Nintendo switch?

I was just wondering today…

1- is it possible to release a game made with Gdevelop on switch? And if it is … What is required to do so?

2- And if it isn’t possible, why is that?

It’s hard to say. Nintendo had for sure support of HTML5 games on the wii u, but they never said if the support is still present on the switch, some clues indicate that yes other that no. It is impossible to know as all the development tools are behind an NDA, so there are no publicly disclosed informations on it.

If it isn’t officially supported anymore, you would have to try and see if you can access the builtin navigator via code, and if it is to launch your game via the navigator. That would maybe require a few lines of C/C++.

If you cannot access the navigator though, you can consider it impossible though, as it would mean either

  1. Adding a c++ exporter to GDevelop. There was one in the past that was abandoned that you could base your work on, but so much changed that it wouldn’t be easy, and it isn’t sure if it would work on the switch without additional modifications considering it didn’t port well at all.

or

  1. Port chromium to the switch and make your game run inside of it.

Both are technically possible but require so much effort that you can consider them impossible.

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I did some digging and Switch simply does not support HTML5 games. Over the Scirra forums, the dev of Construct told they did contact Nintendo about it to port Construct to Switch but they were ignored pretty much. So, if you really want to target Switch, your only realistic option is to port the game over to a native engine, maybe hire a company to do it for you.

There are studios out there who port games over to other platforms, for example Sick Head Games. Basically you give them everything, all the design docs, assets, and they build the game from scratch (using MonoGame I believe) for any platform you choose including Nintendo Switch. But certainly it won’t be cheap but it is an option to consider if you have success on Desktop and Mobile and you don’t feel like you can do it your self.

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It may be possible to export to Cocos 2D and use their bindings library to convert your application to C code, and then port that to Nintendo Switch using their SDK.
It’s still going to be some work, but it would probably get you pretty close.

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There’s a trick to access a Web browser on the Switch, that would be the easy way. :sweat_smile:

The official way is here: FAQ - Nintendo Developer Portal

Miko is fun, nice and well-drawn, I feel they could accept it. You should ask them. :slight_smile:

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Thanks a lot, but I’d like to ask, is HTML5 means that it will work on web right?
So all I need to do is to export the game in HTML5 in GDevelop?

They say this on the registration page:-

“Resources are provided for multiple development environments including HTML5, Unity and native C++ software development.”

And then they say this:-

“Nintendo Developer Portal has been tested with the latest Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox installed in the Windows environment.”

If you export to HTML5 and host on itch.io or such, you should be able to open your game using the hidden browser.
But if you want a real native game available on the e-store, you have to show the game to Nintendo to get their approval. The game doesn’t have to be ready, they check that it’s not gore, low-quality, etc… Making sure that the game meets their standards.

Then you’ll have to use their SDK to convert your HTML game to a native game. No idea if that will be difficult, but if you have Nintendo’s approval, I think you can easily make some fundraise or crowdlending to get a freelancer to take care of that.

That’s how I understand it anyway… although I never even tried the Switch :sweat_smile:

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@Gruk

Yeah I’m testing this now on itch.io just to see, I’ve never exported as HTML5 before…
Now I exported as HTML5 (manual) and then I added the folder into a .ZIP file and then I’m uploading it now, and then I should tick the checkbox that says “open in browser” … is that all? or I’m missing something?

I see yeah, I might have someone who might help get me into Nintendo, but I’m not sure yet, the thing is I don’t know how Nintendo even works so that’s why I was asking, I mean even if I couldn’t release it on Nintendo this year, I could always try, I’m just searching and stuff around this you know…
Not planning to release on Nintendo but I mean if it’s simple and in reach then why not? and the game looks like a very good fit for them, the cute style and stuff like that.

Yup me too, I never even saw it in my country really :sweat_smile:

I think it means that THE “Developer Portal” is tested to work in Chrome and Firefox on Windows. They provide no support to use the developer portal on macOS and Linux, probably because their SDK is also Windows only I guess.

I believe they do mention HTML5 here because you can target Wii U with HTML5 but it does not necessarily apply to Switch. I can be wrong, however it is not very optimistic none of the most popular HTML5 frameworks, engines (Phaser, Construct, PlayCanvas, Babylon…etc) able to confirm that you can target Switch but the opposite and there is no example of an HTML5 game ever being released on the Switch.

HTML5 means it works ONLY with web. Even when you target desktop or mobile basically you wrap the game in to a web browser. Xbox One and Wii U did support this, but it seems Xbox is dropping support as they did not include the JS-UWP template in VS 2019 and Nintendo never confirmed support for Switch.

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@ddabrahim

I see what you mean yeah, so there is no 100% confirmation that it will even work with HTML5 on switch, sad news…

That alone is a confirmation that it doesn’t support HTML5, because if it does then sure there will be games supporting it by now…

I read a lot of the documentation on the Nintendo Dev Portal and HTML5 games are not supported dirctly in Switch, the easy approach is what krunkster suggest.
Or export the game to HTML5 and code your own integration SDK to work with the Nintendo SDK.

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@UlisesFreitas Yeah, but it seems like a lot of work to do to get it on there which I’m not really familiar with at all, I guess I’ll leave this for now and I’ll focus on the main release and hopefully in the future I’ll be able to make it happen.

Sure and one more important thing is even if you successfully create the game later comes the Nintendo review process and a lot of developers complains about that because Nintendo rejects their game and is so frustrating, the Nintendo policies and patents, copyrighted content they are super strict with all the legal stuff and the presale campaign before you finally launch the game.

Years ago in 2008 i tried to release a game named “Everboy Data Unit” in Wii made with Cocos 2dx but no luck because of that policies.

But is just a matter of time for you to reach someone can helps you to release Miko on Nintendo just keep searching.

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@UlisesFreitas yeah I’ve been through this review process with publishers and it’s impossible to make them accept your game so I’m sure that Nintendo will be even harder to get into.
Anyway for now I’ll just focus on the steam release and itch release, don’t want to make it even more complicated as it is already …
I just thought to ask just to get more information around this because I didn’t know any thing about Nintendo.

Nintendo is much less strict nowadays.
There’s at least 1 publisher that ports Construct 2/3 games (plus a few other engines as well) to the Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox: Ratalaika Games.

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