~360 Homebrew: XNA Game Studio Express

[andym00]

Erm, this sounds depressing..

Q: How exactly can I share my 360 game to other 360 users? Will my game only be available to people with the XNA “Creators Club” subscription? Will it be available to all 360 users that have an Xbox Live account?
A: There is currently no supported way to share binaries on the Xbox 360. Currently, there are four requirements that must be met in order to share a game targeting Xbox 360 which is developed with XNA Game Studio Express.

1. The individual you are planning to share the game with must be logged in to Xbox Live and have an active subscription to the XNA Creators Club
2. The receiving user must have downloaded the XNA Framework runtime environment for the Xbox 360
3. The receiving user must have XNA Game Studio Express installed on their own development PC
4. The game project, including all source and content assets, must be shared with the receiving user. The receiving user then compiles and deploys the game to their Xbox 360.

From http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/xna/faq/

[Spirit]

They do state it as 'Currently' so hopefully just a stop gap in the mean time.

Otherwise I do know what you mean.

[craigt]

Very interesting.

I've never really had any intention of getting a 360, but stuff like this does make me turn my head from time to time. Nice to know you will be able to C#. I use it in work and love it

[corrosive]

Erm, this sounds depressing..

Yup... I was hoping more for an area of XBox Live where XNA Creator's Club members could share their creations as binaries. Or even a website and a tool to download the binary to your 360.

[Kamineko]

Microsoft executive Peter Moore said: "It's our first step of creating a YouTube for videogames."

The program will seek to complement a trend that has seen videogames becoming more like film blockbusters, costing up to £20m to produce.

Users will need a PC running Windows XP - or Vista in the future - to operate the tools program, called XNA Game Studio Express.

The tools will be available in trial form from 20 August and there is a $99 (£55) annual subscription.

YouTube for videogames sounds like a plan.
Although, I still need to get a Net Yaroze first!
Don't like the look of that annual subscription though. Hopefully, the university'll pay for that!

So... where's a good C# reference then?

[RageMatrix]

With the hobbyist release, the software giant is hoping to lay the groundwork for what one day will be a thriving network of enthusiasts developing for one another, something akin to a YouTube for games. The company, however, is pretty far from that goal.

In the first incarnation, games developed using the free tools will be available only to like-minded hobbyists, not the Xbox community as a whole. Those who want to develop games will have to pay a $99 fee to be part of a "Creators' Club," a name that is likely to change. Games developed using XNA Game Studio Express will be playable only by others who are part of the club.

Next spring, Microsoft hopes to have a broader set of tools that will allow for games to be created that can then be sold online through Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade. Microsoft will still control which games get published, and it'll get a cut of the revenue.

Down the road, probably three to five years from now, Microsoft hopes to have an open approach, where anyone can publish games, and community response helps separate the hits from the flops.

http://news.com.com/Play+your+own+Xbox+ ... 04939.html

I was hoping for a full-on open approach for this.....I might even have bought a 360 if this had been the case.

Guess I won't bother now

[Al]

Erm, this sounds depressing..

Yup... I was hoping more for an area of XBox Live where XNA Creator's Club members could share their creations as binaries. Or even a website and a tool to download the binary to your 360.

Q: How exactly will I be able to run a game built with XNA Game Studio Express on my Xbox 360?
A: On Windows, you’ll be able to develop, test and distribute software created with XNA Game Studio Express for free. When you sign up for the nominally priced annual subscription to XNA Game Studio Express for Xbox 360, you’ll be able to write a game on Windows, then send it to your Xbox 360 to test and enjoy. Eventually, you’ll be able to distribute that code to other Xbox 360s, opening up a unique publishing avenue which will democratize game development on consoles.

Hopefully more information on this "unique publishing avenue" will be available soon...

[Sir_LANs-a-lot]

That's kind of irritating - went to register on the XNA notification doohicky and after it all, got a "Page not found" when I clicked "[Register]".

Anyone else got that? (I was using FireFox 1.5.0.6).



Oh well, bunged 'em an email with the error code - we'll see what happens...

[PaulCunningham]

I registered interest (at the second attempt). Not tried in Firefox, it was via IE.

My initial enthusiasm dampened a little when I realised the mamoth task facing me converting all my code from OpenGL / C++ to DX / C#. Then I slapped myself for being so ungrateful

This really is cracking news. So there will be a little hoop jumping but definitely worth it.

[Sir_LANs-a-lot]

Oh well Went in via IE and it was fine.

[pogo]

Q: How widely used is C# in the gaming industry?
A: The vast majority of game studios recognize the productivity benefits of C# and are already using it for creating internal tools within their studios.

News to me - has anyone seen a survey that backs this up ? Our tools are 90% C/C++, as our games are in C/C++. It's what we all know and our tools and games often share code. (The other 10% is low level asm/shader code or high level scripting such as Python).

How easy is it to wrap C in C# ? E.g. we've mixed C and C++ before when it made sense, as it's easy to do, but C# looks more restrictive, and the FAQ is silent on this.

[failrate]

Python! Python! Python!

Unfortunately, Python can't be sandboxed very easily, so if they had a security hole, someone could write a... oh, wait... this is Microsoft. XBLA worm, anyone

I kid, I kid </not kidding>:P

[SiN]

How easy is it to wrap C in C# ? E.g. we've mixed C and C++ before when it made sense, as it's easy to do, but C# looks more restrictive, and the FAQ is silent on this.

Yeah, I'd like to know this too. I mean, the news is great and all that, but I'd *much* rather be coding in C++ than I would C#.


SiN

[Flabio]

Our tools are all C# now. It really is bloody good for tools work.

The games themselves are hybrid of C++ and Lua.

[nyarla]

excellent.. totally getting a 360 now. i hope this thing takes off!