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Microsoft's Dream-Build-Play contest fulfills a few indie devs' dreams
A pair of budding developers, one from Ontario and another from New York, has tied for top honors in Microsoft's Dream-Build-Play contest, an effort to encourage indie game makers to get on board the XNA platform. Canadian John "Ain't No Fluke" Flook and American James Silva each pocketed $10,000 and were offered Xbox Live Arcade publishing contracts for their respective entries: Blazing Birds, a robotic game of badminton origins, and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, a morbid tale of "mayhem and revenge" (pictured above).In a remarkable display of generosity, Microsoft extended XBLA contracts to two additional contestants, Steve Olofsson of Sweden, for Gravitron Ultra, and Daniel McGuire of the UK, for Yo Ho Kablammo!, along with $5,000 (to each) and some swag. Sixteen additional finalists have been honored (in mention) over on the official contest page and could potentially be called to service if the XBLA pipeline runs dry. In all, 4,500 creations were creators entered into the competition, submitting roughly 200 projects.%Gallery-5841%
Schizoid has the bestest co-op evers!
Our good friends at The Xbox Domain got a chance to chat with Bill Dugan, president of Torpex Games, creators of Schizoid. Readers may recall that Schizoid will be the first Xbox Live Arcade title built with Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express. Dugan doesn't reveal much about the actual gameplay, though he does boldly claim that Schizoid "is the best co-op multiplayer game on the platform. Or probably anywhere." Could we have another Molyneux in the making? Other subjects covered in the interview include the use of Game Studio Express and Microsoft's initial reception of Schizoid. According to Dugan, two Microsoft reps played co-op for 20 seconds before one claimed, "I've seen enough – I want it."Will Schizoid really be the best co-op evar? We don't know, but Dugan promises that more info will be made available in the coming weeks. Hit the "read" link for the whole interview.
A very early look at Schizoid
Among the news from GDC we learned that the first ever XNA created game Schizoid will be coming to the XBLA sometime later this year. 1UP posted some screenshots from the game and talked with a few people from Torpex's dev team to learn a little bit more about the gameplay. Per Microsoft, Schizoid is "a co-op action game in which teamwork matters like never before, as gamers and their friend or AI ally protect each other from barrages of glowing enemies". Presumably, the game is heavy on the co-op gameplay, where each player can only kill their corresponding color's enemies and protect their partner from the evil that they cannot kill. Think top down space shooter, with color coded gameplay, and a little bit of fl0w thrown in for good measure. Make the jump for a few more screenshots and some speculation goodness.[Via Game Stooge]
Microsoft's GDC information blowout!
For those of you looking to find information on some of your favorite upcoming Microsoft Game Studios or XBLA games, just take a look at what Xbox.com has to offer. Over on the GDC section of Xbox.com you'll find a bunch of downloads for games like Forza 2, Blue Dragon, Mass Effect and Shadowrun. You can download fact sheets, press releases, and screenshots for those games including XBLA games like Schizoid, Eets Chowdown, and Jetpac Refuelled. So much information, so little time ... but get downloading because everyone knows you care.
