   Where do I start if interested in Developing for Consoles?
  There is sooo much information on this site, but there is really no solid, informative "Beginner's Guide" - It's just random information (still very valuable) but not really well placed. I guess this is because many of you are already experienced and this site sin't targeted at beginners, despite what it states.Anyway, where can I get started if I have ABSOLUTELY NO experience/knowledge about developing a game?I want to develop a game for a console, specifically, Sony's PS3.   
  Only professional game development companies can make games for the PS3 -- you need to be licensed by Sony (and to purchase expensive Sony development kits). To get a license you need money and proof that you are an experienced development company. Individuals simply cannot apply.Same goes for Nintendo and Microsoft -- you have to be a licensed development company.The exception is that Microsoft has a library called XNA and a programme called the "creators club", which anyone (i.e. you) can make use of to make 360 games.If you want to take advantage of this avenue, you should look into learning the C# programming language.   ;  Do I need proof that I am an "experienced' game company or do I just need to be licensed and registered as a gaming company? I'll purchase whatever it takes. I assume that licensing only requires paying fees, filling out tons of paper work, getting registered and such with the right governmental entities and such?And this Sony development kit, do you know what it consists of?   ;  They're pretty picky about who they sell development kits to. It takes a lot more than just a business license. A lot of times, dev studios won't buy them directly. Instead, they'll borrow them from publishers with whom they have a contract, and the dev kits are often returned to the publisher once the contract is complete.It's also very expensive. A single development kit can run in the tens of thousands. The Wii is an exception. Last time I checked, Wii dev kits were around fifteen hundred dollars. A development kit usually consists of a console machine and possibly some development environment software, sdk's, etc.The console machine is what you use to test new builds. Generally, you'll have a PC with the development software installed. You write the code and rip assets using this software. When you have a build ready, you use this software to debug it. At debug time, the build of your game is pushed out to the console machine through a network connection or some other means, but the debugging itself takes place on you PC. That's sort of the work flow.For many of the consoles, the dev kit machine closely resembles the console that you're developing for. For the hand-helds (DS and PSP), they usually resemble just a small block, with the handheld hardware attached by a cord. IIRC, the PSP dev kits also have a CD drive, so you can put a build of the game onto a CD and play it that way.   ;  Being a licensed developer means you pay licensing fees to a first-party company (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) for each game you release on their system. Exact terms are most likely under NDA, and I don't know what they are anyways. Who first-party companies accept as licensees is up to them, but usually requires the company to at least have a business plan to be able to finish making and distributing your game. To do this you'll at least need to be able to afford the development kits which are thousands and thousands of dollars each.It's very unlikely that a first-party company will license an independent developer, so the best option is to find a publisher interested in your game that already is a licensed developer.Either way, you need a game first.Or use XNA for the 360 as was already suggested.   ;Quote:Original post by Captain EpicThere is sooo much information on this site, but there is really no solid, informative "Beginner's Guide" ...Anyway, where can I get started if I have ABSOLUTELY NO experience/knowledge about developing a game?Maybe this will help:http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson56.htm;  Before you can make a game -- any game, for any platform -- you must first learn to program.Since your eventual goal is to see your code executing on a console, C# is probably the best language to learn initially, since it gives you access to XNA. This is good, because C# is an excellent first language anyhow.   ;Quote:Original post by Captain EpicDo I need proof that I am an "experienced' game companyYes. This may even involve listing who your staff are and the games they've shipped in the past.Quote:I assume that licensing only requires paying fees, filling out tons of paper work, getting registered and such with the right governmental entities and such?No, being "licensed" has nothing to do with legal/government, it's a contract between you and Sony.Quote:And this Sony development kit, do you know what it consists of?An SDK for your Windows development PCs, documentation and customised versions of the PS3 hardware ("dev kits"). All this stuff is top secret proprietary info, which is why they only sell it to proven developers.   ;  If you're more interested in the act of programming a game on some console, rather than the PS3 specifically, then you can check out the Dreamcast, Nintendo DS, PSP or Gameboy Advance homebrew scene. They're not as flashy as the PS3, or even XNA, mind you, but if you're after bare-metal coding then these devices have been well documented by the community, and though its somewhat of a legal grey-area (more due to the devices sometimes necessary to get your code onto the console than the act itself) its certainly more accessable than becoming a licensed developer.Other consoles have less-active-but-not-thread-bare homebrew communities -- The Wii and Gamecube, Original Xbox, PS2, and original playstation (not particularly recommended), even the classics like the SNES, Genesis, NES, Master System, Gameboy and Atari -- which aren't a particularly useful skillset these days, but interesting none-the-less.The DS probably has the most active homebrew scene at the moment, while the Dreamcast is probably the most interesting scene -- The dreamcast is relatively modern (decent 3D), the bare-metal is very well documented, there are OpenGL implimentations, ports of SDL, most units will boot a ROM image from a CDR with no modification (the 'mod' for those that don't don't require any soldering or chips, just a turn of a screw driver), the CPU is quite powerful so there's little need to dip into assembly unless you want to, and the hardware is unique enough to be interesting, but not so unique that it's obscure. Plus, you can pick up a used dreamcast anywhere in the country for $40 bucks or so, and hack together a coder's cable for $20 bucks in parts. If you want to avoid even that expense, there are a couple pretty decent emulators available. There's even been a couple unlicensed, small-run commercial dreamcast games made and sold by indie devs -- Feet of Fury, Cool Herders, and a couple Shmups whose names escape me.But, if you're really just starting out, with no programming experience even, then stick to the PC for now, and choose a language you feel comfortable with. You won't be ready for even simple 2D graphics for quite some time -- there's ton's of material to cover before you're even at that point. The next step is a simpler 2D-focused library like SFML or SDL, and then you can think about tackling 3D through an API like Direct3D or OpenGL -- then, after all that, you might be ready to tackle 3D in a bare-metal environment (mind you that many consoles these days provide 3D APIs similar to Direct3D or OpenGL, but the SDKs generally offer an expanded API allowing lower-level access to the GPU functions, such as writing directly into their command buffers.)   ;  Are there any examples of games created with XNA?? Would any of you be interested in helping me developing my game? http://www.neohazard.com   