I have been programming for a little more than a couple of years now, and I was wondering how some can get a job programming for game consoles. Like the xbox and playstation2. I have read alot about learning programming for PC games but what about the consoles? Is the path the same? DirectX, OpenGL, etc.. need to be learned for consoles? Any help on how to get started for consoles would be great. thnks

quote:Original post by DodgeMan
I have been programming for a little more than a couple of years now, and I was wondering how some can get a job programming for game consoles. Like the xbox and playstation2.

I have read alot about learning programming for PC games but what about the consoles? Is the path the same? DirectX, OpenGL, etc.. need to be learned for consoles?

Any help on how to get started for consoles would be great.

thnks

Game programming is game programming no matter what your developing for. PC, Xbox, PS2, GameCube, GBA the general programming ideas don''t change that much. That said, there are a number of reasons why consoles are much harder to develop for.

#1) Console makers don''t let just anyone make video games for their consoles. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all have their qualifications. Some say that you need to have at least 3 published console titles before they''ll sell you a development kit, while others just want the money from the development kit sales. Either way your talking much more than the average person want''s to spend for a hobbie estimates for console development kits range from over $6,000 to $25,000 a peice depending on which console you want to develop for.

#2) Consoles typically don''t have full API''s in the general term. There is no full OpenGL, or DirectX implementation for any of the consoles (xbox included). However most console makers do provide you with a very limited API to work with.

#3) Hardware issues, there are a number of hardware issues that vary for each console. Most of the time the limited ammount of memory, the lack of no hard drive, or video constraints cause problems which honestly many hobbiests don''t have the background to solve.

I could go on for quite a while about more issues but I won''t.

Now how do you program for a console as a hobbiest? Well there are a number of "home brew" people that have come up with legal ways to develop for a few of the consoles out on the market.

The easiest console development to get into would be on the GBA, you can goto www.gbadev.net(or was it .org?) and they''ll have what you need.

If you want to develop for a 3d console, I''d suggest picking up a dreamcast from the store and the dreamcast developers cable from http://www.lik-sang.com . Yes I know the DreamCast is now gone but it''s got a nice little development community and is fairly cheap to get into.

Most console companies hiring new programmers don''t expect the new programmers to know about developing for the console system. They expect to spend a fair ammount of time training you, and most likely you''ll be doing tools until you learn enough to transfer you knowledge and skill over to the console itself. So I honestly wouldn''t push myself too hard to learn this stuff.

Console programming is very complicated and complex if you don''t have alot of hardware knowledge. If you want to have success I''d suggest you keep making bigger and better PC games those will be more impressive than spending months trying to get a sprite to render on a console using a homebrew kit.