is your reasoning for picking minis? we all know the alternatives are way cheaper.

   do you favor sony?
   do you think the psp is simply a more suitable platform for the games you wish to develop (with portability, buttons, and power)?
   do you not take the other platforms seriously?
   did you think that with so much more competition in the other services, your games would have a better chance of being noticed on playstation?
   or is the reason simply you already have or are planning to get your games on the other platforms?

   im sure the people here are interested in knowing the developers' angle, so dont hesitate to answer.

   Posted 2 years ago #
2. 

   blacklabgames
   Member

   OK, I'll bite.

   For me, minis is the perfect balance between barrier to entry and quality.

   Platforms like PSN (on PS3), XLBA, retail need a huge budget that I just don't have at the moment. XBLIG & iPhone are flooded with poor-quality shovelware because of the way the platform holders run there services. Whilst both of these platforms will reject "objectionable" content, they are generally fine with a "game" that has graphics done in Paint over a weekend. The fact that Sony have quality controls in place mean that only "serious" developers are going to tackle minis. That said, if you've got some experience in games, it's a lot easier to get into, compared with say XLBA or PSN.

   I also like the minis aren't treated like a "dirty secret" - like MS seems to be doing with XBLIG. minis are featured prominently enough in the PS Store, whereas XBLIG games are buried pretty deep. As the the AppStore, good luck finding a specific game unless you know the name, or it's in the top 100.

   (Oh, and phones are not gaming devices :) )

   L8r, Paul

   Posted 2 years ago #
3. 

   pspgamer01
   Member

   So now you are working on 2 titles right?

   Posted 2 years ago #
4. 

   Carson
   Member

   OK, I'll bite.

   
   hey, I CAUGHT ONE!
   

   For me, minis is the perfect balance between barrier to entry and quality.

   
   interesting. I'll agree there are some pretty low quality games on the other services, waayy too many games on the ipod, and no attention on the XBLIG.
   yes as far as having large amounts of low quality games go, minis, are by far the lesser of three evils.

   thanks for the feedback, Paul, i appreciate it.

   Posted 2 years ago #
5. 

   blacklabgames
   Member

   So now you are working on 2 titles right?

   Yeah, but mostly on Star Hammer Tactics at the moment.

   Posted 2 years ago #
6. 

   Carson
   Member

   are you able to estimate the month you'll be done development?
   I've really been looking forward to this for a while, ever since you asked if it should be a mini ;)

   Posted 2 years ago #
7. 

   James @ FuturLab
   Member

   I have a couple of reasons alongside the ones blacklabgames mentioned.

   Firstly, Sony are a publisher in their own right with good ideas at the root of their ethos. They're not just a platform holder like Apple is. Build something innovative on their platform and you have a good chance of building a relationship with them - one day they might even fund a game you're working on if it's cool. Apple can offer us nothing like that.

   Secondly, and as I mentioned in another post on this forum, Sony have excellent developer support. Far better than anything Apple could provide.

   Posted 2 years ago #
8. 

   blacklabgames
   Member

   "are you able to estimate the month you'll be done development?"

   Development is mostly complete. Time to get it on the store is unknown though, because the game has to go through the QA process, and I'm not sure how long that will take :)

   Also, I'll second what FuturLab said. Sony support has been excellent.

   Posted 2 years ago #
9. 

   Takao
   Member

   I'm a bit surprised no one mentioned the fact that Minis allow a developer to target two different audiences (PS3 and PSP) with the same release.

   Posted 2 years ago #
10. 

    James @ FuturLab
    Member

    That is a good bonus. It wasn't one of our reasons for choosing miniS because PS3 emulation was announced after we'd already begun :)

    Posted 2 years ago #
11. 

    xesf
    Member

    I'm currently start building a game (together with a work College in free times) which aims, at least I hope, to be a minis in future. Before start working on it, we talk each other about what target platform we were looking for and after few thoughts, we actually came to the same conclusion blacklabgames and FuturLab post.

    Really interesting to read all those opinions from the minis dev side. Thanks for sharing.

    Posted 2 years ago #
12. 

    onmode-ky
    Member

    Dredging up an old topic for a related question: a DSiWare and XBLIG developer told me that he considered signing up for Minis but decided against it due to some concerns about the terms in the contract. Any developers here know what he might have been referring to? I'm not asking for NDA specifics, of course, just a general "X area might have been the turn-off."

    Posted 1 year ago #

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