XNA Studio Express / Build Games for 360! | The Coffeehouse

BryanF

Details here.

Looking forward to the beta. I'm interested to see what the development platform looks like.

Kryptos
Backup People!

This is so cool.... Big Smile

Aug 30th I'm away on holiday and have been banned accessed to computers by my other half! Sad

HumanCompiler
Compiling humans...and code

/me will be at Game Fest...anyone else?

Jaz
From the depths of Wales I come

this is quite possibly the coolest thing that Microsoft have come out with in a while.

i guess this is where the bill gates quote "how can we interact with this community" comes into play when he was shown a modded xbox.

BenZillaTheSecond

: drool:

Probably the uni will have a couple of these available Smiley

Tensor
Im in yr house upgrading yr family

Cool... reminds me of the Net Yaroze, but better!

I think these kind of things need to be poularised. There was a golden age of veideo game development when home compuiters became widely available. People sat in there bedrooms and hacked otu some amazing games, whiel today everythign seems to be yet another version of an existing concept puublished by some huge software house. Homebrew is where the truely original ideas will come from!

Chadk
excuse me - do you has a flavor?

I found it kinda strange, they they kept saying "On The XP Platform".
Does this mean theres no Vista support?

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

Chadk wrote:
I found it kinda strange, they they kept saying "On The XP Platform".
Does this mean theres no Vista support?

I don't see why Vista couldn't be supported. It's really just .Net CLR 2.0 + DirectX 9.

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

Tensor wrote:
Cool... reminds me of the Net Yaroze, but better!

And much much cheaper!

Tensor wrote:
I think these kind of things need to be poularised. There was a golden age of veideo game development when home compuiters became widely available. People sat in there bedrooms and hacked otu some amazing games, whiel today everythign seems to be yet another version of an existing concept puublished by some huge software house. Homebrew is where the truely original ideas will come from!

I don't think there's a lack of original ideas currently. It's just that there's no easy way for people to buy those games -- until Xbox Live Arcade.

But being popularized doesn't mean an open market, either. Remember, there's still a gate keeper, MS, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Just there's still one.

eagle

Didn't make it to GDC? Click here to view an online version of the XNA DVD distributed to conference attendees.

Download the XNA Build March 2006 CTP.

View the XNA Overview presentation which introduces XNA Build.

View the XNA Build Advanced presentation.

Visit the XNA Build Forum.

This is great news for aspiring Game Developers everywhere; Microsoft is lowering the cost of entry into this exciting field and with a larger developer community will come more imaginative games for everybody.

neus
Freerider

Although i find this very exciting, buuuuuuuuuut, without being the party pooper:

After being published who holds the rights ?
Wich license will be used ?
What "access a wealth of materials to help speed the game development" really means ?
What is this different from a Visual Express, DirectX SDK and XNA SDK bundle ?

Is really worth paying $99/y to be able to only share my games with other "creators club" members ?

I don't get the point of this ...

eagle

It's about learning Game development.

gaelhatchue

This is great news.
How much time before they announce WPF for the 360? Smiley

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

neus wrote:

After being published who holds the rights ?

Your game will most likely be published on XBox Live Arcade for $5-$10 -- which isn't much risk to neither you or MS. You & MS would probably negotiate a contract -- but since MS didn't really pay for the development cost, they'll probably only want a cut of sales, not ownership of the game.

neus wrote:

What "access a wealth of materials to help speed the game development" really means ?

There'll be a game-focus MSDN-like site.

neus wrote:

What is this different from a Visual Express, DirectX SDK and XNA SDK bundle ?

Do develop XNA games, you'll need VS Express, DirectX SDK, XNA SDK -- this'll probably come bundle when you sign up.

neus wrote:

Is really worth paying $99/y to be able to only share my games with other "creators club" members ?

I think this is a requirement to get your game on the Xbox 360. As for why MS wants the $99? Probably to keep out the riff-raffs Smiley

neus
Freerider

Minh wrote:

neus wrote:
Is really worth paying $99/y to be able to only share my games with other "creators club" members ?
I think this is a requirement to get your game on the Xbox 360. As for why MS wants the $99? Probably to keep out the riff-raffs

Thats what i think too, thats why the PC version is completly free.

I just don't like the idea of restricting my audience to fellow club members; the idea of 'wasting' several hundred hours of free time to target my game to the xbox platform, just to find that it will only be available to a couple hundred fellow developers doesn't really sound that appealing to me Perplexed

, maybe it will only be a temporary thing until they sort everything out, or at least i hope so.

It's not really about the money, i think $99/y ( or ~75€ for me ) is more than reasonable - its just two nights out in the city.

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

neus wrote:

I just don't like the idea of restricting my audience to fellow club members; the idea of 'wasting' several hundred hours of free time to target my game to the xbox platform, just to find that it will only be available to a couple hundred fellow developers doesn't really sound that appealing to me , maybe it will only be a temporary thing until they sort everything out, or at least i hope so.

The club will let you play your game on the Xbox 360 -- but by no means, does MS wants the Xbox 360 to be an open platform like the PC. They have lots of $$$ invested and they want to be the final arbiter on the quality of the games that appear on the Xbox.

phreaks

Chadk wrote:
I found it kinda strange, they they kept saying "On The XP Platform".
Does this mean theres no Vista support?

Who cares? I am just really really happy that they got rid of the need for a 'DEBUG' xbox which could ONLY run unsigned code; which was needed to develop/test/run your homebrew on the original XBOX.

Also, getting ahold of an original XDK (Xbox Developers Kit) was laborious, painful and ultimately not very satisfying.

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

phreaks wrote:
Chadk wrote:I found it kinda strange, they they kept saying "On The XP Platform".
Does this mean theres no Vista support?

Who cares? I am just really really happy that they got rid of the need for a 'DEBUG' xbox which could ONLY run unsigned code; which was needed to develop/test/run your homebrew on the original XBOX.

Also, getting ahold of an original XDK (Xbox Developers Kit) was laborious, painful and ultimately not very satisfying.

Don't be mistaken that you can develop first-class citizen games for the Xbox 360 with XNA. For the near terms, if MS likes your game, it will be distributed via Xbox Live Arcade, not on a DVD. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

phreaks

Minh wrote:

phreaks wrote:

Chadk wrote: I found it kinda strange, they they kept saying "On The XP Platform".
Does this mean theres no Vista support?

Who cares? I am just really really happy that they got rid of the need for a 'DEBUG' xbox which could ONLY run unsigned code; which was needed to develop/test/run your homebrew on the original XBOX.

Also, getting ahold of an original XDK (Xbox Developers Kit) was laborious, painful and ultimately not very satisfying.

Don't be mistaken that you can develop first-class citizen games for the Xbox 360 with XNA. For the near terms, if MS likes your game, it will be distributed via Xbox Live Arcade, not on a DVD. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Damn straight! I Like the Xbox Arcade distribution model much better in this instance. The people that will be using XNA are not 'game companies', so the arcade model is ideal and rather cool.

Will we be able to download games others have created for free or will there be a charge.

If there is a charge, does the developer get a percentage?

My local News channel just posted a story on XNA.

http://www.turnto10.com/technology/9674416/detail.html

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

phreaks wrote:

Will we be able to download games others have created for free or will there be a charge.

I believe currently, all XBLA games carry a charge.

phreaks wrote:

If there is a charge, does the developer get a percentage?

From what I can gather, the developers are getting a huge majority of the $$$ when people buy a game -- cuz MS wants to encourage games on XBLA.

But you know that can't last. I wonder what the sweet spot will be? 20% MS, 80% dev? or 50%/50%?

neus
Freerider

Actually from what they said until now, your 'homebrew' game will NOT be available in XBox Live, only other fellow “creators club” members will be able to test it out, no matter the quality of it, thats what i've been 'ranting' about.

I don't expect to see my or anyother 'homebrew' game to be playable thru DVD but i expected to be able to play a few selected games that meet some standard quality test.

phreaks

neus wrote:
Actually from what they said until now, your 'homebrew' game will NOT be available in XBox Live, only other fellow “creators club” members will be able to test it out, no matter the quality of it, thats what i've been 'ranting' about.

I don't expect to see my or anyother 'homebrew' game to be playable thru DVD but i expected to be able to play a few selected games that meet some standard quality test.

Ahh, right. I read through that but apparantly didn't absorb it.

Since XNA uses some version of the .Net Framework, whose to say development should be limited to games?

My interest is more in homebrew apps. Media Players, Karaokee applications, perhaps even some IM or VoIP apps.

Will these types of application endevours be allowed and encouraged?

Can you even build a decent game using managed code?

Duncanma
Just Coding for Fun...

phreaks wrote:

Can you even build a decent game using managed code?

I don't know all that much about the XNA annoucement, but I can answer this last point... I've seen several games from various early adopters on the XNA platform... and they look great, play fast, etc...

Are they as fast as their C++ counterparts? No idea, but they definitely seemed fast enough when I was shown them on the PC and 360, so managed code games are certainly possible... and if they are faster/easier to build... then maybe you'll see more of them in time.

HumanCompiler
Compiling humans...and code

Duncanma wrote:

Are they as fast as their C++ counterparts? No idea, but they definitely seemed fast enough when I was shown them on the PC and 360, so managed code games are certainly possible... and if they are faster/easier to build... then maybe you'll see more of them in time.

Yah, Xbox Live Arcade style games are a perfect place to start using managed code since they're a lot less intense (processing-wise) than say an FPS.

phreaks

HumanCompiler wrote:

Duncanma wrote:
Are they as fast as their C++ counterparts? No idea, but they definitely seemed fast enough when I was shown them on the PC and 360, so managed code games are certainly possible... and if they are faster/easier to build... then maybe you'll see more of them in time.

Yah, Xbox Live Arcade style games are a perfect place to start using managed code since they're a lot less intense (processing-wise) than say an FPS.

Mr Compiler, can you comment on my question as to what types of development will be allowed?

Will there be a niche for applications vs games?