Tips & Best Practices For Indie Devs Planning a Console Port

If you haven't seen it yet, Unity recently launched the Indie Survival Guide, a growing collection of Q&As, VODs, and live streams packed with insights from developers and industry experts. Naturally, there's no guaranteed recipe for success, but learning how others have managed design choices, business decisions, and daily challenges can definitely boost your odds.

Serenity Forge's Unity team has meticulously recreated the functionalities of engines like Ren'Py and RPG Maker within Unity, bringing multiple classic games to a broader audience. These include Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, LISA: The Painful, LISA: The Joyful, To the Moon, Finding Paradise, and Imposter Factory, all converted to Unity.

When do you think game developers should start thinking about console ports of their games?

Kevin Zhang, Co-founder, CBO: Ideally, right from the concept phase. Even if your initial launch will be PC-only, early consideration of console requirements, both technical and design, can save significant time and cost later. Waiting until after PC launch often means reworking core systems that could have been planned with cross-platform in mind from the start.

What should indies think about early on to set themselves up for porting success later?

There are several that apply to basically all games:

• Engine choice and version stability: Pick a widely supported, up-to-date engine version to avoid losing access to console SDK support mid-project. Engines like Unity have great SDK support across all major consoles, so also keep in mind that the more obscure the engine, the more difficulties you might have with proper console support;
• Controller-first mindset: Even if you plan to have keyboard/mouse, make sure full controller support is in place early;
• Asset optimization: Building with memory and performance constraints in mind will save painful re-optimization later.

Which technical porting pitfalls are most easily avoided?

Throughout our years of directly and indirectly supporting projects on all kinds of platforms, we've found these pitfalls to be the most easily avoided:

• UI scaling issues: Test UI and HUDs at multiple aspect ratios early;
• Non-standard inputs: Plan for controllers as primary, including system-level pause and menu functions;
• Save system conflicts: Align with platform save guidelines to avoid re-engineering later;
• Network features: Even simple leaderboards require different handling per platform, so abstract your online features early.

Neversong, co-developed and published by Serenity Forge, was not only on consoles, but also on Apple Arcade, meaning that it had to have content and feature parity across PC, phones, tablets, TV, and consoles.

How should game developers prepare to talk about ports/platform strategy and goals with a potential publisher?

Think about and have answers for you and your game's priorities when it comes to platform fit. Which consoles do you think align best with your audience and game design? What's your bandwidth when it comes to providing support for porting? What are your candid assessments of your own codebase and tools? If this is your first time thinking about porting and you don't have clear answers, don't sweat it, as that's what console publishers and porting studios are here to guide you through.

Beyond the specific technical challenges per platform, what are some more practical/mundane/logistical aspects of porting that developers might not think about?

• Certification timelines: Console approvals can take weeks, sometimes months. This not only applies to your initial release, but can (and often do) apply to patches as well, including day-one patches. This reality can sometimes shock developers who are used to exclusively releasing games on PC/Windows;
• Platform-specific marketing: Each storefront has unique requirements for assets, trailers, and metadata;
• Localization and compliance: System-level text, ratings boards, and age gating vary by region;
• SKU management: You'll need to handle multiple builds, patches, and branches cleanly.

In your opinion, is it generally more strategic to launch on PC and then expand to consoles, or to aim for a multiplatform launch from the start?

This heavily depends on your resources and goals. PC-first is lower risk and lets you test gameplay and gather feedback before committing to full-scale porting, and can help secure platform interest if the game does well. On the other hand, a multiplatform launch can get you the biggest market and potential revenue possible from day one, and create additional marketing and word-of-mouth opportunities that aren't limited to a single platform.

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! launched years after the original free version on all consoles, and garnered enough attention from both fans and platforms for it to be included in prominent marketing placement opportunities across all consoles. 

What's the single most important piece of advice you'd share with developers thinking about porting their games to more platforms?

Plan for it early. Even if you’re unsure which platforms you'll target, designing your game and pipeline to be platform-agnostic will make future ports smoother, faster, and less expensive. Treat portability as a core design consideration, not an afterthought. 

Kevin Zhang, Co-founder, CBO at Serenity Forge

Interview conducted by Theodore McKenzie

Check out Indie Survival Guide for more practical advice from developers who've been through it all.