GDC08: Microsoft announces "community arcade" and XNA Zune games


Recommended Posts

Joystiq

GDC08: Microsoft announces "community arcade"

At Microsoft's GDC 2008 keynote address, the company announced a "community arcade" allowing user-created games to be distributed to Xbox 360 owners worldwide. "Now, 10 million people on Xbox Live get to play your game," said Microsoft Game Developer Group General Manager Chris Satchell. Free trials of these community created games should be available on Xbox Live "immediately" according to Satchell.

"For the first time, community games will be distributed through Xbox Live," Satchell said. "'Xbox Live Community Games will give creators a huge audience to share their creativity with. Game distribution will be democratized, allowing the community to control the content. Create, Submit, Peer Review, Play are the four key steps ... We want creativity to flow through this pipeline.

Users will be able to upload games using a Gamertag-like "creator identity" which will keep track of your game creation history. Creators can use descriptive sliders to describe a game's content, and peer reviewers can also evaluate the content for appropriateness.

At the keynote, Satchell showed off a short demo of user-created game Jellycar (pictured below), featuring an adorable bouncy, 2D car that drives along on a sketchpad, bouncing up and down on a cartoon road.

I guess it really was a "youtube for gamers" and not a shroud behind that curtain. :p

Sounds really cool. :D

And Also XNA gaming on the Zune

GDC08: XNA games coming to Zune

Microsoft's Chris Satchell just announced that XNA Game Studios games can also be made for Zune. He showed off a brief demo of Zauri ? a topdown shooter. XNA Zune games can also support custom soundtracks (this is an MP3 player after all). Satchell promises that you'll be able to take games from Windows, to Xbox, to Zune. No word on the availability of this functionality on Zunes; more as we know it.

Joystiq

And more info Here

Edited by Corris

Yes they are. Now, if i could stop being lazy and finally make my XNA games (2 in mind, no I'm not telling you what they are lol).

I thought the XNA stuff was for licensed developers only. Don't you have to pay to get this dev kit?

I think students at universities have one year access or something along that. A new initiative. Don't know where that link on neowin is.

The XNA tools are free to download. You can download them and start writing games that work on Windows today.

If you want to run your games on an Xbox 360, you need to pay the $99 / year fee for the Creator's Club. My understanding from the XNA FAQ is that you will need this subscription in order to submit games to the Community Games service for others to download. In all, I don't think $99 is too high of a barrier to entry for developers, and assuming they offer a service by which you can sell your games - I think that fee can be easily recouped. I also think it'll help weed out spammers and such, encouraging a higher quality bar as the developer will have to invest at least that much into the game before submitting it.

Users will not need to pay the Creator's Club fee in order to download / purchase games written by Creator's Club members via the service.

What I don't know is if there will be other distribution mechanisms for non-CC members. For example, whether I could e-mail you a copy of my game instead of having to upload it to the service, wait for peer review, etc. My guess is that initially the answer there will be no. But I could be mistaken, all I know is what they've posted in their FAQ and via their announcements.

how may good games will come from this? i cant imagine a lot.

I'm betting there will be a lot of cool things just like you see on the web - a la Line Rider and such. I'm also hoping that with the added benefits of being on a console (big market, game controls, Live networking, easy local multiplayer) that you'll see lots of great stuff coming out of it.

In fact, I bet you'll see a lot of indie studios doing things like you currently see on Live Arcade, but with an expedited release cycle and lower barrier to entry.

I think you may also Live Arcade games become more focused on bigger names / studios and such.

You forgot one of the best parts! With XNA 3.0, developers can target the Zune devices!

Xbox Live games coming to Zune

Someone posted it in back page news so I didn't really see the need, but since you asked I can add it onto the bottom of the post.

I am really happy about this, it's a PERFECT opportunity for budding developers such as myself to get noticed. I'm certainly going to be making a few games for this, although mine will most likely be remakes of old classics rather than something really original.

FYI A number of games are already available on XBL for download and play. You need to download the XNA game launcher and then go to My Games tab and from there you can access the games.

I have been playing JellyCar past half an hour and its kinda cool!

Heh. I'll definitely be trying this out tomorrow evening (I have two exams tomorrow...). But if this stuff takes off, I don't even know if Sony could come up with something to match it. They're development SDK's aren't exactly new-user friendly so far as I've heard :p

Xbox will be the franchise of choice for new developers :yes:

-Spenser

Heh. I'll definitely be trying this out tomorrow evening (I have two exams tomorrow...). But if this stuff takes off, I don't even know if Sony could come up with something to match it. They're development SDK's aren't exactly new-user friendly so far as I've heard :p

Xbox will be the franchise of choice for new developers :yes:

-Spenser

Yup and if MS can come up with a nice revenue sharing model, then Indie devs will show much more interest in the platform.

I already know a couple of friends who want to do something new with XNA for their college projects!

FYI A number of games are already available on XBL for download and play. You need to download the XNA game launcher and then go to My Games tab and from there you can access the games.

I have been playing JellyCar past half an hour and its kinda cool!

Mine keeps saying I need to buy a subscription before I can get in :/

how may good games will come from this? i cant imagine a lot.

although i could well be pleasantly surprised...

Portal was made by a bunch of university students ;)

Well, I got it working in the end (insert something about Europe getting screwed). I've only downloaded 2 games so far and I love them both :D

JellyCar - A very interesting little game. Nice, cute art style. Easy to get to grips with. Pretty fun and a nice challenge :D I liked the option to change the art style a lot, I thought that was really good. I'm not too sure about it's long-term appeal, though. I think it needs a few more gameplay elements to make it something a bit meatier but still accessible and fun.

The Dishwasher - This I wasn't expecting. For some reason, when I think violence and gore I think ultra-realistic COD4-style. The Dishwasher is nothing like that. The art style reminded me of those Pon and Zi comics, but much darker, in a weird kinda way. The way the story is told thrugh comics helps enhance the visual style, whilst providing a smart way of avoiding ballooning the file size with cutscenes. Beautifully drawn, deliciously gory, satisfyingly horrible finishing moves. This just became my most wanted XBLA game (Y)

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • DiskGenius 6.2.0.1829 - All Versions: Free, Lite & Portable by Razvan Serea DiskGenius is a full-featured partition manager, which is designed to optimize disk usage for Windows users. It will efficiently help you recover lost data, resize/split partition, backup files, edit hex data, check bad sectors, manage virtual disks, erase data, etc.. Create a system image backup for current Windows with simple clicks to keep the operating system under protection. DiskGenius key features: Partition Management - It can create format, resize, extend, backup, split, hide and clone partition, both MBR and GPT are supported. Disk and partition conversion - Convert dynamic disk to basic, convert virtual disk format and convert MBR to GPT, convert primary partition to logical. File recovery - It can recover files deleted or emptied form recycle bin, recover files from damaged partition or disk and recover files by file type and supports file preview and file filter. Partition recovery - It is the best partition recovery program in that it can recover files from damaged, corrupted and RAW partitions, search for lost partition and recover files from it, besides, it can fix partition table. RAID recovery - It can reconstruct Virtual RAID and recover files from it, and all RAID types are supported. Sector Editor - A Hex editor is embedded to help users edit raw hex data and recover data manually. Backup and Restore - It can backup and restore partition including system partition, hard disk and partition table. Bad Tracks - It can check and repair bad sectors for all storage devices; check hard disk S.M.A.R.T. information. Delete files permanently - It can delete files permanently so that they can't be recovered by any data recovery software. Virtual Disk - It supports virtual disks, including VMware, Virtual PC and Virtual Box. Create WinPE bootable disk and you can manage disk partition when system crashes or there is no operating system on your computer. Support FAT12/FAT16/FAt32/exFAT/NTFS/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4 file system format. DiskGenius 6.2.0.1829 changelog: Add the "Disk Speed Test" feature. Add the "Windows Boot Repair and Conversion" feature. Add the BMB21-2019 erase standard to the "Erase Sectors" feature. Add support for restoring an individual partition from a PMFX disk image file. Enhanced The "Verify Or Repair Bad Sectors/Blocks" feature displays disk read speed in the detection window during scanning. The "Quick Partition" dialog box allows users to quickly select the number of partitions by pressing the numeric keys 1, 2, 7, 8, or 9. The "Set Volume Name" dialog box supports selecting preset volume labels provided by the software. The "Copy Sectors" feature supports resuming copy tasks after modifying the number of skipped bad sectors. Add the "TRIM Optimization" option to the format dialog box. The "Clone Partition" and "Clone Disk" features perform TRIM optimization on target partitions or disks before cloning. Add support for Not Equal To search conditions (prefixed with "!") when searching hexadecimal data in the sector editor. Optimize the display of capacity values in the program interface to show two decimal places. Add a minimize button to dialogs that may require long processing time. Enhance support for the ReFS file system. Enhance support for newer HIF and MP4 formats when recovering files by type. Enhance support for the EXT4 file system. Enhance compatibility of the "File Recovery" feature with special data structures. Fixed Fixed the issue that the selected file system type automatically reverted to NTFS after changing it to exFAT or EXT4 in the "Quick Partition" dialog box. Fixed inaccurate Unicode string search results in the "Sector Editor" feature. Fixed the issue that exceptions might occur when adding multiple disks in the "Erase Sectors" feature. Fixed the issue that insufficient target disk space was incorrectly reported in some cases when cloning, backing up, or restoring disks. Fixed the issue that folder modification timestamps were not preserved when copying files from ReFS partitions. Fixed the issue that Excel-format reports generated by features such as file copying or bad sector checking could not be opened when the report contained more than one million rows. Fixed the issue that folders were not displayed in the exclude-folder dialog box when backing up partitions to image files. Fixed the issue that the "Erase Sectors" feature could not be executed in some cases. Download: DiskGenius 6.2.0.1829 | 63.9 MB (Freeware, paid upgrade available) Download: DiskGenius Portable 64-bit | 40.0 MB Download: DiskGenius Portable 32-bit | 36.0 MB Download: DiskGenius Lite 64-bit | 13.4 MB Download: DiskGenius Lite 32-bit | 11.6 MB View: DiskGenius Home Page | DiskGenius Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Really? Use a better search engine https://www.google.com/search?...ourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
    • Seems like Neowin has transitioned into being simps for the white house. I can't find a review for the last UFC games that came out.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      agatameier earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      agatameier earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      ssd21345 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Contributor
      MarkHughes4096 went up a rank
      Contributor
    • Dedicated
      jordanspringer earned a badge
      Dedicated
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      513
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      182
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      142
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      95
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      75
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!