[360] Games: Make 'em yourself!

Really interesting, this. Essentially homebrew games for Xbox 360:

Quote:

BREAKING: Microsoft To Enable User-Created Xbox 360 Games
Talking on the eve of its Gamefest event in Seattle, Microsoft has revealed XNA Game Studio Express, a new product which will allow indie developers and students to develop simultaneously on Xbox 360 and PC, and share their games to others in a new Xbox 360 'Creators Club'.

The details of the new tech are as follows: XNA Game Studio Express will be available for free to anyone with a Windows XP-based PC, and will provide them with what's described as "Microsoft's next-generation platform for game development." In addition, by joining a "creators club" for an annual subscription fee of $99, users will be able to build, test and share their games on Xbox 360, as well as access a wealth of materials to help speed the game development progress.

In an official statement related to this major announcement, Microsoft suggested that the new product "...will democratize game development by delivering the necessary tools to hobbyists, students, indie developers and studios alike to help them bring their creative game ideas to life while nurturing game development talent, collaboration and sharing that will benefit the entire industry."

The games created with XNA Game Studio Express will not initially be available to regular Xbox 360 users, although there is hope that successful titles made with the package might go on to debut in enhanced form on the universal Xbox Live Arcade service, and a longer-term goal is to create a less restricted distribution market using Xbox Live. In the meantime, a second XNA toolset named Game Studio Professional, originally scheduled tentatively for an early 2006 release, is now due in spring 2007, and is intended to cater more directly to professionals aiming for Windows and XBLA game releases.

Microsoft has enlisted the help of several partners for this major announcement - indie publisher/developer GarageGames, technology provider and creator of Marble Blast Ultra, has migrated both its Torque Shader Engine and new Torque Game Builder 2-D visual game designer over to the XNA Game Studio Express platform, and Autodesk announced that game developers and enthusiasts can now more easily incorporate content into XNA Game Studio Express via Autodesk's FBX file exchange format.

In addition, more than 10 universities and their game development schools — including University of Southern California, Georgia Tech College of Computing and Southern Methodist University Guildhall — have already pledged to integrate console game development and XNA Game Studio Express into their curricula for the first time, and Xbox 360 will be the only console at the center of all coursework.

The XNA Game Studio Express beta will be available Aug. 30, 2006, as a free download on Windows XP, for development on the Windows XP platform. The final version of XNA Game Studio Express will be available this holiday season.

Microsoft's general manager of the Game Developer Group, Chris Satchell, commented on this major announcement: "By unlocking retail Xbox 360 consoles for community-created games, we are ushering in a new era of cross-platform games based on the XNA platform. We are looking forward to the day when all the resulting talent-sharing and creativity transforms into a thriving community of user-created games on Xbox 360."

Gotta make a new Centipede!

Pretty good. I'd love to see what people could make of great little things...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Good to see it's pretty reasonably priced. With any luck, this'll mean a few more different styles of games will emerge for the Xbox. I'm sure there'll be a load of crap produced but easier access for fledgling developers to a wider market can surely only be a good thing.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Sounds pretty interesting. So, if you were to make a game using that program and it actually makes its way onto the Xbox360, would you still be able to hold the rights to, say, characters or stories you create for that game?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

This is definitely an interesting idea in theory and looks like something meant to attack Nintendo's Wii. Allowing indy games will inspire guys with less of a budget to develop for the 360 instead of the Wii. I can't wait to see what crazy games come out as a result of this.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

This is VERY cool, it's like that .. uh, what was it, Net Ya...ka..zooie.. banjo.. homebrew thing Sony had going for the original PlayStation. They'd chuck the best ones on the official PlayStation magazine demo discs, good stuff. Except this is going to be on a much larger scale (coz lol xbox is huge lol). I imagine the Creators Club is going to contain a lot of games using stolen Naruto GBA sprites though.

I was speaking idiomatically.

And people thought the Wii's controller was innovative.

I've been thinking of delving into game-creating for the last couple of weeks, so this is pretty cool to hear. If nothing else, it's like MS will have an almost global "R&D" department. Very cool.

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This sounds kind of similiar to what Sony is doing on the PS3, doesn't it? Only it sounds like on the PS3 it's not just games. But more like any software you like. Since it's running on Linux.. But when I heard about something like this on the PS3 it sounded like there wasn't going to be any support offered. You're really on your own or something. It's been awile though.. so I could be wrong.

I think this is a pretty good move by Microsoft though. It could allow alot of lower budget groups to create games. So now every game for our consoles doesn't have to cost upwards of millions of dollars.

FELIPE NO

I think it's a clever ploy to offset the cost of having to do market research and distilling a few innovative game ideas from the mass of crap ones. Someone will come up with an idea that breaks the mold and then Microsoft buys them out and runs with it. Considering the poor state of the games industry at the moment and spiraling development costs, it's a good idea.

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Originally Posted by Lizardcommando

Sounds pretty interesting. So, if you were to make a game using that program and it actually makes its way onto the Xbox360, would you still be able to hold the rights to, say, characters or stories you create for that game?

According to Peter Moore... Yes!

Quote:

Microsoft will regulate the content for appropriateness and intellectual property issues, but users will own their work, Moore said.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

wOOt! About time, I suspected this move way back when the XNA was first annouced. Great stuff, really great stuff.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I sure hope Microsoft has a gigantic (lol cuz xbox is hueg) team to check for quality, because for starters, I wager 95% of all games of this kind use stolen material: stolen graphics, stolen code, stolen music, and made with stolen software. XD

Having said that, I really like this idea in principle. There's a lot to be said for this approach, I feel it will open the games market up for much smaller teams, which is a good thing, cause diversity is always nice. Besides, some fan games are just plain ol' awesome, and they deserve all the exposure (and revenue) they can get.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by surasshu

I sure hope Microsoft has a gigantic (lol cuz xbox is hueg) team to check for quality, because for starters, I wager 95% of all games of this kind use stolen material: stolen graphics, stolen code, stolen music, and made with stolen software. XD

Actually I disagree. $99 a year for the subscription to the service is probably enough to put off casual users who would just churn out rehashes of other people's shit. I mean, why would you bother wasting the time?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Shin

Actually I disagree. $99 a year for the subscription to the service is probably enough to put off casual users who would just churn out rehashes of other people's shit. I mean, why would you bother wasting the time?

It's not rehashing that I worry about (cause that's legal, though not very tasteful), it's actual theft. In my experience with these kind of small games, I've seen so many titles (even ones that are being sold!) steal a Necros, Purple Motion or basehead song it's almost embarrassing.

I suppose you're right that the $99 price tag will scare the worst of 'em off, but it's really not a lot of money considering what you can potentially get in exposure. People tend to make these kind of games for fun at first and then try to release them, forgetting that those textures came from Quake 2, and the songs were downloaded from modarchive.com. That is the kind of thing I think Microsoft has to check for, as much for their sake as the "bad" developers'. (Although they will probably try not to be held accountable for what appears on that service.)

As for why, people will do all kinds of crazy shit for 15 minutes of fame. XD

I was speaking idiomatically.