HOW “OPEN” CONSOLES LIKE THE PS4 OR 720 SHALL BE?

Recently, during the announcement of the Play Station 4, Sony made the promise of bringing the “most open console” for devs.

Discussions have taken place regarding whether by “open” Sony actually means that the new hardware architecture of the PS4 is somewhat more “familiar” than the one chosen for the PS3 console or that the burden to indies will be diminished to some extent.

The phrase is really interesting given that for years the access to dev programs for consoles have been and are still are surrounded by a plethora of red-tape (aka “security”) procedures so that as a rule -as opposed to as an exception, mainly (or if you prefer, only) big companies publish games on their “pro” marketplaces.

To be approved as a professional developer for whatever console, you need to demonstrate that financially you are backed up for the whole development and certification process (upfront fees, updates, deadlines, etc.), you must buy tailored hardware for production to have access to the corresponding SDKs, you need to prove that technically you are up to tough QA checks, and so on so forth.

In recent years, the opening of the XBLIG channel on the XBox 360 console may have seemed for many a change in direction, however, it ended up as a way to bring attention to the console without letting an avalanche of indies stain its reputation and even its status quo to an extent that could threaten the very monolithic model imposed to pros. Never wondered why only a few lucky devs made it into the XBLA channel?

One may argue that by upholding all of the above-mentioned requirements, console enterprises keep low-quality games away from their consoles. To some extent, back in the old days they could have, but today, generalizing the term “low-quality games” with low-budget games or indie games is getting more difficult to sustain (in many cases, such association is unfair).

Ok, but, if this business model has been working fine for console makers, what could make them change to truly support indies?

1. Apple kicked in: like it or not, Apple revolutionized the mobile market for smart phones, smart devices and tablets. But the story did not end there …

On an Industry where sagas were turning out to be far from innovative as well as rather repetitive, Apple was smart enough to truly open the door for indies and their fresh ideas, worldwide.

In fact, and in contrast from what MSFT did with XBLIG, Apple made no difference among devs. Everyone that pays the annual fee has access to the whole pack of features. It doesn’t matter if you are a pro or an indie. Is up to you whether to support any of Apple’s services in your game, develop your own or consume a third-party’s solution.

And every game, regardless its developer, must be tested and approved by a group of Apple’s employees.

All that, the fact that any game (pro or indie) could be picked to be featured on the “AppStore” as well as the growing amount of success stories among indies, contributed to position Apple’s devices on top of the list of target platforms for devs.

2. Google plays: following Apple, Google decided to enter the app-publishing market for Android-based devices, and with NaCl, for browsers.

The amount of devices running Android OS is growing fast and Chrome is strongly incrementing its market-share.

Google’s store, currently named “Google Play” is open for pros and indies, the list of approved countries is increasing, and many games that succeeded in other platforms were ported to Android.

Discussions aside whether you like iOS or Android, there is no doubt that Google Play has served as a model for other big firms, like Amazon and Samsung (with Chillingo), that decided to follow its lead and open a marketplace of their own.

3. The power of the Steam: there are many gamers -particularly hardcore ones- who claim that PC games have nothing to envy from console games. For those gamers, Valve introduced Steam as a means of digital delivery of videogames.

It first started on the Windows platform, then added MacOSX to recently support Linux OS. At the beginning only native-coded bits were allowed, but then Valve allowed managed code.

On recent months, Steam introduced its “Green Light” program, offering new publishing opportunities targeted for indies. In this program, the community decides which games should be granted a green light for publication. One example, is a well-known tower defense game named “Kingdom Rush”.

Steam succeeded where others failed, like Games for Windows, making its services attractive for many devs, globally. The buzz was so loud that now companies like Apple and MSFT have their own stores like the Mac App Store and the Windows Store.

Valve’s next move? The Steam Box console … “Piston” …

4. Secret Wars: imvho consoles as we know them are closer to get obsolete. Why? With current and potential customers buying more and more smart mobile devices over consoles, conditions are changing towards mobility.

As a matter of fact, there is a secret war going on right now among console makers to turn the experience of using a console into a whole multimedia one. Games, movies, music, applications, Internet, and whatever it fits the Cloud-Computing agenda, will be included in consoles.

But it doesn’t stop there … you will be also able to carry that experience with with you on your mobile smart devices. UserId synchronization over the Cloud plays a huge role here. Say that you were playing some game on your console but have to leave, don’t worry, you will be able to continue playing that exact game on your smart phone on the subway without having to start a new match; just resume it and presto! Ditto for movies, music play lists, etc..

Now, you could be asking what indies have to do with this. And the answer is simple, despite their budgets, small companies can react faster to changes in the environment; ymmv, but the larger the payroll and the infrastructure to sustain, the slower a company takes action to accommodate to new conditions on the market, since decisions on a big company usually involves many people on many levels of the organogram.

For each new device, indies would be most likely willing to take a chance. Big companies, unless an exclusivity contract is on the table or at least an exposure/marketing deal, they would wait to see what happens with the device (take the PS Vita for example).

5. Ohhh Yea!: thanks to a surprising campaign on Kickstarter the new upcoming console “Ouya” is about to join the market.

The console will target indies, but this doesn’t mean that you will be able to publish videogames without an approval process.

It’s very soon to foresee the fate of this Android-based console, but if Ouya succeeds, it will put a lot of pressure over traditional console makers, and who knows, all end up being quite positive for indies in the middle run.

So what can traditional console makers do to avoid oblivion?

For starters, traditional console makers must realize that profit is more and more associated to service-based models and less to classic business activities like setting high initial price tags for new consoles.

In this sense, the current monolithic model where dev companies are requested to buy special hardware for production and SDKs, pay high upfront fees, and crazy amounts of money for the QA of updates and patches, could rapidly become a huge stone on the console makers’ shoes.

The more number of games a console gets, the more the makers earn. Plus, they also get a profit from an annual small subscription charged to devs per platform. So the more devs a platform gets, the more profit the platform gets from subscriptions.

The beauty of this equation, is that the console maker always gets a profit from the games you sell and the subscription you pay, even if the game fails on popularity (and you don’t get money out of it). Multiply this income by a large amount of subscriptions and published games and you will have a winning strategy.

Make no mistakes here, this doesn’t mean that games shouldn’t be verified nor authorized before publication, but let the market itself do the ultimate quality-check on published games.

Now, there is an additional key issue to solve in order to assure a critical mass of devs and games. Both, indies and pros should be able to access all official services available for the platform with no distinction. As I mentioned before, on iOS devs can integrate leaderboards, achievements, social interaction, to mention just a few regardless their status as indies or pros.

Last but not least, implementing a proper videogame-exposure built-in system cannot be neglected on each platform. Usually, big companies can run ambitious/aggressive marketing campaigns, so they will likely get a spot on featured areas of the stores. So a way to attract indies is to expose their games as if they were made by pros. The 360’s XBLIG channel is THE example of what NOT to do!

To wrap it up …

The videogame market as a whole has changed big time in recent years. Smart devices introduced new challenges to both, PC and console makers. And thus, to stay in the game one may expect a strategy leap in the middle run on traditional consoles. Or else, these consoles may face an important drop in sells in comparison to previous editions.

How open a console may be deemed will therefore depend on, or if you prefer, will be directly proportional to the less barriers imposed on indies.

Let’s hope that both the PS4 and the XBox 720 consoles get really open to indies this time, by offering an attractive business model, worldwide.

Cheers!
~Pete

THE FATE OF XNA … NOW WHAT?

Lately there has been lots of speculation and comments on the Web regarding the fate of XNA as a result of these blog-posts.

Due to technical difficulties with my main system I am arriving late at the party; many articles and tweets are out now, but anyway, I will give my view on the subject.

For me, the phase-out process that MSFT has been carrying out silently for, what, a couple of years, a year and a half, a year, <include your estimate here>, is not precisely a surprise. In fact, I stopped working in all projects based on XNA tech during late 2010 because something was troubling me.

At that time, I was an XNA/DX MVP creating my game engine, replacing XNA’s Content Manager with my own version of it, developing a videogame, to mention just a few, but for some reason I was holding myself back before starting a game-dev business based on XNA tech.

The hunches -based on facts- that supported my decision back then,  in hindsight now prove me right on my wait. Of course it is important to note here that this worked for me; in other words, YMMV.

1. HUNCHES AND WARNING SIGNALS

Let’s see, in no particular order, these are the hunches that caught my attention:

• Comuniqués started to slow down: these were a great read on the XNA Team blog, but suddenly, they started to fade out.
• Our Community Manager moved to another division: we all remember her xxoo’s at the end of her messages and posts. That unexpected departure was the first warning signal to me.
• XNA 4 was gradually presented as a “mature” product: or expressed in a different way, XNA was not likely to receive (major) updates. Maybe this one was very difficult to gather at that time, but for me it was the second warning signal.
• Lack of strong support for XBLIG: how many times community members (and even MVPs) claimed for proper marketing, fast opening of new markets, and or even a decent location on the Dashboard? In practice, MSFT turned out to be reluctant, so third warning signal.
• Lack of XBox Live services for XBLIG: in addition to the previous one, how many times community members claimed for Leaderboards, Achievements, DLC, and so on so forth? Do you guys at MSFT really expect that games with no global leaderboards survive the increasing demands from gamers?
• Communication of Future Moves to MVPs: in the past, before entering a new dev phase, the Team used to involve XNA/DX MVPs on design decisions. Maybe for many readers this is not relevant, but from and MVP’s perspective that to some extent used to be involved in the roadmap, being asked “what do you guys think of …?” a few days before going public, is a warning signal. Fourth one, indeed.
• The format of .xnb files was published to the world: this one might have been handy to me if published a couple of years earlier, but combined with the one below, gives -more than an indication- a confirmation that MSFT was silently phasing out XNA. Fifth warning signal.
• Gradual relocation of all members of the XNA Team: when you saw one one of the most important programmers on the Team go to a different division on MSFT, and no one is relocated or hired to take its place for further development of XNA, (please be honest here) did you really think that everything was ok? Sixth warning signal. A major one, if you ask me.
• Unattended suggestion on Connect: after the database clean-up the XNA Team did on its Connect’s page, suggestions were marked more and more as “Active”, “Postponed”, “By Design” and “Won’t be fixed”. Seventh warning signal.
• DirectX SDK will not be updated any longer as such: let us clarify this point: the DirectX SDK was integrated into the Win8 SDK for the newest version of DX. What happened with the SDK for DX9.0c? Eighth warning signal.
• No XNA 4 for Windows 8 RT: this is a technicality but, given that DirectX 9.0c does not get along with ARM processors, unless XNA gets a redesign based on DX 11.1, it gets pushed out of the picture for Surface (ARM-based) tablets. Since the XNA Team has been erased, unless a new official product comes unexpectedly out of the shadows for .NET, hoping for an official rope is kinda naive. Ninth warning signal. 
• XNA does not support WinPhone8, or does it?: after all the worries, talks and efforts to provide safe environments, MSFT does radically change by allowing the execution of custom native code on the new Window Phone 8 devices. This sounded like heaven for XNA’ers until MSFT announced that XNA wouldn't add support for WinPhone8. Games created with XNA for WP7 still run on WP8 devices, but they will not be able to get advantage of unsafe operations for the device. Tenth warning signal.
• XNA is not integrated into VS2012: as a corollary of the point above, XNA was not integrated into VS2012, what in turn means that if you need to use the content pipeline, you will need to install VS2010 side-by-side with VS2012. I don’t know, eleventh?
• No MVP award for XNA/DirectX: I can understand the decision for XNA given that it has been and still is being phased out, but why must the award for DirectX be also doomed? Despite the fact that the SDK is now part of the Win8 SDK, imho it is still a separated kind of expertise that cannot be merged with other areas. Final warning signal = confirmation.

As a former XNA/DX MVP as well as an old timer using MSFT’s technology, let me say that lately it has been really difficult to recommend the use of XNA to create games professionally given the facts above.

What can you say to devs when they ask questions like: “Can I use XNA for Windows RT?”, “Will XNA be integrated into VS2012?” or “Will XNA support DX11?”? Ditto for the question below …

2. WILL THERE BE A NEW OFFICIAL SOLUTION FOR .NET?

It is very difficult to foresee what’s coming next in terms of .NET and game development given the difficulties one may find when trying to deduce what the heck TPTB at MSFT are currently thinking/doing.

But let us see, to update XNA (or replace it) MSFT may consider that …:

• … there is a novelty around “Going Native” with C++11 inside MSFT itself.
• … to support ARM processors, the new tech needs to be built on top of DX11 APIs (which supports “legacy” cards by only enabling the subset of allowed features for the card).
• … XNA is neither a pure DX9-wrapper nor a game engine, making it difficult to justify its maintenance.
• …  the dream of “develop once, deploy to the three screens” vanished given that not all the features supported on the PC were supported on the 360 and the WP7 platforms. Plus, the screens are changing: WP8, Surface, XBox.Next, ...
• … due to the managed design of XNA, and in spite of some indie impressive efforts (like this one and also this one), XNA lacked middleware support of big fishes in the Industry.
• … there was never a world/level editor. XNA is VS centric, so how can it compete with editor-centric solutions like Unity3D or UDK?
• … last but not least, XBLIG failed as a business line an new lead marketplaces for indies emerge (Win8, WP8). Period.

So, to answer the original question, with C++ regaining position inside MSFT and being DX11.1 mandatory for latest platforms, why bother? Which leads us to the next question …

3. WHAT CAN “XNA’ers” DO NOW?

You feel disappointed. MSFT let you down (for some, again). You cannot find the exit from this nightmare. And you do not want to learn or get back to C++.

If that is your case, then, do not panic! Right now, there are many alternatives out there for you to consider, specially if you like or love C#:

1. SharpDX: created by Alex Mutel -as an alternative to SlimDX, this pure wrapper of DirectX (from DX 9.0c to DX 11.1, both included) has positioned as the lead solution for advanced user who want to program DX games on top of the lowest level available to C#.

Although this set of APIs is open source, it is consumed by many of the solutions that will be listed next. What is more, games for Win8 from MSFT Studios (through partners like Arkadium) have been developed using SharpDX (i.e.: minesweeper, solitaire, and mahjong).

Alex has been also developing a Toolkit to ease development of common tasks (sound familiar?), which for sure extends a bridge to those of us coming from XNA.

2. Monogame: the open source sibling of XNA. Fueled by SharpDX for all latest Windows-based platforms. Multiplatform not only for Windows, thanks to Mono.

With few-to-none modifications to the source code of your XNA creations, you can port your games to a wide variety of platforms.

This open source solution has recently reached its third stable version, adding many requested features, like 3D support.

Although it lacks a content pipeline replacement, which is currently under development, it can be used from VS 2010 and VS 2012.

Many well-known games have been created with Monogame (or adaptations of it) like: Bastion, Armed!, among others.

Last but not least, the community is growing strong around Monogame. As a matter of fact, if you like “the XNA-way”  then this is your perfect choice.

3. ANX: a competitor to Monogame. Its name, in case you did not notice, is XNA reversed. Recently, after a long wait, v0.5_beta has been published.

Not many games have been created with this solution yet and its community is rather small –in comparison with Monogame’s, but definitely its progress is worth following closely.

4. Paradox: I really do not know how Alex does to find some time left, but he is also developing a multiplatform game-dev solution for .NET with a data-driven editor!

Of course that the Window-targeted portion of Paradox is based on SharpDX, but the engine will also offer deployment to other platforms based on OpenGL.

No prices or release updates have been disclosed yet, but having read the features, watched images and demo videos, it is by far a very serious alternative to consider.

5. DeltaEngine: the lead dev of this multiplatform solution is the first XNA MVP that wrote a book about XNA.

Coding by using this solution resembles coding with XNA. It has its own multiplatform content pipeline which optimizes output per platform, among other tools. And games like Soulcraft show off the power of the solution.

You can check the pricing here.

6. Axiom: being a former user of this solution before the time of XNA, I am very pleased to see that the project has revived.

Axiom is now a multiplatform solution for .NET based on the popular OGRE graphic engine, which also consumes SharpDX for Windows targets.

Honestly, I do not know whether there are games created (and published) with this solution, but I hope there will eventually be sooner than later.

7. WaveEngine: Vicente Cartas (MVP for XNA/DX) has just let me know about this cross-platform engine, which will be released as a beta in less than a day ahead (thanks for the tip!).

Oriented towards the mobile-dev market, the engine is a result of a two-year effort of the Wave Engine team. Knowing past work of Vicente on JadEngine, I cannot wait to watch some cool demo videos here (like Bye Bye Brain).

Best of all, the engine is completely free, so it is with no doubt worth trying as soon as it gets released!

8. Unity3D: I cannot forget to mention Unity3D since it started almost at the same time that XNA did, however, adoption among devs grew exponentially on later years because of a combo of factors: a robust editor, multiplatform support, increasing number of appealing features, and a variety of well-known success stories among indies (for instance, ShadowGun).

Make no mistake here, the experience of using Unity3D is quite different from XNA’s: its editor-centric, coding -either in C#, Javascript or Boo- serves as scripts, sometimes you need to broadcast messages -as opposed to an OOP rationale, and last but not least, 2D programming is not straightforward (not even on the latest version; you need to buy one of the available plugins as a workaround).

You can check the pricing here.-

As you can see, even if no official solution will replace XNA, its spirit remains in many of its successors, all of which support latest DX11 HW.

So imho as a dev, there is no need to worry. Your knowledge is still valid for the above-mentioned alternatives.

4. OK, BUT WHAT ABOUT MSFT?

Well, imho it would be deemed as positive by XNA’ers (and indies in general) if MSFT …:

• … does not try to impose C++ as the only language to develop quality games.
• … develops a common compiler for C++/C#, for all supported platforms.
• … implements SIMD ops for .NET (please vote for it).
• … reduces differences for .NET among the latest “screens”.
• … supports open efforts like SharpDX and Monogame (it seems it will).
• … publishes as open source the source code of XNA that does not implies a security risk or bring any potential legal issues to the table (like say, the content pipeline).
• … reduces barriers for indies (like say, the access to XBox Live services) for the upcoming XBox.Next so as to compete with other platforms like Ouya, iOS, Steam and so on so forth.
• … and continues to support indies through initiatives like the Dream.Build.Play compo.

Personally, I do not care the language or solution a dev picks to develop a game provided it is the right language or solution for the project. In this sense, this “Going Native” campaign that some people at MSFT may seem to support by stressing perf differences among C++ and C# whenever they can, is imho unnecessary given the fact that there are many successful indie games out there developed with managed code.

Plus, as a former C++ dev, I do not want to get back to C++ because I feel really confortable with C#. If sometime in the future I had to go to a lower level language I would prefer “D”.

Thus, I hope MSFT creates a common compiler for C++/C# which in turn will help us turn the use of hybrid solutions into a common scenario for indies.

5. TO WRAP IT UP …

Without starting a nonsense discussion for a Pyrrhic Victory, imho the fate of XNA was predictable if you took a careful look at announcements from MSFT, whether you deemed them as facts or mere hunches.

But one thing remains strong for sure: XNA’s spirit.

Thanks to solutions like SharpDX and Monogame one can still talk about C# and XNA-based coding as a valid option for a game-dev business.

Cheers #becauseofxna!
~Pete

DBP 2012: WINNERS ANNOUNCED

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

FORZA MOTORSPORT 4 TRAILER FILMED IN URUGUAY

It’s been a nice surprise to find the following “live” trailer of Forza Motorsport 4, which has been mainly filmed –with the exception of the last scene with the mountains- in my hometown: Montevideo, Uruguay … !

Forza Motorsport 4 - “Endanger Species” Trailer

I´m a huge supporter of Forza Motorsport series on the XBox 360. Some may argue Dirt 3 has better graphics than FM 4, but for a DirectX 9 console system like the XBox 360, I don´t care what fanboys may say … ;)

´till next time!
~Pete

> Link to Spanish version.

LIVE STREAMMING: MICROSOFT’S E3 KEYNOTE

Today begins the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3! And guess which company will be holding a keynote today … yeap! Microsoft.

This expo is one of the most important events of the year where big players in the Industry usually announce big breaking news, stopping all speculation on rumors. So let’s see what they have up their sleeves this year!

If you want to watch MSFT’s keynote on your browser, just follow this link:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Community/E3

And here’s the link for all the events:

http://www.gametrailers.com/netstorage/e3/e3-live.html

Also, Apple is holding its annual event (known as WWDC), and its keynote will start at the same time that MSFT’s keynote at E3. Coincidence? :)

Enjoy!
~Pete

> Link to Spanish version.

“LONG TIME NO SEE”

For the last few months I have been immersed in a code rush to get my first commercial game published on iTunes’ App Store. And finally, I’m proud to say that it made it into the market!

http://itunes.apple.com/app/just-survive/id424392950

The name says a lot about the game: Just Survive!

I had originally started working on it on 1998 and published it on the web during 1999. At that time there was just one enemy and scores were saved locally. The game didn’t get noticed but many people because everything was much different from the globalization we are experiencing now, but I remember having received an email message from someone who wrote something like:

Nice game. I have been playing it for 45 minutes and I want to know how much longer I have to play it to get to the first boss; btw, highscores aren’t been saved on your server …

That message helped me to decide –a few years after- whether to jump into the indie Industry. And today, here I am …

The game has gone through lots of modifications since then, 90% of them happening during 2010/2011, so I can now say the you’ll get to fight many types of enemies, more than one boss and there’s global leaderboards!

Here’s the trailer on Youtube:

Just Survive! First Trailer

This is one of the four games I have in production for different platforms, so in the following months expect some news about them.

Hope you like it … and buy it!
~Pete

> Link to Spanish version.

WIN VISTA GADGET FOR LATEST XBLCG

The latest Creators Club Comuniqué is out, and with it there's a link to a fantastic Windows Vista Desktop Gadget that ...

"... shows games as they become available on the Xbox LIVE Community Games Channel on Xbox LIVE Marketplace ...".

After you download the gadget, it will list the five latest games that have recently hit the XBLCG channel marketplace:

But wait! There's more ... as soon as you hover your mouse on top of any of the games listed, a pop-up window appears showing more detailed info about the game, like: creator, genre and a brief textual description.

What if you want to find more about any of the games listed? Well, you just click on the name of the game and a new page is opened in your web browser with all the information available for that particular game on the XBox LIVE marketplace!

The gadget allows you to configure the feed, by either market or creator, as well as to set its refresh rate in minutes.

With this great desktop gadget now you can get up-to-date information of all the recent content changes on the XBLCG channel, effortlessly!

Enjoy!
~Pete

> Link to Spanish version.

XBLCG: THE DASHBOARD CONNECTION

If you're new to the world of Community Games on the XBox 360, you'll probably don't know how a/o where to find them.

Kathleen Sanders -XNA Community Manager- a.k.a. "Cookiecups" has published a useful video explaining exactly that.

After watching this video you'll have no excuses for playing'n'buying Community Games.

Enjoy,
~Pete

-> Link to Spanish version.

XLCG: DR. POPPER IS OUT!

Bill from Blue Rose Games has finally released his game "Dr. Popper" to the Community Games channel over the Xbox Live!

[For those of you who don't know Bill, he usually posts handy articles regarding game programming using both, Silverlight and XNA technologies.]

This is a game I've really enjoyed playing on the PC on the past, and now it's great to see it published for the XBox 360.

The proposal is simple in design and still incredibly fun to play. So give it a try, relax, and enjoy the smooth puzzle-like gameplay.

I'l leave you with a short video of the game:

One of the best parts is that it only costs 200 points ... a nice Christmas present, indeed.

Cheers!
~Pete

C.N.V. UPDATE: VIDEOS

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

VIDEOS FROM THE XNA EUROPEAN TOUR 2007

I've followed the links posted by Charles Cox to watch the videos from the XNA ET 2007.

So far, I've listened to Dave Mitchell presentation and some interesting topics cought my attention:

1. Although no dates were disclosed, Dave commented that there are some plans related to the "YouTube For Games" project that will be revealed soon (maybe changes in the monthly-fee policy?),
2. The RPG Starter Kit being currently developed,
3. The second edition of the D.B.P. compo will deliver similar prizes to this year's ones, and
4. Plus, the demo of the game targeted for children was kinda cue.

Does anybody know how the 4 winners of the publishing contract are doing with their projects? I'd love to see images or read comments on how their games are evolving in order to go gold.

Well, next video please.

Enjoy!

NETWORKING COMMING UP NEXT!

The one we all were probably waiting for ... and is comming along nicely!

Some features we will find:

• Reliable UDP, ordering, etc.
  Packages can be sent to a specific player and to all players on the session.
  360 players can join Windows sessions and viceversa.
  Player-to-player voice.
  "Lobby" management so as to sync games (isReady and isEveryoneReady properties).
  and much more.

Some we don't by now: Game invites, Leaderboards, etc.

Some we probably won't (or at least in the middle run):

• Ranked matchmaking.
• Achievements.
• Raw sockets.

A couple of great questions:

• ¿Dead Reckoning? Nope. This version will provide basic functionality, so you should build upon it by yourself.
• ¿Beta Public Release? Maybe in a couple of months (more good news!).
• Didn't get the answer about the kind of suscription to play networked games (silver or gold), maybe gold? Sorry about htis one.

Btw, if after building the game you try to host/join a session but get an unhandled exception, just recompile your code and try again ... :)

PRE-MORTEM: SCHIZOID

What an interesting webcast this is: Jamie Fristrom & Bill Dugan (from Torpex Games) are commenting on their whole experience to bring Schizoid to the XBox Live! Arcade.

I do agree to what they have said about C#:

• the C# vs. C++ discussion for game development is like "C++ vs. Assembly" many years ago. With C# you forget about pointers, and that alone says a lot. Plus, performance, speed, etc. is becoming less and less an issue as many games, demos and samples demonstrates, and
• you don't need to use external languages for scripting (of course, you can do it if you want to), since you can use c# itself as a scripting language (as I said on this blog and on others' blogs).

In short, C# will rule (read my first posts).

What I don't agree -at least, partially: and I know Benny is also gonna hate me for this, is that Test-Driven Development is great for creating "proof-of-concepts" and prototypes -so as to bring your ideas close to the "real" thing quickly (and get some nasty bugs on the initial stages), but from a design viewpoint, relying only on tests to write the "final" implementation/output from scratch could be messy for the final stages and as a base for future projects (one could deem it as a "too aggressive" way of programming, again, only the final product, not the proptotypes).

I mean, you may find yourself in the need of changing many places to get the final product as well as to create future products (like "this class should be responsible for rendering this and that" -instead of the original class- and things like that) . And that could worsen, the bigger the game project, IMHO, of course.

With this I'm not saying "this approach is better than those", "don't use a rapid approach" or things like that. Instead, I'm saying "balance" is the key to a well-designed software. One should find its own approach -mostly if you're going solo, ... the one that you are most comfortable with, but it doesn't mean you have to use one and only one approach. In fact, your way of designing and programming games could be a mixture of methodologies derived from the type of project, available resources (including staff), time/stage/deadlines, and budget (estimated and current costs and ditto for funding).

Why "balance"? Because as these guys' just said (non-textual quote) "if you plan and discuss too much you face the risk that your project gets cancelled ..." (it doesn't matter whether you were implementing it or not), to what I must add, "... but if you plan too little you face the risk of having to redesign a lot of code at later stages."; both extremes could complicate things up in the end. So get the balance, optimus, equilibrium ("sounds" like a yoga class).

Now, I want to listen the round of questions, so bye ... for now!

D.B.P. FINALISTS!!!

At last! Dave Mitchell has announced the top 20 finalist of the Dream-Build-Play contest ...

So, go ahead and direct your browser to the contest's site to meet the finalists.

Congrats to all the ones who created/submitted a game, and special congrats to the finalists .. and good luck in the final round!

INTERVIEW TO THE TEAM BEHIND "TOWER DEFENSE"

Zygote has interviewd the guys behind the game "Tower Defense".

From the interview: "... There are four of us currently under the Focused Games umbrella. Justin O'Dell (Anxiety), has been taking care of a lot of the core gameplay functionality such as how the map works and how state, player and enemy management works. Matthew Randall (EviLDeD) wrote the entire audio core for the game, and also did quite a bit of work with Towers and Enemies to get them to track, shoot, move et cetera. Mart Slot is the one responsible for all the fancy particle effects in the game, which will be more prominent in the future. I, John Sedlak (Krisc), have been responsible for the user interface and a lot of the front end work like how the user interacts with the map, how they change levels, and build towers ...".

Later.

"KRYSALIS" SHOOTER PROJECT

There's a new blogger in the XNA community, which will post details, information and screenshots of the shooter projectKrysalis.

Here you will find some description of the game and here the software being used for its development.

Also, there's a couple of screenshots of the custom tools created for building up the game.

Nice!

A NICE GUI/HUD

Josh, from "Grass Root Games", has posted a nice screenshot of the GUI we will find inside the 2D shoot'em up game "Last Alarm".

From the post: "... You’d think it only takes a couple of hours to lay your interface out in photoshop so it should only take a couple of hours to code…but you’d be wrong, dead wrong ...".

Does anybody know whether this game is being created with XNA GSE? The GUI looks really good ...

[Aha! It is, according to this post TorqueX has been used.]

"BULLET HELL TACTICS" AVAILABLE FOR OPEN TESTING

Kobingo has released a demo version of his game "Bullet Hell Tactics" for public testing.

From the announcement: "... This will be the one and only public testversion before the final demo is released. Before downloading, please read the requirements. If you are having problems running the game read the troubleshooting instructions. Please also read about how to play the game ...".

You can donwload the files here.

PREVIEWING "AIR LEGENDS" NEXT RELEASE

Sharky comments on the new features that we'll be getting with the next release of his game "Air Legends".

From Lawrence's post: "... I’ve added a much requested Special Manoevre (aka. evade) feature! I’m stoked about this. It really makes the gameplay a lot more dynamic. Essentially, using the Special Manoever button you can trigger the plane to pull the manoevre. Currently there are two manoevres ...".

Cannot wait!

JOHN SEDLAK'S "TOWER DEFENSE" BETA

John sedlak has published a beta of the first game that "The Gib Factory" has ever created: "Tower Defense".

From John's post: "... It is 05/06/07, and today is the day we, "The Gib Factory", are releasing a Beta to our first game, Tower Defense. A lot of progress was made over the past week and even in the last couple of hours. Sounds have made their way into the game as well as particle effects for towers and the GUI is becoming more and more complete everyday. We are looking forward to hearing back from everyone about this version, what works and what doesn't as well as any bugs you may find ...".

Downloading it right now ...