Microsoft has published the list of winners for this year’s Dream.Build.Play contest.
Winners for the XBox360 console:
https://www.dreambuildplay.com/main/winners.aspx#winnersXbox-tab
Winners for the WinPhone device:
https://www.dreambuildplay.com/main/winners.aspx#winnersWinphone-tab
Congrats to all winners!
Cheers!
~Pete
What’s the dream of game developers like myself? To get an opportunity, even the slightest one, to publish your own game title on the big leagues. That game that you always dream of creating from scratch. Your masterpiece. Your 9th Symphony …
Some of us, generally “indies”, even dear dream of watching that game become a success once it goes gold. The kind of success that allows us to officially become part of the Industry from that moment and on with a critical mass of loyal gamers waiting for our next tiles with sincere smiles of joy on their faces.
For Dean Dodrill, creator of the acclaimed game entitled “Dust: An Elysian Tail”, the dream has become a reality.
For those of you who still don’t know, Dean’s game (Dust: AET) was the grand-prize winner of the Dream.Build.Play contest held back in 2009. Recently, the game went gold on the Live Arcade marketplace for the XBox 360 console (“XBLA”), as a part of the Summer of Arcade 2012 promotion (“SoA”).
As soon as the game got released, it received (and still does) lots of positive reviews, articles, kind words from buyers, a zizillion of tweets and FB posts, and ratings varying from 8.5 to a perfect-10 score.
Most of them, like this interview with the guys of IGN’s Podcast Unlocked (which I recommend listening to), focus on the story behind the creation of the game and the game itself, from the perspective of gamers.
So, since the game was fully developed with C# and XNA, being a strong supporter of both technologies for years, I decided to try luck and interview him from the perspective of an indie XNA'er.
Well, … guess what? Dean kindly answered all of my questions, so be prepared to read his responses after watching the launch trailer of his game.
Ok, we’re back. Before posting the interview I want to thank Dean publicly for accepting the interview and taking the time to answer all the questions.
Now, enjoy the reading …
Q: Are sells going as you expected? I mean, I don’t want to know the figures; instead, I want to know whether they have reached a point where you can continue developing games professionally (you know, to continue living the dream) or not (= it contributes to make you family’s life better for a while but it is not enough to go beyond).
A: It’s a little early to determine how well sales are going, but I do believe the game will allow me to continue game development, at least at the scale I’m currently working on.
Q: How was it like using the XNA framework –from and artist viewpoint, given your lack of programming experience? (I mean, pros and cons) Which features do you love for C#/XNA to have built-in (I mean, that lacking feature that forced you use a workaround or take a programming detour)?
A: Since I’ve never programmed with anything other than C#/XNA I can’t really compare it to other languages. I will say that I found it fairly easy to pick up, and since much of my code resulted in some sort of visual feedback in the game, iteration was fun. Garbage collection on the 360 was always a hassle, but I loved many XNA specific niceties, such as SpriteBatch and streamlined gamepad support. I also love XACT and how relatively easy it was to work with audio and effects. If I could help I would continue working with XNA exclusively.
Q: Which features of the extended XNA APIs for Live Arcade did you use? Again, how was it like using them?
A: I did have to use the XNA extensions for XBLA, and admittedly most of that was a hassle. The biggest issue is that most of it is poorly documented, and there were always certification issues which were inherent of XNA. Integrating Leaderboards and Achievements was one of my least favorite parts of the process. I definitely got the feeling that XNA wasn’t created with XBLA in mind.
Q: Given that you got a contract with MSFT, do you still own the IP rights of Dust: AET? Did you receive financial advantages, like not having to pay for (re)certification) and or dev/test kits? (if you can comment on it, of course)
A: I do own the IP to Dust:AET, but of course have signed an exclusivity period with MS. MS helped with testing and localization, and assigned me an excellent producer who helped push the game through the system (as well as offered valuable design suggestions). It’s a mutually beneficial agreement, otherwise I can’t go too much into details.
Q: Are you planning additions/extensions to the game? Say, now that you met the deadline for Summer of Arcade, you want to add that feature that stayed behind and would have loved to develop for the release by “unlocking some extra time”?
A: I haven’t given much thought to anything like DLC. Thankfully I didn’t have to cut anything to meet the SoA deadline, it was just a matter of compressing the schedule down and working VERY hard for a few months. Given more time I would have liked to polish a bit more, but that’s the curse of any project I’m sure. I do have plans for future games in this universe, but nothing to announce at this time.
Q: Are you planning to port the game to other MSFT platforms like WinPhone8, Win8 and the Surface? (for instance, by using Monogame or ANX).
A: MS and I haven’t discussed anything outside of XBLA at this time. I was honestly so busy focusing on the XBLA release that I hadn’t considered a port. If anything pops up I’ll be sure to announce it, but XBLA remains my focus as of this writing.
Q: Thanks in advance for reading, your response and for such a great XNA game which serves as a great inspiration for us, indies.
A: Thanks for the interview, Pete.
Game Description:
Immerse yourself in a gorgeous hand-painted world on a search for your true identity. As the mysterious warrior, Dust, your action-packed journey will take you from peaceful glades to snowy mountaintops and beyond. At your disposal is the mythical Blade of Ahrah, capable of turning its wielder it into an unstoppable force of nature, and the blade's diminutive guardian, Fidget.
Battle dozens of enemies at once with an easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master combat system, take on a variety of quests from friendly villagers, discover ancient secrets and powerful upgrades hidden throughout the massive, open world, and uncover the story of an ancient civilization on the brink of extinction as you fight to uncover your own past.
Nice interview, don’t you think?
Not only is the game fantastic but also it may help developers finally understand how powerful C# could be when coupled with a fine tech like XNA, despite unavoidable performance differences with native bits, when you use the tech right even as a one man band (like in Dean’s case).
It’s a pity that many devs (pro and indie) still deem XNA as a tool for kids and hobbyist, only, and don’t give it an opportunity. And what is worse, it’s a shame that MSFT –at least for what is publicly known so far- won’t update it any longer …
To wrap it up, Dust: AET shows off a quite enjoyable gameplay, incredible art as well as the mechanics behind its 2D environment, like skeletal animations, particle systems, input combos, shaders, to mention just a few.
So, what are you waiting for? Go and buy it now!
Cheers!
~Pete
The list of top-40 finalists for this year’s Dream.Build.Play contest has been published.
Top-20 finalists for the XBox360 console:
https://www.dreambuildplay.com/main/winners.aspx#winnersXbox-tab
Top-20 finalists for the WinPhone device:
https://www.dreambuildplay.com/main/winners.aspx#winnersWinphone-tab
You can read on the page, the following:
The games received for this year’s competition were phenomenal.
It could be, but imvho, compared to previous years, and at least for the 360, there is no game that stands out that much this year visually like The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, Dust: AET, among others, did in previous compos.
I always wondered why this game was never awarded a prize on DBP 2011. If they had submitted the game again for this year’s compo, they would have run for the 1st place. Its gameplay video looks fantastic:
I hope MSFT eventually gives these guys a chance to get an XBLA-publishing contract even if they didn’t win or make it into the final round.
Having said that, congrats to the finalists of DBP 2012!
Cheers!
~Pete
The “final six” and the cash-prize winners for this year Dream.Build.Play competition have been recently announced.
As you may know, the compo had been split in two flavors: the standard one and the Old-Spice challenge.
Well, the name of the game and dev team that won the latter has been also published.
Congrats to all the winners and finalists!
~Pete
> Link to Spanish version.
The winners of this year’s DBP compo have been recently announced:
From the announcement:
Dean Dodrill of the United States earned the grand prize of $40,000 for “Dust: An Elysian Tail” a side-scrolling, action role-playing game in which the player controls Dust, a man searching for himself. Set in the beautiful yet mysterious world of Falana, this game chronicles Dust’s journey to liberate an oppressed village and rediscover his past. Meticulously hand-animated and painted, “Dust: An Elysian Tail” welcomes exploration, action, and above all else, mastery of a fighting system that rewards skilled gamers.
Panya Inversin and his team from the United States took home second place and $20,000 for their stunning 3-D, four-player brawler/space-shooter, “Max Blastronaut”.
Nivel21 Entertainment, led by Mauricio Garcia from Spain, received third place and $10,000 for the challenging puzzle game “Rotor’scope – The Secret of the Endless Energy”.
China’s Hu Ling and his team came in fourth place and received $5,000 for the stylish martial arts action game “HurricaneX2 Evolution”.
Congrats to the winners! (and of course, to all of the six finalists)
You can check the official announcement here and or visit the DBP website. For trailers of all the finalists you can check this site or this other site.
Cheers!
Pete
> Link to Spanish version.
Due to the success of the last donation drive, our good friend Ziggy is hosting a new XNA-based article compo at Ziggyware with quite amazing prizes: "Ziggyware Summer 2009 XNA Article Contest".
How about a 120 GB XBox 360 with Wireless Remote (USA NTSC) for the winner? Cool, uh? And this is just a one of the prizes!!!
As usual, check the rules and mark the deadline in your calendar: September 1st., 2009.
Happy writing!
~Pete
> Link to Spanish version.
You may already know this by now, but results are in for Ziggyware's "Spring 2009 XNA Article Contest":
Congratulations for the winners!
Ok, those are the results but why there's a "donations" word in the title of this post? Well ... Ziggyware needs you!
Once in a while, our friend Ziggy call for donations to support his site. In Ziggy's words:
It has been two years since I have had a donation drive to support Ziggyware. I would like to thank all who have donated in the past, helping to keep Ziggyware alive and well. I am currently looking into expanding the site's features and support future XNA contests with great prizes.
Question: how can we donate? Ziggy?
You can donate via Paypal as well as by purchasing by clicking an Amazon product link on this site and then purchasing the product you desire.
So c'mon! Do your good action for the day, be an outstanding XNA'er and support this great XNA Community site!
Watch this space,
~Pete
> Link to Spanish version.
The Spring '09 edition of XNA article contest at Ziggyware is here!
This year, among the usual prizes for the top-three articles, our friend Ziggy -thanks to the sponsors of the contest- is giving away licenses of the recently released Sunburn Lighting and Rendering Engine -from Synapse Gaming, a technology tailored for XNA Game Studio.
The contest has already started and the deadline is May 1st, 2009. So go ahead, start your engines, be creative and submit your articles!
Don't forget to read the rules of the contest.
Let's write on!
~Pete
> Link to Spanish version.
To all XNA'ers out there: only 5 days remain to submit your article(s) to Ziggyware's Fall '08 contest.
If you're still in the process of making up your mind whether to enter the compo or not, this may help: you could win an XBox 360 ELITE! And that's only the beginning.
Want to know more? Read about the prizes on this post.
Just, hurry up! The clock is ticking ...
Happy writing!
~Pete
Uruguay Gamer has published the links to the videos recorded during the closing ceremony of the third annual domestic constest of videogame development held in Uruguay.
On the site you will also find the comments of Chaim Gingold for each videogame.
Note: The presenter in both videos is Gonzalo Frasca, CEO of Powerful Robot Games (one of the most-known uruguayan videogame companies) and main organizer of the compo.
Here's video 1 (the one receiving the first prize is me):
And here's video 2 (here you can see Frank Baxter -ambassador of US in Uruguay- congratulating the grand winner and at the end of the video you will find Chain Gimgold himself):
Enjoy!
Pete
My PC game "The Riegel Battle" (created with XNA GS) has been today awarded first prize in the category "Best 3D Videogame Promise" during the third annual domestic videogame contest in Uruguay.
Even though it wasn't awarded first prize for the whole compo, as a local supporter of XNA, it was a great honor for me to be among the winners.
Along with the organizers, the contest was sponsored by the US Embassy in Uruguay, so ambassador F. Baxter was present today in the closing ceremony to congratulate the winners.
Chaim Gingold (one of the designers of the game Spore) was one of the judges, and it was also present today in the above-mentioned ceremony, not only as a judge but to speak about the design concepts behind Spore's character editor (a great talk, btw).
Here's a video of my entry:
As soon as I get the links to the official pictures of today's ceremony I'll publish them here.
Cheers!
Pete
The winners of this year's Dream.Build.Play competition have been announced today.
In order:
Congrats to the winning teams!!!
As you may know the pictures of each of the three winners of The Code Project's VS 2008 Compo (sponsored by Microsoft - Defy All Challenges) are being cyclically shown on the "Defy All Challenges" site.
I guess now it's my turn to appear on the site (finally!): http://www.visualstudio2008.defyallchallenges.com/.
Cheers!
In addition to the prizes for finalists, these guys will receive $10k and $2k, respectively.
Congrats guys!
I would like to thank all the readers that supported my article "XNA & Beyond: The Path To VS 2008". I really appreciate your comments, your messages and your votes.
Also, thanks a lot to the judges for picking my article and of course, The Code Project team. I cannot express in words how happy I am, but trust me when I say this emotion is huge.
And what can I comment about Visual Studio 2008? Best of the best ... it rules!
Finally, I would like to thank the XNA Team for giving us this incredible framework that is getting better and better as we speak: XNA Game Studio.
Well, I don't know whether I'll get beyond this nomination to the finals, but having reached this far gives me renewed energy to keep on writing articles.
Happy new year 2008 everybody!!! This is a great way for me to start the year :)
Cheers!
Pete
For those who may not know it yet, the article is participating on a contest that ends tomorrow where there are two places left to enter the finals.
As I'm competing with many "heavy-weight" experienced authors I hope that those who haven't voted so far, decide to give me a friendly hand and vote for it.
BTW, I'll be out tomorrow so I want to wish you a Happy New Year 2008!
Cheers!
Pete
