Ok, so, this might sound very hard and stupid. But! It wouldn’t be as hard as it sounds. According to nintendo’s website (Register - Nintendo Developer Portal)
there are HTML5 tools. And GDevelop is built on top of HTML5.
It would give GDevelop more visibility and making game making on the go easier.
Also, the nintendo developers license is entirely free! (Unlike pretty much all other platforms)
The disadvantges are that a part of the code would be closed source as the nintendo SDKs are under a license prohibiting republishing that SDK, having one more “platform” (with pc and web) to maintain, making better touch controls, and like publishing on steam it can potentially make trolls come to the forum.
Do you mean to actually make games on the Switch? Sounds interesting especially because GD got it own sprite editor and sfx generator built-in. However it would certainly cost 4ian or whoever make this port a tons of money to buy the dev hardware at least, I believe Nintendo still require you to own a dedicated dev hardware you can’t just switch the console in to dev mode like the Xbox. I don’t know the exact amount but I guess the dev hardware cost at least $5000. They usually not cheap.
From what I heard the web engine ships with Switch is trash, the only real option is to include the Chromium engine but personally I have not seen any HTML5 build tools that does that for the Switch? Is Nintendo provide something after you become a registered Nintendo dev maybe?
Personally, I think it would make more sense to target Xbox. Currently it has the best support for HTML5 especially because they also switched their browser engine to Chromium and it is also the most open for indie devs as you can switch the console in to dev mode for free.
In my opinion Windows, Android, Chrome OS, Fire OS, iOS, macOS, Linux, Web, Xbox is plenty platform to support in my opinion all open platforms with no or very little entry barrier except the Mac maybe if you want to buy Pro hardware and developer license cost an annual fee but other than that already a lot of opportunity to make games, make money and be successful and visible.
I think it’s a good idea but the idea of game designing on a platform that isn’t a computer of any sort just feels odd to me. I think it’s cool though, would love to see it happen!
Nintendo switch development hardware costs $450, and I don’t think xbox would be a great idea because of the lack of touch screen and portability, which is the main reason Gdevelop would be great on the switch. Personally I’d love to see Gdevelop on the switch, but there would need to be some way to import external files into the project (music, art not made in piskel, etc.) and it may be difficult to use Gdevelop without a keyboard and mouse.
