Can you make games on gamecube or nintendo wii ????

#1 You will have to be a licensed developer with Nintendo and C++ programmer to adapt the platform layer. You will also need a console license for Torque rather than the indie or commercial licenses available on the site. Getting a license from Nintendo take a bit more work than sending an e-mail and transferring a couple of thousand dollars to them, though. I believe that a Torque console license is much easier to obtain (mainly because you have already jumped through the console manufacturer's hoops and are licensed).

#2 That being said, a console license from GG is going to set you back a great deal more dosh than either an indy or commercial license of Torque.

#3 Where is the information on the console license?

#4 Hum.. it's been mentioned in past GG staff plans.

#5 Http://www.warioworld.com

Good luck following the requirements, including having a pretty credible track record of polished games, and a nice budget. Also don't be surprised if you make next to nothing after the royalties. You might want to wait for the new section for indies on the Wii, supposedly coming out soon.

#6 You have to contact GG directly for a console license and must be a licensed developer for the console that you are targeting.

#7 Ok, well I should be able to accomplish that. I will "hopefully" be teaming up with a local studio here in Austin. Basically we will be doing there TGB development and they will port... The details have yet to be worked out. But I wanted to get a head start. Like I don't know the first thing about porting to Wii or anything like that. I wanted to gather information for my development staff though.

#8 Hmmm - did I miss something? Last time I checked, there is only a Torque for XBox 360 - not GameCube or Wii.

That being said - I would love to make a Wii game

#9 Yup. I believe that the console license is only for the original Xbox and the 360 right now.

#10 I have a lead that could turn into a project for the Wii that is why I am interested. Has anyone emailed the GG staff? I don't want to bug them.

#11 Well, after reading the agreement for the Commercial license, consoles allowed are included all the different kinds, not sure why the others would be disallowed if you can program it for the console.

#12 You would have to purchase a console license, but if you want to do the port work with the official API, then I'd say go for it. I'm not sure what would be involved, though, as I have no experience whatsoever in the GC/Wii SDK's (and especially not with IR devices).

#13 I've added Wiimote support to TGE (on a Mac using the Cocoa Bluetooth interfaces). You might try doing this as a first step.

At my company, we've discussing doing this. I don't doubt that someone could port the TGE platform layer to the Wii SDK -- in fact, the TGE indie license precludes doing it, so it must be possible. The basic steps would be -- get into the Wii developer program (at a cost of $2,50 to $10,000, according to Nintendo); get a console TGE license (not sure, but I think in older threads I've seen $10,000 thrown about); port the TGE platform layer to use the Wii SDK (maybe you get lucky and someone already did a gamecube port). So worst case, you'll need to free up around $20,000 and a developer for, well, let's say a month.

However, if you get this far, you're just developing, not publishing anything. Your business will need to plan around finding a publisher and selling into the Wii market. And to get into the developer program, Nintendo will ask about your plans for publishing titles, because they rightly don't want to waste resources on developers who don't publish titles. So you'll need to make a reasonable business plan before you contact Nintendo.

Anyway, until you get into the Wii developer program, you can simply add Wiimote support to TGE (or use GlovePIE) and get your game proof of concept working, so you can demo your game. Then you can talk to publishers and show them a working game. Because no one will doubt your ability to code for the Wii -- that's easy, if you've got money for the SDK and time for the port. What everyone doubts is that you'll make a Wii game that anyone will want to play.

I feel like I'm channelling Jeff Tunnel. Must stop posting before coffee.

#14 For the most part I am thinking my company wont be responsible for any of that extra purchasing of software. My hopes are to just position the skills of my company for use as the code monkey for the game. As it stands Seismic Games could not aford to make a move like that. I need to check into the legal issues that may arise and how to legally avoid them (ie if we are not the legal owners of the software can we use it under the impression that SG is the dev team for this other company) Those are the things I need to wrap my brain around.

#15 Best thing to do is to make the game the best for the PC first, show Nintendo all the hard work you put into the game, with it polished, then they might consider you as a good candidate. This is the route the Marble Bast guys took, and after they got it to store shelves, Microsoft had something to work with. Essentially it's good to distinguish yourself from any other person who could just as easily come up to any console developer and ask for a development kit. I'm glad that Microsoft, on the other hand, has encouraged more growth in the XBOX 360 by allowing a much more open platform, which I think will lead to a stronger control of the console market, as they have new and fresh ideas that are unique. Although I like the Wii, Nintendo is much more strict on what they allow to be published. Hopefully the 'Revolution' of games will include more support of low-budget games.