godotengine
Improve wording and explanation on the console porting process
Remove the official support section, add explanation on export templates fixes https://github.com/godotengine/godot-docs/issues/5625
If we are removing the official support section, then further restructuring needs to happen. Both current and this version of the docs starts with an explanation of the process, when it should start with an introduction to the state of console export in Godot. Then it can describe the process to further elaborate on the situation. In other words, it needs to be made clear what the current state is, and with this PR references to it are drowned by technical explanation about the process.
I also think that the mention to message Juan is out of place. That bit is speculative and doesn't inform the people who are going to read it about anything useful. At the very least, this should only be added if PLC wants to advertise this search for certified developers.
The situation is that most people have no idea, very little knowledge or misinformed idea about publishing on consoles. The regular discussions on r/gamedev, r/godot and discord are really terrible and I was actually very thankful when this was added right at the start. I also think the current state is sufficiently described after the general process is explained.
The article is not about publishing for consoles in general. It's about publishing for consoles in Godot. Thus this point should be made clear with the opening paragraph. The article should start with addressing the core subject in short and concise way, not with going on a tangent about hardships of making a console port.
I also think the current state is sufficiently described after the general process is explained.
With the current formatting the most important information (what's the state of console support in Godot) is hidden by a wall of tangential text. It is a useful tangential text, but it's not the important part of the article. It is only there to give context. Godot documentation should not be your source of general game development information, same as it shouldn't be your general source for learning programming. It should be about Godot. Everything else should either be offloaded to third-party resources, or be made less prominent. So the structure suggested by this PR needs to change.
Edit: At least such are my review notes on this PR and its intent.
Godot documentation should not be your source of general game development information
This sounds to me like a really narrow minded mindset.
There can be a middle ground imho, which is explaining a bit of the basics is when it is necessary and useful. Or when consistently frequent questions or discussions on the community channels show it would help. Just like a bit of vector math basics is explained here is indispensable helpful for any beginner game devs, so is a short paragraph about the basics of porting to consoles incredibly valuable to beginners for those who have no clue.
There are lot's of examples like that in the existing documentation, and quite frankly I want more of it, not less. Godot attracts a lot of beginners. It advertises itself as "easy to program" and generally is perceived as the underdog light beginner friendly general purpose game engine compared to Unity, Unreal and others. Godot should continue to be accessible and welcoming to these beginners, and this starts with how we word our documentation.
This sounds to me like a really narrow minded mindset.
This is a practical decision. We are not and cannot be expected to be experts in everything gamedev and creating and maintaining general purpose subjects is an additional task on top of maintaining Godot documentation. We are but a few though.
I'm not saying we shouldn't mention those topics, but it's much more reasonable to link to great third party articles on the matter and spend our limited capacity on things we are directly responsible for.
Regardless of your take on this decision, this is not related to your PR which has several review points which need to be addressed. I'm not asking you to get rid of the general purpose information. I'm asking to fix the structure of the document, so it can be followed more easily and so it gives an obvious answer to the question in the title of the article.
Superseded and merged in https://github.com/godotengine/godot-docs/pull/5764. Thanks for contributing!
