~360 Homebrew: XNA Game Studio Express

[PaulCunningham]

Dream Build Play 2008

[PaulCunningham]

Also...

To receive a 12-month XNA Creator's Club trial membership, register as instructed during the Offer Period, which begins on June 5, 2008, at 12:00:00 AM CT, and ends on September 23, 2008, at 11:59:59 PM CT. Limit one trial membership per person while supplies last. Trial membership does not include access to premium content or services on the XNA Creators Club web site.

But it will allow you to deploy to your Xbox

[amanset]

Oooh. Signup done.

Cheers for pointing that out.

[Mark]

Using XNA Game Studio 2.0, design and build a game for Xbox 360 that redefines video games.

Oh, is that all? I'll knock something up in my lunch break then.

[PaulCunningham]

XNA Creators Club Web Site - Update - Wednesday (6/18) 10am PST

It's time for our next update to the web site. Due to the changes we are taking, we need to take the site offline for a few hours. We'll be going offline at 10am PST on Wednesday (6/18).

Here’s a list of changes that are coming!

* Forum Changes
o Updated look, tighter feel, easier to read.
o Forums searching now use the built-in forums search. Much faster, much more up to date and exposes additional functionality.
o You can now press Enter to execute your search.
o Cross-referencing forum URL links in forum posts now works.
o My Discussions, Active Topics, Topics Not Read are exposed.
o Additional older forum URL formats should now be redirected correctly.
o Previous/Next thread buttons are available at the bottom of the post list, not just the top now.
o The correct Post Read icon is now shown instead of a folder with a musical note
o Working better in Opera now.
o Email notifications have the quote icon appearing.
o Thread rating is available again



* Game Submission and Review
o Game Upload - there were numerous errors that may have occurred during upload and submission of games to the web site, unfortunately a creator was notified about none of them. Now they are.
o You can now delete screenshots instead of just replacing them.
o ‘In Process’ after a game has completed review is now shown as ‘Review Closed’ while it's being prepared for Live marketplace.
o ‘In Review’ filter no longer shows ‘In Process’ games.
o You can now view the game details page at any time unless the game is rejected or taken down.
o The maximum amount of games allowed per creator is now 8, up from 5.
o The review process has been tweaked based on feedback from the first month of the beta.
o Project name & description along with game review and report abuse fields now allow more punctuation.
o A user is now informed if a review closes mid-review instead of being randomly thrown back to the games catalog.



* Other fixes
o Download size is shown in the download section AND in the download dialog of the browser.
o Getting started (Beginners guide), academics and an asset catalog have been added to the education menu. These pages will open up new areas of our site in the coming weeks.
o IE 6 & Opera & FF 3 browser fixes. We know there is still more work to do here but the major issues should be fixed now.
o Creators born on a leap day can now actually register with the site.
o You can now redeem subscription codes on Xbox.com in situations where you didn’t previously have an address stored at Xbox.com.


Sean Jenkin
Development Lead
XNA Community Team

http://forums.xna.com/forums/t/13176.aspx

[benedictw]

Doppleganger gets mentioned over here:
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/06/ ... ames-beta/

[PaulCunningham]

Yeah, I saw that. Always nice to get a mention - at least he didn't say it sucked

In other XNA GS news...

Schizoid Launches In July

I've been waiting so long to tell everyone this. It's official! Schizoid is done, it's through certification, we have a release date on Xbox Live Arcade, and it's in July. (Exactly when in July I'm not supposed to tell.)

http://www.gamedevblog.com/

[fog]

It's no surprise Doppelganger got noticed in amongst the crowd of early XNA releases.

Yeah, I saw that. Always nice to get a mention - at least he didn't say it sucked

In other XNA GS news...

Schizoid Launches In July

I've been waiting so long to tell everyone this. It's official! Schizoid is done, it's through certification, we have a release date on Xbox Live Arcade, and it's in July. (Exactly when in July I'm not supposed to tell.)

http://www.gamedevblog.com/

It seems like that has been in development for ages, but I had never realised it was an XNA game. I'll take a bit more interest in it now.

The magazine preview I read several months ago wasn't particularly complimentary mind, so hopefully the extra dev time has paid off.

[PaulCunningham]

I'm less interested in this as a game and more interested in it as a standard bearer for XNA GS / C#. Hopefully the performance will be spot on, there'll be zillions of particles and sumptuous post processing effects that'll make the doubters start to take XNA GS a little more seriously.

Sure, the Xbox perf problems (and workarounds) are well documented but if more pro devs jump on the program it would hopefully lead to a dedicated CLR on the 360 and give MS the impetous to continue development for it for whatever platform they decide to release next.

[PaulCunningham]

There's a new mini game available to CC Premium subs from tomorrow (Friday 27th June)

The XNA Team is excited to announce details about the upcoming release of the mini game, Robot Game.

Robot Game is a three-dimensional robot combat game that demonstrates the following components:

Advanced graphics using shaders and post-processing effects
Advanced particle system
Collision detection, 3D positional sound, input, and screens management
Single-player mode and split-screen two-player versus mode
Customizable game elements, such as robots, weapons, and items
It will be available for all XNA Creators Club Premium Members to download on Friday 6/27/2008 at 12pm PST. The project includes all source and art assets which you are free to use as the basis for your own XNA Game Studio game projects.

Further details, including screenshots and a video are available on the Robot Game details page.

Sean Jenkin
Development Lead
XNA Community Team

http://creators.xna.com/en-us/minigame/robotgame

[PaulCunningham]

I expected more Community Games to have been uploaded by now but I'm guessing that the Dream Build Play competition may have something to do with it. Folks holding their games back for that?

Is anybody entering this year?

[Mark]

Yoinks! Community games announcement with money-making details attached:

http://creators.xna.com/en-us/XboxLIVECommunityGames

Cutting to the chase - you can charge 200 Microsoft points for sub 50-MB games, 400 or 800 for larger. 70% profit to the dev (cut to 60% if MS give it a bit of a push). The only real downer is no ability to release free games at the moment though.

[fog]

Yoinks! Community games announcement with money-making details attached:

http://creators.xna.com/en-us/XboxLIVECommunityGames

Cutting to the chase - you can charge 200 Microsoft points for sub 50-MB games, 400 or 800 for larger. 70% profit to the dev (cut to 60% if MS give it a bit of a push). The only real downer is no ability to release free games at the moment though.

I was just coming to post that.

Shame there's no freeware option for developers ATM.

[PaulCunningham]

No free games - WTF! I thought that would be the first model available. I hadn't even considered charging for my stuff.

As for basing the price on file size - that is just STUPID - why would I bother compressing the audio and graphics. In fact, I'd probably just add some filler.

And if they think your game is good and promote it a bit you take a hit on the royalty. And you can't opt out.

Hmmm

[teamonkey]

As for basing the price on file size - that is just STUPID - why would I bother compressing the audio and graphics. In fact, I'd probably just add some filler.

Yes, that is truly mind-boggling.