Consoles

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Hyper Shards on the big TV?

Picture Hyper Shards on a giant TV, with a controller in your hands and a friend on the sofa.

Consoles like Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox are amazing homes for games. They're also the hardest channel to get into. Let's find out why.

Step 1: get approved

On the web or Google Play, you sign up and upload. Consoles are different. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft each run a developer program, and the company has to apply and be approved. They want to see a real studio and a real game, often with a demo or trailer.

Approval comes with legal agreements, including an NDA (non-disclosure agreement): a promise to keep the console maker's tools and secrets private. An adult signs these for the company, because breaking them has legal consequences.

Step 2: a dev kit

A normal console only runs games from the official store. Approved studios get a dev kit: a special version of the console, plus private tools and guides for building games on it.

Consoles also don't run web games like ours directly. Hyper Shards would need big changes, often a move to a game engine that supports consoles.

Quick check

What do you need before you can build a game for a console?

  1. Just a free account and a controller
  2. Approval from the console maker and a dev kit
  3. Only a Steam page
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Approval from the console maker and a dev kit

Console makers choose who can build for their machines. Approved studios get a dev kit and the private tools that go with it.

Step 3: certification

Before release, the console maker runs certification: a long list of tests. What happens if the controller is unplugged mid-game? If the storage is full? If the player signs out? Are the buttons named the right way for that console?

Fail a test and you fix it and submit again. It takes time, but it's why console games are so reliable.

Certification fail

Remy reads the test notes for a console build of Hyper Shards. Which issue would fail certification?

  1. The game keeps running and the ship crashes when the controller is unplugged
  2. The title screen is purple instead of blue
  3. Wave 3 has seven aliens instead of six
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The game keeps running and the ship crashes when the controller is unplugged

Certification checks how the game handles real-life situations. Unplugging a controller should pause the game and ask the player to reconnect. Colours and wave sizes are design choices, not rule breaks.

Age ratings for consoles

Console games need official age ratings, from groups like ESRB in North America and PEGI in Europe. Some ratings involve a review of the game, which can cost money.

For download-only games, some stores accept IARC, a free online questionnaire that gives ratings for many regions at once. Check the latest rules for each console.

Help with porting

Moving a game to a new machine is called porting. Small studios rarely port to consoles alone. Some hire a porting studio: a team that already has dev kits, knows each console's certification list and does the conversion for a fee or a share of sales.

Others sign with a publisher, which pays for the console version up front and earns it back from sales (the Publishers and crowdfunding lesson in Stage 10 explains how those deals work).

Game engines matter too. Engines such as Unity and Unreal can build for consoles once a studio is approved, which is one reason console games are rarely plain web code.

Quick check

What does a porting studio do for a small team like ours?

  1. Converts our game to a console, using its own dev kits and know-how about certification
  2. Approves which games are allowed on a console
  3. Gives every indie game a free console version
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Converts our game to a console, using its own dev kits and know-how about certification

Porting studios do the hard technical work of moving a game to a new machine, for a fee or a share of sales. Only the console maker approves games, and nothing about it is free.

A great later goal

Consoles are a goal to grow into, not a first step. We ship on the web and phones first, build fans and a track record, then knock on Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft's doors.

Plenty of famous indie games started small, then came to consoles once they were hits.

Bolt says: Whatever the channel, real players should test the game before launch. That's next.

Fact-checked 9 October 2026