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Steam port of Valkyria Chronicles done by just 4 people...?

N

Nyoro SF

Member
EDIT: Updated with more relevant info.

I was relaxing at home after a long day of work and was checking out the redone manual for Valkyria Chronicles on Steam. It's a pretty funny little remake (you can see some of the photoshop leftovers, oops) but it's complete and actually does contain good information.

The last page caught my eye though.

ZReRwXn.png
Click to expand...

The software development team to make the port consisted of just four people... and it wasn't even an internal team!

After doing some obvious googling around on Little Stone, I discovered their jobs: Design/Lead Tester, Programmer, Software Engineer, Artist in that order.

The Sega UK credits include QA and project management, which is typical of any project within a company. The Sega Japan credits are strange in that they credit VC2 producers and a few (unrelated?) staff members. But the actual development of the title to make it up and running on PC was done by just two software programmers!

Does it always require this little manpower to port a title like this to PC? Valkyria Chronicles is by no means a small game and it has a lot of complex stuff running behind the scenes. The port itself had a few problems on release but it was stuff that was patched very quickly, so I'd give it a passing grade.
 
C

Chun-Li

Member
This isn't totally unusual from what I've experienced. Lots of ports have had very small teams. I've been on one where it was just a programmer, producer, and two QA guys.
 
M

Madao

Member
well, if people like Durante can do what they do for free, someone who does get paid for it can do quite a lot with enough knowledge and resources.
 
C

CHC

Member
Not too surprising, while I dont know all the specifics of porting, it's not like some monumental remaking of the whole game,
It's just optimization of everything.
 
B

bathsalts

Member
hats off to that coder, going from the ridiculous cell architecture to x86 by them self seems like quite a job and its a brilliant port no less.
 
Y

yuraya

Member
It was a very good port considering it was a PS3 only game. They even managed to have the ps3 save pop up prompts and stuff as well. Good job.
 
P

Palculator

Unconfirmed Member
Seems appropriate. It's not like they were producing new assets and required a fully fledged team of artists, musicians, etc. Not to downplay the effort behind a port, but it's natural a team focused purely on engineering is small.
 
K

King_Moc

Banned
This is why I find it so bizarre that some games that would find an audience on PC don't get ported. Capcom literally threw money away with Dragons Dogma.
 
P

Palculator

Unconfirmed Member
King_Moc said:
This is why I find it so bizarre that some games that would find an audience on PC don't get ported. Capcom literally threw money away with Dragons Dogma.
Click to expand...

Totally. And it's extra dumb since we know that MT Framework runs quite well on PC.
 
S

SonyToo!™

Member
Yeah it's amazing how much small teams can do (Tomb Raider 1 was made by 6 core devs) and it makes me wonder why we can't get more no frills ports from older consoles

I wonder how many (AM2?) devs ported Dayatona HD, Afterburner Climax and Virtual On OT XBLA?

60FPS Vanquish PC next SEGA (add more challenge missions and I'll pay full price)
 
M

MUnited83

For you.
King_Moc said:
This is why I find it so bizarre that some games that would find an audience on PC don't get ported. Capcom literally threw money away with Dragons Dogma.
Click to expand...
Yep. Even more weird because the dragon dogma engine runs so smoothly on PC and many capcom games use it. Porting it should be really quite simple.
 
C

CertifiedFP

Member
Hmm, I wonder how large a team with what amount of resources it would take to port the sequels with cleaned up UI and 2D assets. It does beg the question though of what budget VC was ported on, for sake of trying to figure out if a VC2 port (Specifically VC2, not VC3 which would also require the additional localization costs) would be more, from fixing up the 2D assets - Or less, from not having to deal with CELL code.

I just ask this because I'm finishing up on a draft for a little campaign I'm dubbing Operation 422. As for that, I'll have a thread up on that subject either tomorrow or Sunday.
 
Y

Yudoken

Member
Games usually are programmed on pc, you know?
If a game runs on consoles then there is no reson why it shouldn't work on pc too.
 
X

XxSlasherMcGirkxX

Member
Not only is it amazing job for 4 people but the port is amazing and was amazing on day 1. Even though I don't do steam i'm blown away how many Japanese games don't get ported to it.
 
C

CertifiedFP

Member
Yudoken said:
Games usually are programmed on pc, you know?
If a game runs on consoles then there is no reson why it shouldn't work on pc too.
Click to expand...

Programmed on PC =/= Running on PC. Especially when it comes to 7th gen games where the byzantine PowerPC standard was the norm, and even moreso with the PS3's CELL processor.

You can't just slop a PS3 game onto PC and expect it to be fine. When you convert something from CELL code to x86 code quick and dirty, you get FF13 PC, or worse, FF13 360.
 
D

dhlt25

Member
wow, so there's really no excuse for publisher to not port their game to PC down the line then. It's free money from property that won't generate any otherwise
 
X

XANDER CAGE

Member
dhlt25 said:
wow, so there's really no excuse for publisher to not port their game to PC down the line then. It's free money from property that won't generate any otherwise
Click to expand...

It really depends on the game. But yeah, more resources devoted to PC ports would be cool.
 
B

Bending_Unit_22

Member
Wasn't Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop ported by a single intern working after hours in the janitor's closet? Seem to recall hearing that at the time.

Anyways, wouldn't surprise me. The port has some issues to say the least.
 
N

Nyoro SF

Member
Bending_Unit_22 said:
Wasn't Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop ported by a single intern working after hours in the janitor's closet? Seem to recall hearing that at the time.

Anyways, wouldn't surprise me. The port has some issues to say the least.
Click to expand...

Well, the patches fixing it made it perfectly fine for the mass mass majority of players and that was done in the first two weeks.

Also it's great to hear Bender's voice as the drill instructor hee hee

Arabian Mage said:
They should have been hired for the port of Dark Souls.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't surprise me if they had just one person doing that port.

Same goes for Capcom; I'm mildly suspicious that all their PC ports are handled by two people.
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Nyoro SF said:
Well, the patches fixing it made it perfectly fine for the mass mass majority of players and that was done in the first two weeks.

Also it's great to hear Bender's voice as the drill instructor hee hee



Wouldn't surprise me if they had just one person doing that port.

Same goes for Capcom; I'm mildly suspicious that all their PC ports are handled by two people.
Click to expand...

But Capcom's PC ports are usually rock solid affairs.
 
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