Console Ports Are "Not Worth It," Says Braid Dev

[Marshall Honorof]

Console Ports Are "Not Worth It," Says Braid Dev

Jonathan Blow believes porting indie games to XBLA and PSN might be more trouble than it's worth.

If only game designer Jonathan Blow had the same abilities as Tim, the protagonist of his critical darling Braid. Then he could travel back in time and take back comments about his upcoming game The Witness appearing on the Xbox 360 and PS3 [http://www.1up.com/previews/witness-longform-game-from-guy-made-braid?pager.offset=0]. A year after Blow's initial interest in embracing Microsoft and Sony's systems, he has decided that the consoles are looking a little long in the tooth, and would rather focus his efforts on iOS and Steam.

"We like 360 and PS3, but their specifications are over five years old now, and that's a lot in computer years," said Blow. Blow's primary motivation behind the platform shift was compatibility: it's much easier to port a game between iOS and Steam than to bring it over to XBLA or PSN. "The kind of tricks we'd have to perform to get this game working on those platforms are such a lot of work that to port it over at this point is just not worth it for us ... [Breaking even] allows me to keep making games, and I can do that without consoles."

Blow hasn't ruled out the possibility of changing his mind. "Maybe this time next year I'll be singing a different tune," he admits, but points out that The Witness is primarily an iPad game, and he will likely have his hands full just keeping up with Apple's changing tech.

Blow, as an acclaimed indie developer, could be representative of where the market is headed. If developers can make enough money on portables and PCs, is it wise for them to risk investing in the difficult plunge to console ports? Assuming The Witness does not hit consoles, its sales figures may prove instructive.

Source: Edge [http://www.next-gen.biz/features/jonathan-blow-interview]

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[Soviet Heavy]

He's got a point. PCs advance are a breakneck speed compared to Console cycles, but that is just because of how the systems work. Consoles are designed with longevity in mind, a system you will be playing on for years, while a PC is a constantly updating platform that allows devs to take advantage of the latest advancements without needing to make compromises for lower tier system specs.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Even though he's saying this, the Braid PC port (aside from Braid just not being as good as the hype made it out to be) was awful. No resolution options at all in the game and I had to fumble around with files just to get the damn thing to run without my PC telling me the input wasn't supported.

 

[unwesen]

He's got a point. PCs advance are a breakneck speed compared to Console cycles, but that is just because of how the systems work. Consoles are designed with longevity in mind, a system you will be playing on for years, while a PC is a constantly updating platform that allows devs to take advantage of the latest advancements without needing to make compromises for lower tier system specs.

Speaking a software engineer (though not one involved in game development directly), the thing that makes it easiest for developers to develop stuff is a stable (i.e. not constantly changing) platform.

Most developers I've met over the years make the "mistake" (debatable, you can call it a strategy, too) of not considering portability of their code from the outset. When you do, writing portable code isn't particularly hard, though massive platform differences will still be painful for the first cross-platform code you write (in subsequent projects, you can benefit from the experience gained in the first). When you don't consider portability from the start, it's very easy to write code that's really, truly painful to port later.

 

[BrotherRool]

It's interesting but not necessarily applicable. He just said right there in the article that he only needs to break even on a game so it sounds like he's doing what he loves and his aim is to continue doing it. It also suggested he expects to make money porting it, just that he feels it isn't worth the effort (and boring effort at that) isn't worth it when he just wants to make games.

People more money focussed might feel different, but then again, maybe most indie devs aren't
money focussed anyway.

EDIT: Also as someone who tries to find games that run on his laptop I find it a little disheartening when even indie games are pushing specs

 

[Koroviev]

It's interesting but not necessarily applicable. He just said right there in the article that he only needs to break even on a game so it sounds like he's doing what he loves and his aim is to continue doing it. It also suggested he expects to make money porting it, just that he feels it isn't worth the effort (and boring effort at that) isn't worth it when he just wants to make games.

People more money focussed might feel different, but then again, maybe most indie devs aren't
money focussed anyway.

EDIT: Also as someone who tries to find games that run on his laptop I find it a little disheartening when even indie games are pushing specs

With respect to the latter part of your post, I suspect that it has more to do with poor optimization than anything else. Most indie games still don't hold a candle, graphics-wise, to AAA titles.

 

[theonecookie]

Is this guy high or what he would have a point if he was making AAA PC games but hes making a fucking Ipad game no Ipad game is gona put a strain on the xbox or PS3 and then there's the fact that porting pc games to xbox is just as simple as porting from xbox to pc as in really simple is praticaly the same code and like I said his game aint pushing no limits

In conclusion : He's high

 

[mjc0961]

Oh no, I might not get to see more games like Braid on PSN or XBLA?

Quite frankly, good. That means MS and Sony won't be trying to shove them down my throat.

 

[faefrost]

I would be more curious to hear the views on this subject from some dev's who actually made a highly popular and profitable game and ported it to console. Say the Angry Birds or Plants vs Zombies folks? Rather than someone who made "critically aclaimed art" that no one plays for more than 10 minutes?

 

[Woodsey]

Is this guy high or what he would have a point if he was making AAA PC games but hes making a fucking Ipad game no Ipad game is gona put a strain on the xbox or PS3 and then there's the fact that porting pc games to xbox is just as simple as porting from xbox to pc as in really simple is praticaly the same code and like I said his game aint pushing no limits

In conclusion : He's high

It takes a little bit more complicated than "is the hardware powerful enough?", "yes", "dump it on that console over there then".

OT: This isn't a new thing. A number of high-profile indie developers hvae said the consoles (especially XBLA it seems) were a waste of time. Super Meatboy exceeded something like a year's worth of XBLA sales in 2 weeks on Steam.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

Oh, bugger off Johnathan Blow. Don't try and take the "I'm a poor indie dev" route; the amount you put into and made from Braid stops you from getting any of my sympathy. The truth: you're lazy. If you'd just said "I couldn't be arsed", it wouldn't have annoyed me.

 

[Sunfirecross]

I stopped caring what this guys says or makes because of his "Story in Games" comment. I do not like his tone or style one bit and I regret giving him my money for Braid now.

 

[ace_of_something]

Maybe if PSN and XBLA had prices comparable to steam and steam sales more often sales would be higher?

 

[Woodsey]

Is this guy high or what he would have a point if he was making AAA PC games but hes making a fucking Ipad game no Ipad game is gona put a strain on the xbox or PS3 and then there's the fact that porting pc games to xbox is just as simple as porting from xbox to pc as in really simple is praticaly the same code and like I said his game aint pushing no limits

In conclusion : He's high

It takes a little bit more complicated than "is the hardware powerful enough?", "yes", "dump it on that console over there then".

OT: This isn't a new thing. A number of high-profile indie developers hvae said the consoles (especially XBLA it seems) were a waste of time. Super Meatboy exceeded something like a year's worth of XBLA sales in 2 weeks on Steam.

How'd Limbo do again? What, 3 times the sales on XBLA over Steam by most estimates?

I'm also noting nearly all AAA developers are saying developing for PC's is too expensive and they want consoles to remain where they are. And yet an Indie developer can't work within constraints.

I'm thinking he got lucky once with Braid, knows it, and doesn't want to be called on it.

And you're noting it correctly, assuming you cover one ear and close one eye.

The Steam version of Limbo came out last month by the way. Think about what you've just said, in light of that.

 

[42]

I stopped caring what this guys says or makes because of his "Story in Games" comment. I do not like his tone or style one bit and I regret giving him my money for Braid now.

thats why you wait for the humble indie bundles!

 

[ph0b0s123]

As a PC owner and fan of Braid, I would normal be like 'in your face console owners', but have to say the comments above make no sense.

It's easier to develop for the Ipad than a console because consoles hardware is so old and under powered. Wha...

The only way this works is if he is developing two versions of the game, a PC version that current gen consoles won't be able to run and a mobile version for Ipad, that could be ported, but he does not want to. Maybe console owners looking down on mobile ports makes them not worth doing. Otherwise his comments are mental.