PSP Minis are an exciting new page in the PSP’s book of tricks set to launch alongside the PSP Go on October 1st. If you’d like to develop for this platform, then you’ll want to take a look at these tips.
1) Develop for Apple’s App Store
- This may seem counter-intuitive, but the cost of development on Apple’s platform is quite a bit lower than Sony’s PSP Minis program. The process of publishing an application is also cheaper and quicker. This way, you can have a title or two on a mobile device and can show Sony actual working code and not just a cool concept and pretty concept art.
2) Create an actual company
- Believe it or not, creating your own company is relatively cheap (a good Google search with the site:.gov tag is a good way to find the information). Make sure you whip up some decent-looking logos and make it all professional-looking. Sony isn’t likely to be impressed by an amateur appearance. Buy a domain name (.com or .net at least) and give your company a good-looking, Web 2.0 website that you also link to on your new business cards. If you can’t create your own website, hire a professional to – it won’t be cheap, but it’ll be functional and hopefully eye-catching. If you already have an idea for a game, try to land some investors for your newfangled start-up – or (provided you have the credit rating) take out a business loan – $10,000 or so should do the trick.
3) Purchase a PSP SDK and license
- Here’s where things can get kind of expensive. Sony recently lowered the price for the development PSP packages, however, and they now cost $1,500. That’s where investors and/or a loan could come in handy – or you could save up for a while. But then there are also fees to pay when licensing a new IP or trademark, which can up the cost to maintain those properties and your legal ownership of them. When the time comes, contact Sony to acquire the tools you need.
Hey, nobody said it’d be easy! But now you know a few steps for becoming a world-renowned PSP Minis developer. Since the Minis service also works on regular PSP systems, that’s over 50 million people who could potentially play your games!
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