Good morning everyone. How are you doing today? I hope everything doing well today and tomorrow for you. I have a few questions that i hope someone can answer. I have been watching some tutorials and been practicing. My laptop is slow and outdated. But I’m building a computer(https://youtu.be/BtQih352lac), which hopefully should be enough. If things go will. I should learn enough by the summer. That i can make a small project that i can test it on my home consoles. The thing is, my friend told me i needed a dev kit in order to test my project on the consoles. After hours of google search, I’m a little bit confused. So my first question is what a Dev kit and is it important. And my last question is do i need a PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch dev kits, to export games to a console or i don’t need it? Thank you in advance for answering my questions
To be able to develop for consoles you must submit an application to join their developer program. With the developer program if you get accepted you can get access to purchase a dev kit and download software for developing for the consoles, after that you can also contact Epic and give them your info and they can get you access to the version of UE4 that supports the console.
However, the developer programs are looking for serious developers, people who have a legitimate project they intend to release and can show they are capable of doing it (basically they don’t want you wasting their time). So they don’t accept hobbyists who just want to mess around with it.
Thank you for answering my questions! But I’m still a bit confused say i joined their Developer program and get accepted do i still need their Developer kits to make a game in their console? I mean doesn’t UE4 has a console export option? Sorry for all these questions. I am serious and i do have a goal to release s game for sale. Especially for the Nintendo Switch.
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo require developers to sign-up to their Development and Partnership Programs. You can not publish to consoles unless you’re a Development Partner.
To become a Dev Partner, requires you to have a Ready to Launch title or a *High Concept Pitch. *Sign an NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) and pay a fee to obtain their SDK.
Once you’re a Dev Partner for a console, contact Epic and give them your information to gain access to the UE4 version that supports the console. After which, you’ll then be able to export your title to PS4 or Xbox.
… and yes! You will need their SDK (Development Kits).
Console SDK give developers access to various console-only features. Console SDK allows developer access to: Testing and Debugging, Proprietary Storage, Proprietary Networking features, Leaders Boards, Achievements, Store Features, etc. There is more to it than Exporting from UE4 to Console. Your game will need to properly function within the console’s eco-system. This is where the SDK comes in play.
Thank you so much!!! For answering my questions!) Now i know what to do. If i may be bold to ask one last question.
im building a new PC so i can run UE4. My question is this build enough to do it? https://youtu.be/BtQih352lac
That should be OK, I’m using an ancient i5 2500k and I can do fine. But if possible, try to go for 16GBs for RAM later, it definitely helps with multitasking with UE4 open.
When dealing with consoles, good option is making a deal with a publisher and let them handle that for you…
You will have to share revenue with the publisher; BUT, the publisher will save you money + time dealing with these problems while you get the kit then you’re free to keep on developing the game.
If you do it all by yourself, all the bureaucracy WILL cost you money + time, there’s no way to avoid that hit when doing it all by yourself.
There is a difference regarding XBox to consider. Besides the Dev kit you can ask for, there is an option where you get subscribed to the UWP and use a regular XBox console for testing your game (you can’t publish it yet) prior to ask for the dev kit gaining some time and maybe granting a funding if you can show your project working. You will still need to sign a document with Epic in order to receive the Unreal’s dev kit for console. The matter is explained in the two links bellow:
The version of the UE4 editor that supports Xbox One does not work for UWP, instead there is a branch of UE4 provided by Microsoft for UWP that you can download and compile yourself.
Just note that UWP does not offer as good of performance as something developed specifically for Xbox One.
But then, does the UWP version is enough for testing purposes to validate the project before moving to the real dev kit or is it a waste of time in the end?
I’m not sure how much would be different in how you make a game. UWP is usually more limited so it’s likely that if it works in UWP it’ll work on a native Xbox app.
Yeah, I guess too. At my country it costs only US$12 to enter UWP, so way cheaper than acquiring the dev kit right away, leaving this way close to the end development if necessary.
Are devs allowed to mod the source code of the UE4 UWP branch? I’d like to use UWP with some of the cloud computing Crackdown uses but the source code I’m using on my pc build has modified modules not in the standard UE4 library.
Most of the trouble you’ll have on Xbox is related to Xbox-specific stuff that doesn’t exist in UWP (for example, only full blow Xbox games can use Xbox Live, games released via UWP are single-player only until you sign the papers), so besides the cool factor of seeing your game running on a console, it won’t save that much time. Same goes for Steam, for example: you won’t be able to touch the Steam APIs until you properly register your game and pay the $100 Steam Direct fee.