PSP/DS develpment. Thread

I was going to post this in Ninjadaves thread but it looks dead so I post it here.

As we all know, game modifications are usualy made for the PC. Since UT3 on the PS3 allowed modding some of the modding as moved over to that. Sadly handheld modding is pretty uncommon, even with the release of an incredibly flexable engine like Quake (id Tech 1) being ported not alot has happened.

Quake can be an engine for any type of genre depending on how good of a coder you are. Here is a list of quake mods that are all different genres ;-

1. Quake Rally (A well known driving mod for Quake one)
2. Quess (An extremely well done Chess mod)
3. Navy Seals (This quake mod was started by Goose man, the man behind Counterstrike.)
4. Target Quake (A Quake plat former)
5. Air quake (Fly Planes, helicopters & drive ground vehicles)
6. Hack & Slash (3rd-person POV hand to hand action)
7. Slide (A skateboarding type game)
8. Quake-life ( Brings everything from half life into quake)

Is that enough genres to keep you happy ?

All that can be done with pretty decent graphics on the PSP and DS (I'd rather use the PSP, better framerate). There have only been two really good released attempts to make a PSP mod.

1. Kurok, made by a friend I know named MDave. This mod for the PSP brings Turok (N64) and Goldeneye (N64) game play to the Quake engine, with a 15 minute quality single player chapter, online multiplayer and of course local multiplayer, both with bots. This Total Conversation inspired alot of people to try modding for the PSP.

Here is a video of a fan made map for kurok (Crossfire remake) (Cant seem to find any video's of singleplayer)

Screenshots of singleplayer ;-

Website : www.bladebattles.com

2. Half-life PSP, yep you read it correctly. Using the heavily modified Quake engine that was made by MDave for kurok, somebody started porting half-life over.

Video ;-

The point I am trying to make is that Handheld modding is there, but not big. People have the tools to make their own PSP/DS game. You may have seen the total conversion mod I am working on, Solitude (formally named halo solitude). I am working on this project with a dedicated team to try encouraging handheld modding, and to make a great fun game.

I don't understand why nobody bothers making handheld mods.

You may say '' Handheld mods are not as popular as PC mods.'' That can't be true, out of 4000 mods I think there are only two PSP mods on moddb. Solitude (my mod) and some zombie mod.

Solitude beat 3900 other PC/PS3 mods and indie games to reach the top 100 list.

You may say ''They are not downloaded as much.'' , well your wrong. kurok got nearly 10000 downloads from ONE website, am talking about a standalone mod that is being hosted on hundreds of sites; Dl.qj.net

On one other site, the latest version of kurok was downloaded 6500 times; Psp-hacks.com .

I had to retype this as Chrome wanted to piss me off and crash. I want to hear your opinions.

- SamUK

Not to hurt your hopes, but MOTY is sectioned to each game.
Indie games and quake mods are two very different areas of voting.
I'm glad you won MOTY, but saying you 'beat' 3900 other projects is kind of stretching it.

I never did much for the PSP/DS development as I do not own either. To put it straight, I'm broke. I've found PSP development interesting and worth a look, but to be honest I've never really ever attempted to dive into its development.

Just saying.

On the other hand, I didn't realize the number of downloads. Thats a nice find. Thanks for that.

I don't play twitch FPS games on my handheld as a rule. I miss the mouse too much, and trains have a habit of being a bit crowded and bumpy. Something slower paced (ideally turn-based) is much more practical for gaming in such an environment.

That's my reasons, anyway

@Ninjadave

How are votes cast in the moty ? When somebody see's something they like, I didn't mean it in the sense that my mod was better then 3900 other ones, hell no. I meant that handheld devlopoment is very possiable, and popular enough to catch on some day.

With the recent "Pandora" handheld that is capable of running anything up to doom 3 standards, we might be seen handheld mods alot more often. By the way, if your wondering what the hell a pandora is, check this link out www.openpandora.com.. As a coder I think you will be very interested.

@Gibberstein (love the name )

You don't have to play an FPS you can make anything you want for the psp as its been completly unlocked. Just make it yourself or talk to other moders and convince them that there certain project would be better suited for handheld development.

Once agian dave, I didn't mean I beat other mods in that sense, I ment that a PSP based game does have a chance to win the public's eye. Sorry about the way I phrased it.

Votes are casted for each modifiable game area, so Crysis and Half-Life 2 mods don't compete and dominate the ranks.

Its ok, I see what you mean.

Really ?

I thought it was just an all out battle so everything went up against everything, halflife one mods vs UT3 mods. Shows how much I know .

Anyway, we don't want to go to off topic.

Edited by: Samuk

Fair point there, guess I need to explain better! I know that there is more to development than the FPS, but FPS (and RTS) dominates the mod scene because the technology makes it (comparatively) easy to work in those genres. I was assuming you were saying "come to the DS and PSP, we have the sort of technology you know and love". I guess the point I was aiming at is that the genres I'd be interested in playing/making for that platform would require starting almost from scratch, so knowing the Quake engine has been ported wouldn't make life easier.

And the point I was making is the fact that you wouldn't have to start from scratch.

If somebody can turn quake into a chess game, or better yet a skateboarding game then anything is possible. There have even been a few RTS's and puzzle mods made for quake.

Anything is possible in the sense that yes, you can throw away almost everything but the renderer and build the rest from scratch, but if your graphics needs are relatively simple the renderer isn't the hard part, so you're still working from scratch on all the most significant parts. In fact, a heavyweight renderer may be taking up memory that you could be using for other things.

For the sort of mobile gaming that interests me, this is would be where I'd start if I had the time.

Anyone heard of Bobs game ?

He spent 5 years of his life single handedly making an 2D RPG that is possiable to published as he did everythnig from writing the engine to making the graphics.

Bobsgame.com
Go to the end of the page and read the post, its sad that the guy went insane, but he made a full 40hour + experiance on the NDS.

Dead already.....