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Nintendo takes wraps off of WiiWare
Nintendo is the latest on the indie console-development bandwagon with WiiWare, a "game-creation service that will allow developers large and small to create new downloadable video game content" that the company announced this morning. The company is making it clear that they're looking for little guys to make games for the console, though it's currently unclear exactly how that will be done. Interestingly, Reggie Fils-Amie told N'Gai Croal of Newsweek that the games would be checked for bugs but not vetted by Nintendo. Developers would be responsible for securing an ESRB rating (AO titles won't be welcome, sorry Manhunt 2.) Look for the first WiiWare to start appearing in early 2008.Nintendo will also be deciding how many points the games will be sold for when they're put on the Wii Shop channel. With this brave new world of indie development, who knows where the next big Wii game will come from now? Well, we do, it will come from Nintendo. But thanks to WiiWare, the search for the next big way to wait for the next big Nintendo game just got a lot more interesting.Read -- Nintendo's WiiWare Paves The Way ...Read -- What is WiiWare? Level Up Gets the Scoop ...
Microsoft teams with Games for Change to help cool global warming
Got a great idea for a game on global warming? Microsoft and Games for Change (abbreviated G4C) are launching a competition this summer in more than 100 countries for students to develop a game "based on the theme of global warming."Details are scant at the moment, but we do know the students will be expected to use Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express, the free version of their development tools. Winners will have a chance for their projects to appear on Xbox Live Arcade, and the first-place team or individual will have an opportunity to intern at Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business.
Sex games look to stake their claim
Much like Michael W. Smith circa 1990, adult video games (read: sex-based) are looking for their place in the world. But the industry's lady lumps are faced with some significant humps to get over, first and foremost: Their games aren't sold in stores. But in speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, many publishers of adults-only titles seem to be optimistic about their future in a gaming retail landscape that is increasingly digitalized. The piece (by Joystiq contributor Bonnie Ruberg) makes a compelling case for a day in the not-too-distant-future when sex games will be able to find a real foothold, citing publishers like Manifesto Games who are willing to take on adult titles and developers like Brad Abrams of VirtuallyJenna who are finding outside-the-box ways to promote their games. The article also notes the increasing size of the Sex and Videogames Conference, held annually -- in our pants. Actually, the venue hasn't been announced yet, so while it could be our pants, we'd bet on San Fransisco. Not that we'll get an invite now. Unfortunately, there's no mention of homemade sex games becoming more popular, which is bad for us, because we had a great joke about XXXNA. ... Actually, that was the whole joke, so we're fine.[via GamePolitics]
XNA Studio Express gets a refresh
Today, Microsoft revealed an update to their Xbox 360 game building program to the stars called XNA Studio Express 1.0 Refresh. The new "refreshed" version of XNA includes the ability to easily share a project's binary code between the 360 and PC via a new utility called XNA Packager. Not only that, but a few minor additions and fixes were made including audio and font support. And so, creative video game creating geniuses, download the refreshed XNA version if it will help you create even more amazing games. Or not, but you can always check out the full press release posted after the break.
Games from XNA challenge ready for download
Those four day XNA games are finished and ready for your downloading pleasure. If you remember, Microsoft's held a four day XNA Challenge at this year's GDC, pushing four development teams to the edge by requiring them to complete a XNA Studio Express game in four days. Sounds hard doesn't it? But all the teams did indeed finish as Microsoft is pleased to announce that all four games are free and available for download to play on your PC right now, if you have XNA Studio Express (it is also free). Be sure to read the game descriptions after the break, check out some screenshots, and download these four day masterpieces.
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]
XNA Challenge: Dungeon Quest
When most programmers are faced with developing a game from the ground up in four days, they go for a simple concept like a 2D shoot-'em-up or platformer. When Benjamin Nietschke and Cristoph Rienacker make a game in four days, they go for broke, aiming for a 3D, first-person multiplayer dungeon crawl that would take most people weeks if not months to develop. "When we heard about a four-day development competition, we thought we could do something simple, but that wouldn't be as cool," Nitschke explained.Nitschke has some experience doing big games quickly. Last year, he built an entire racing game in a month just because they "wanted to prove we could do it." With Reinacker handling the art and Nitschke handling the heavy coding, Dungeon Quest is already showing some impressive texture and lighting effects in a fully navigable, if empty, world after just a day and a half of work.By Thursday the pair hopes to add monsters with artificial intelligence and a split-screen two-player mode, but they admitted that the focus would be more on the graphics than the gameplay. "We don't care much about the competition," Nietschke said. "We just want to get it finished." Click on to see what they've got so far after the jump.
XNA Challenge: Simian Escape
Jonathon Stevens and Patrick Glanville did not take what you'd call the traditional path into game development. After 12 or 13 years software tools for business, the pair decided it was time for a change. Luckily, the community at Garage Games helped them transfer their skills from business development to game development. When Microsoft tapped the pair to compete in the XNA Challenge, there was no question in their minds. "A trip to San Francisco and Microsoft's covering the bill? I'm there," Glanville said.Glanville said it wasn't that hard transferring his skills in business programming to the game development environment in XNA. "In the past you had to be a hardcore, C++ techie to be a game programmer. Now that's not so true anymore," he said. Still, he admitted there are limits to what XNA can do. "This won't let you replicate everything you see on the Xbox 360. It's not there yet -- you can't build Gears of War -- but Microsoft wants to get there, so maybe in the future..."Glanville describes his game, Simian Escape, as a standard escape-predators-and-a-meteor-that's-threatening-to-destroy-the-earth platformer. There was a lot of work still to be done on the early build I saw on Tuesday, but with some support form their friends at Garage Games, Glanville seemed confident they'd have a functional prototype when the contest ended on Thursday. Click through for some rough footage after the break. See also: Other XNA Challenge games
The who, what, when and how of XNA
Michael Klucher, XNA project manager, was interviewed by the adults over at Adult Gaming Enthusiasts to learn more about Microsoft's XNA ambitions. In the interview, Michael talks about why they wanted to create XNA Studio Express and how they are confident in what will come from the program. On a side note, it's interesting to know that XNA SE took roughly a year to complete from idea to implementation. Anyway, Mr. Klucher also mentions that in the future we'll be seeing more and more games come from XNA SE and the possibility of "mom and pop" developers coming forth. It's an interesting interview if you are at all interested in XNA development or where it is headed. We're optimistic in the Xbox 360 community's creativity and coding skills to create the next Geometry Wars or Assault Hero ... but we still worry about the ::shiver:: Microsoft certification process. Oh the pain!
XNA Challenge: Abdux
Andre Furtado isn't an artist, as he's quick to tell me when showing off the somewhat simple drawings and animations of his XNA Challenge entry Abdux. But while visual art might not be his specialty, Furtado's work shows a certain artistry in the simple, natural input it uses.Furtado first made his mark on the XNA development world with a speech recognition modification to the platform's built-in Space War game. The mod used simple spoken commands like "move" and "fire" to control a pair of helper ships and won Furtado a Brazilian XNA competition. He hasn't gotten similar speech commands into his new alien abduction game yet, but he says he plans to let people create plagues like earthquakes with just the sound of their voice. "Perhaps in the future we will be made fun of for using keyboards and mice and gamepads to control games," he tells me.Furtado isn't in the competition for personal glory, but for experience and knowledge that he can take back to his fellow students in Brazil. "With technology like XNA, students and organizations can easily build a roadmap to game development without much knowledge of programming," Furtado said. Check out some early video of his latest creation after the jump.
XNA Challenge: Final Stand
Josh Butterworth is probably better known to NeoGAF readers as Ghost, the author of XNA space shooter Last Alarm. The game got him noticed not just by the NeoGAF community but also by Microsoft, who invited him to take part in the XNA Challenge to create a game from scratch in four days at the Game Developers Conference.Butterworth's creation is Final Stand, a "static-screen shooter" that he admits draws lots of inspiration from Geometry Wars, right down to the dual stick control scheme. Where Final Stand tweaks the formula is in its multiplayer mode, which will allow four people to work together to kill as many of the swarming yellow enemies as possible. The game is intended as a co-operative exercise, but Butterworth said he'll be leaving friendly fire on so "if you're losing in the scores and have two seconds left and have a missile in your pocket and you see your friend over there, you can feel free to shoot him." Think of it as Space War meets Geometry Wars.Butterworth is impressed with what he's been able to get out of the XNA environment after only a few months of experience, but he isn't really trying to compete with his more experienced challengers. "It's not really a competition," he said. "It's about showing what's possible on XNA." Watch a video of the work-in-progress after the jump.
Microsoft's four-day XNA Challenge
Game developers are used to tight deadlines and pressure-packed schedules. Even so, Microsoft's XNA Challenge at this year's Game Developers Conference pushes the idea of quick turnaround to a ridiculous extreme. Four "teams" (two of them are single people) have been thrown into GDC's crowded, noisy Moscone Center North lobby and given four days to put together a game from scratch using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express.While the entries will be judged and a winner will be named on Friday, the six competitors seemed more concerned with learning from each other than showing off their l33t programming skillz. Each participant we talked to was more than willing to talk about how impressed they were with their efforts of their adversaries, and the teams apparently commiserate about the lessons they've learned during breaks.Despite the common development environment, the four games being developed for the contest couldn't be more dissimilar. There's an overhead shooter, a collection-based platformer, a speech-controlled alien abduction simulator and a two-player, first-person, 3D dungeon crawl. We'll be taking a closer look at their efforts in future posts, but for now, enjoy the intensity of the above-pictured competitor Andree Furtado and be glad that you're not under such a tight deadline (and if you are, stop reading this and get back to work).
XNA contest will be making dreams come true
As part of Microsoft's GDC announcements, Microsoft will be partnering with numerous other companies to jumpstart XNA community development by starting a contest. The Dream-Build-Play contest will be offering over $40,000 in cash and prizes, where the grand prize winner will not only bank $10,000, but will also have the opportunity to bring their creation to the XBLA. Also announced was the future release of XBLA game Schizoid, the first game ever created using XNA Game Studio Express and released to the arcade. To sign up for the Dream-Build-Play contest, read the official rules, and get your feet wet make the jump or read the full press release after the break. Just curious, do we have any fanboys who are working on a XNA game project and are willing to share the details?
Wiimote deals massive damage on the 360
Using the Xbox 360's XNA tool set, one intrepid coder decided he would like to incorporate the Wiimote. Using the the tool set, you can see how he affects a 3D model in real time by moving the Wiimote, although the input command lags a bit. We can't even begin to imagine how one would even accomplish what he did (we are not "teh haxxorz"), so we'll quietly sit in awe and direct you past the post break for the embedded video.[via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Microsoft's take on XNA
Joseph "Talvish" Molnar over at DCEmu gave a good long look at XNA on his personal blog, Microsoft's future with the platform. It touches on how this appeals to the homebrew community as well as how useful the tool set will be as more developers pick it up. It's a good read and sheds some light on the inner workings of XNA and the benefits it has with multi platform support and backwards compatibility. It also shows how it eliminates the need for dev kits, as all you would need is XNA Studio Express and a retail Xbox 360 to build a game for the console. It's very thought provoking and encouraging to see how Microsoft will handle this opportunity they have to change the face of the gaming industry. Check out the full article by clicking the "Read" link below.[Via DCEmu]
The state of Xbox 360 homebrew
Joseph Molnar, who recently informed us of magical Video Marketplace downloads that don't expire, is back again with an interesting article on the current state of Xbox 360 homebrew. Posted on his blog, the Pensive Gamer, the article is the third in a series dedicated to the homebrew scene on each new gen console (guess which systems the first two articles were about). The piece, naturally, centers on XNA. Molnar notes that there are many things that make the Xbox 360 attractive to homebrewers, most notably that Microsoft itself is aiding the homebrew scene with tools like XNA Game Studio Express. As it stands though, the homebrew aspect of the Xbox 360 certainly isn't without its faults. There are a few quibbles about feature support, but the most obvious barrier to homebrewers is the price. In order to run code on a 360, you must have a subscription to the Creators Club, which runs at $49 for three months or $99 a year. Before 360 homebrew can reach a mass market and attain wide acceptance, Microsoft will have to address this and other issues, especially if they plan to deliver the oft promised "YouTube for games."Remember folks, YouTube is huge for two reasons: it's user friendly and it's free. What would you like to see added to the Xbox homebrew scene? What could Microsoft do to improve it?
Video: slick XNA game in progress
Dave Weller, XNA's official guru, pointed out an impressive demo of what XNA can do in skilled hands. Found on a Japanese website (in English here), the game is a 3D shooter and it looks very nice for a home brew project. The game's website includes multiple screen shots and videos of the game as it progresses in development. While the game includes some placeholder graphics and looks somewhat generic, it's important to note that everything you see has been accomplished in only a month's time. It's part of the previously announced Dream-Build-Play contest, so we may be hearing about it again. Check out the video after the break.
Epic aims for Unreal Tournament user mods on PS3, 360
Speaking to Game Informer, Epic's Mark Rein sounded confident that user-created content would be distributed to Unreal Tournament 3 console players via PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Rein explained that the reason for delaying confirmation of UT3 on 360 was tied to this issue, as Epic was unsure that Microsoft's strict certification process would allow for user mods on the console. Rein admitted that "it's still a bit of an open issue," but added that "we've had some pretty clear indications that we'll be able to [bring mods to Xbox 360]."It's unclear how mods would be created and distributed for console use. On Xbox 360, given potential leverage earned by Gears of War's success, perhaps Epic could smuggle mods through XNA. More likely, Epic would convert select user-created mods for the PC version and distribute them via Xbox Live Marketplace (as a courtesy, we would hope). On PS3, there seem to be more "open" possibilities, but the process could be equally simplified.[Via 1UP]
XNA opens up NES emulation on Xbox 360
There's simply no escaping NES games these days. If you're not downloading them from the Wii shop, you're likely playing them on an emulator (because you own the original ROMS, right?) or quite possibly, the Xbox 360. An XNA enthusiast has just released the second iteration of XNA SharpNES, an Xbox 360 port of Jonathan Turner's original emulator.Provided you belong to the XNA Creator's Club (that's $99 per year) and have all the necessary software to compile the code, you can load the emulator onto the 360 and happily play the likes of Super Mario Bros., Mega Man and Gyromite. Of course, there's no telling how long it'll take before the emulator is pounded into the dirt by a gavel -- paying Microsoft to play Nintendo games on the Xbox 360 just seems fundamentally wrong. You know, like owning a copy of Gyromite. Care to explain that?[Via Engadget, Xbox-Scene]
XNA hobbyist brings NES game emulation to Xbox 360
Game emulation in and of itself isn't necessarily a malicious or illegal concept: it's only when pirated ROMs enter the equation that things become legally questionable. Despite the apparent innocence of emulation, we're almost certain that Microsoft's position regarding the efforts of one "Lone Coder," who managed to port a NES emulator called SharpNES to the Xbox 360 using XNA Studio Express, would be a hostile one were it not for the fact that to use it requires a Creators Club account at $99 / year. The prospect of people running NES games willy-nilly on their Xbox 360s without the barrier of having to part with hard earned cash would no doubt have been hard to bear for the corporate giant, despite the claimed lack of competition between Microsoft and Nintendo, and the relative antiquity of the emulated platform. It'll also be interesting to see whether Nintendo will do anything about this: as we've mentioned before, it could be argued that this is entirely legal as long as the pirated ROMs don't join the party, although we wouldn't be surprised if the problem of people playing Nintendo games on a rival console, at the same time as Nintendo is trying to re-sell them via their Virtual Console, resulted in Reggie & Co. ordering a C&D. Currently the SharpNES port is running at between 60 and 70 percent of normal speed, and support for a second controller, sound, saving state, and a ROM loading menu -- changing ROM requires a teensy bit of tweaking -- is missing, so this probably isn't the best solution for playing a bit of Super Mario Bros anyway.[Via Xbox-Scene]
