Telltale Games

Sp0tted · 10/29/2007, 05:49 am

I have a question about "Porting." There's been talk about porting Season 1 onto the Wii... and about people being pissed that Brutal Legends isn't going to be made for a PC.

How difficult is it to port a game to a different system?

I'd assume making the game would be the hardest part, how difficult could it be to port or transfer it over to work on another system?

jmm · 10/29/2007, 06:03 am

Difficult is not enough.

Three things (And probably ignoring/forgetting a lot of things):

First, you have different hardware and OS - You have to rebuild from scratch components like the rendering engine (which depends heavily on hardware and/or OS)

Second, some code might explode just by touching it (Trust me, I'm on the middle of porting code of a 500K+ code lines project from an older compiler version to a more current - same platform). Changing platforms its trouble times five.

Third, different platform different mindset. Some things that work on a platform won't necessarily work on another platform.

Sp0tted · 10/29/2007, 10:01 am

Thanks for the info, jmm. It makes sense, now.

Emily · 10/31/2007, 06:15 am

The difficulty depends on the platform you're coming from / going to. Porting CSI from PC to Xbox 360 was fairly painless because the Xbox 360 and the PC are pretty similar under the hood.* Porting it to the Wii was a lot harder because the Wii is completely different.

Now that Telltale's tools work for Xbox 360 and Wii, the porting process should be somewhat easier for us in the future. But as mentioned, if you're not designing with the console in mind to begin with, it still might not turn out to be a great port.

*I can say that because it was finished up a few months ago and I have a short memory. And also I'm not a programmer.

Jay33e · 10/31/2007, 07:04 am

Whilst we are on the subject of porting, any plans for the PS3?

Emily · 10/31/2007, 12:04 pm

We've talked about it, but we're not doing it at the moment.

10/29/2007, 05:49 am	#1
Sp0tted Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 126	Porting... I have a question about "Porting." There's been talk about porting Season 1 onto the Wii... and about people being pissed that Brutal Legends isn't going to be made for a PC. How difficult is it to port a game to a different system? I'd assume making the game would be the hardest part, how difficult could it be to port or transfer it over to work on another system?

10/29/2007, 06:03 am	#2
jmm Fremen Fedaykin Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Arrakis (also known as Dune) Posts: 1,177	Difficult is not enough. Three things (And probably ignoring/forgetting a lot of things): First, you have different hardware and OS - You have to rebuild from scratch components like the rendering engine (which depends heavily on hardware and/or OS) Second, some code might explode just by touching it (Trust me, I'm on the middle of porting code of a 500K+ code lines project from an older compiler version to a more current - same platform). Changing platforms its trouble times five. Third, different platform different mindset. Some things that work on a platform won't necessarily work on another platform. Last edited by jmm; 10/29/2007 at 06:06 am.

10/31/2007, 07:04 am	#5
Jay33e Monkey!! Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: England Posts: 71	Whilst we are on the subject of porting, any plans for the PS3? __________________ You crack me up little buddy....

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10/29/2007, 10:01 am	#3
Sp0tted Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 126	Thanks for the info, jmm. It makes sense, now.

10/31/2007, 06:15 am	#4
Emily Formerly of the Telltale Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: San Francisco Posts: 4,549	The difficulty depends on the platform you're coming from / going to. Porting CSI from PC to Xbox 360 was fairly painless because the Xbox 360 and the PC are pretty similar under the hood.* Porting it to the Wii was a lot harder because the Wii is completely different. Now that Telltale's tools work for Xbox 360 and Wii, the porting process should be somewhat easier for us in the future. But as mentioned, if you're not designing with the console in mind to begin with, it still might not turn out to be a great port. *I can say that because it was finished up a few months ago and I have a short memory. And also I'm not a programmer.

10/31/2007, 12:04 pm	#6
Emily Formerly of the Telltale Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: San Francisco Posts: 4,549	We've talked about it, but we're not doing it at the moment.