i’m just really interested
how was your experience developing for PS compared to other platforms?
what things should people who are interested in doing so know ?
is it hard to import games to it?
For starters there is a non-disclosure agreement you’re required to sign for every console on the market that prevents discussing much of anything regarding development for the console with other people. Just don’t be surprised if the answers are a bit vague.
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Here are some links for getting started with console platforms:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/developers/id
https://developer.nintendo.com/
Each console platform has a strict NDA involved, so you will usually not get detailed answers from developers about developing for those platforms.
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I developed for PS1 but I have a feeling that’s not what you’re asking about, haha
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ah Net Yaroze takes me back. Also had a play on linux kit for PS2 and wrote my dissertation on the PhyreEngine for PS3. I don’t work on Sony platforms anymore.
Read into that what you will.
I used to call it PSX and wished to be fluent in Japanese at this time 
yeah! We called it PSX back then but no one ever knows what I’m talking about when I say PSX so I end up saying PS1.
Yeah, the whole NDA thing prevents anyone from sharing anything specific. You could figure out the following from a bit of research of your own if you know where to look and/or what to look for:
- They’re highly curated platforms compared to most others. Compare the size of their catalogs to the number of games released on Steam since each console’s release…
- They’re standardised hardware, which is nice. You know exactly how things will perform, what controller 99% of users will have, and so on.
- They’re nice bits of hardware, but consider what’s inside them. They’re not high-end gaming PCs and will not perform like one. You need to be thoughtful about what you’re doing to get the most out of them.
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This is general cross platform advice, not specific to any platform.
First, if possible, design for the “lowest common denominator” in the first place. Figure out the most limited hardware, controller, etc. that your game might need to work with and design around that.
Second, the catch to getting stuff running on a new platform with Unity is usually platform-specific functionality or 3rd party libraries. I always wrap this stuff so that my game logic never talks directly to anything platform-specific - high score systems, player social accounts, some aspects of file I/O, stuff like that. If you’re using 3rd party stuff, watch the platform compatibilities there as well.
Third, if you’re mindful of platform differences when you design and implement your code, getting your game running on a different platform is often relatively straightforward with Unity - that’s one of its strengths! Getting it to run well, on the other hand… Different systems have different bottlenecks, so you may well find that something running well on one modest hardware target performs poorly elsewhere. It’s just a matter of finding the bottlenecks on the new system and optimising around those.
Fourth, supporting more platforms means a heck of a lot more testing time, which isn’t something to overlook! Whatever your current testing plan is, you’re now going to have to perform a bunch of it on a new system, and you’re going to have a bunch of new deployment and platform-specific testing tasks to do. Plus, depending on the platforms you’re used to working on, the new platforms may require that you also meet someone else’s QA requirements in addition to your own.
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Back then instead of Unity there was Net Yaroze!
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Oh yeah I forgot about that one. We used the blue debugging version if I recall correctly (it was a long time ago and my brain doesn’t work like it used to, lol)
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