Homebrew Seeking knowledge about wii homebrew games

[Triode]

Ey bois

I am later to this scene (2016), but I am interested in making a homebrew game for the wii. But, considering the almost complete abandonment of all wii game engine development (according to wiibrew and the overall lack of "finished" games like helium boy and rokoban) I am not sure if I should continue learning how to do this. The available engines look useful, but, once again, their "discontinuation" for 7+ years and the lack of finished games troubles me. Is it very difficult to write the code for wii games or draw geometry? I wanted to make a 3d third person free roam demo with physics as a start (think a crappy wii sm64 reboot with one jump and attack type). Would this be too complicated? If it is possible, what engine should I use or should I make my own?

 

[FAST6191]

When people are learning to code I often have to say find something that interests you. For some people it genuinely is making their game console do something cool. For a while the wii represented a nice device to plug into your TV, however today we have the raspberry pi and all sorts of things like it (as well as HDMI out on many android devices). Even though it sounds like you know how to code something similar applies here -- if it genuinely interests you then carry on. Most looking at older devices will tend to be more interested in the limits (see the demoscene) than the power but if you just want to play then that is cool too.

Back to consoles then very few people use premade engines in homebrew development. Some of the later ones have unity but that is about it. You could port an open source game or make a mod for one that is already ported (doom gets ported to everything and most of those can be persuaded to run a custom wad or three).

Code wise if you are into assembly, C or C++ then you will be pointed at
https://devkitpro.org/

The wii is powerful enough to support a few higher level interpreted languages, though perhaps not as many as the DS. Python and lua are usually available for most things but here while they are there after a fashion they are not quite as... polished as some other things -- the DS got several versions of lua which are nowhere near as capable as the wii one but the DS stuff got several communities doing cool things with it, the wii not so much.

 

[Triode]

When people are learning to code I often have to say find something that interests you. For some people it genuinely is making their game console do something cool. For a while the wii represented a nice device to plug into your TV, however today we have the raspberry pi and all sorts of things like it (as well as HDMI out on many android devices). Even though it sounds like you know how to code something similar applies here -- if it genuinely interests you then carry on. Most looking at older devices will tend to be more interested in the limits (see the demoscene) than the power but if you just want to play then that is cool too.

Back to consoles then very few people use premade engines in homebrew development. Some of the later ones have unity but that is about it. You could port an open source game or make a mod for one that is already ported (doom gets ported to everything and most of those can be persuaded to run a custom wad or three).

Code wise if you are into assembly, C or C++ then you will be pointed at
ILLEGAL HYPERLINK!!!!!

The wii is powerful enough to support a few higher level interpreted languages, though perhaps not as many as the DS. Python and lua are usually available for most things but here while they are there after a fashion they are not quite as... polished as some other things -- the DS got several versions of lua which are nowhere near as capable as the wii one but the DS stuff got several communities doing cool things with it, the wii not so much.

Ok, thanks for the advice. Do you know if Wire3d is a unity engine? it seems to be so and That idea intrigues me.

 

[FAST6191]

It appears there is an exporter plugin for at least an older version of unity that does a limited amount
https://code.google.com/archive/p/wire3d/wikis/Unity3DExporter.wiki

Note that only a small subset of Unity3D is exported. Don't expect to export any arbitrary scene and get the same result you see in the Unity3D editor. The shader of a Unity3D material cannot be parsed by an editor script like the exporter, so information on render state or how textures are used cannot be extracted. Furthermore the Wii does not support shaders anyways. So if the exported scene does not look like you want it to, you have to open the exported xml file and change the properties of a material manually.

 

[newo]

I use GRRLIB to do my stuff. You have to get used to coding in C/C++. I spend most of the time coding on a PC and sending it to a real Wii connected to a TV. Drawing things is really easy, texturing a bit harder and its best to stick to low poly if you want to render fast. most of my 3d stuff uses files exported as OBJ formate. most people try to work on something simple like asteroid or pong before they tackle 3d. 3d stuff is pretty complicated but it is doable if you have lots of time and imagination. You can take a look at the stuff I have done with GRRLIB here; on wiibrew.org.

p.s. it takes alot of work which is why most stuff is never finished because people get bored or try to do too much. also some projects have source code and can be completed or added to in other ways apart from coding.

Good luck

 

[Triode]

Thanka for the advice. I may try to make a game in.... Something and then port it to the wii for... More troubleshooting options I guess so I'll at least have something that works on one platform.

 

[newo]

Thanka for the advice. I may try to make a game in.... Something and then port it to the wii for... More troubleshooting options I guess so I'll at least have something that works on one platform.

Usually people port from the weaker/old system to the newer. But eitherway it doesn't matter. Find something you can easily work with until you figure it out. You don't really need an "engine" but its certainly easier to get started on the newer platforms because they provide everything you need.