I think that CNET simply misunderstood the XNA concept. Granted, I find it amazing that one of the big three haven't attempted to do a homebrew/small developer offshoot utilizing the available networking infrastructure for distribution. I would love to see MS do something like this for the 360; add a new section to the marketplace for demos of these type of games and make full game additions to the marketplace if interest is high enough.
I could see that being really good, given a Live distribution model. Printed discs would be prohibitive but downloads would work a treat. Kudos to Microsoft if it's true.
I know through MSDN in the early stages of the 360 development they talked about making 360 games compared to PC and it was suppose to be as easy as a compiler switch since both use DX9. I am not sure how that all developed but if they held true to it they could easily sale a dev pack for the 360 for homebrew.
Well, if I understand XNA, it should just be a matter of changing the target platform and recompiling. Hell, I could see multiple target compilation support too.
This is XNA Build. http://www.microsoft.com/xna/ Microsoft is giving away Build and the complete source to Mech Commander 2 as an example project. Anyone who wants to can grab the tools and go to town. If it compiles and runs on a PC under XNA Build, it'll compile and run on a 360. Guess MS is really giving the homebrewers a chance to put their money where their mouth is and make some nifty toys. -hl718
And here I was trying to put off installing VS 2005... :lol: At least it is only a 200+ MB download for the XNA Build. 1+ GB for the Mech Commander source.
Ehem... repost :110: http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9183 I'm adding "Build" to the long list of microsoft's terrible names. First you have the "Xbox Beta Live Debug" which is at least somewhat discriptive... now they're just down to "Build". Next they're going to rename longhorn to "OS".
If you can make a solid piece of software Microsoft will happily invite you into the arcade developer program which means you end up with a real 360 to debug on and eventually get your title onto Live. The point is that this removes any excuse of "Oh, I want to make a kickass game for the 360, but I don't have the tools!" Now you do. Make your game. Compile it and run it on the PC. Submit it and then get it through cert. Now, not only can you play, but everyone in the world can check out your title. -hl718
up till you mentioned uit I never thought of xbox arcade. Great idea. I wonder what it cost and how much blood you have to show you have spent in developing games in the past.?
Well, considering that Visual Studio Express and XNA Build can be downloaded free of charge, I'd say the initial cost is zero. As for "blood" you don't need to have any history. All you need to do is program a rocking game and submit it. The tools are all there. No experience necessary. No one is going to hold your hand though. -hl718
If you "Build" it, they will come... Make something fun and under 50 meg, and microsoft will come to you. Won't really matter if you're a first time dev. And that may be the wost pun i've ever come up with... I've been hanging out with marketing too long. I'm going to go shoot myself now.
Your right part is there but to submit you need to test it on the system and that is were my question lies. While XNA gives you the tools to manage PC and xbox 360 platform I did not think it gave you the libraries needed to make your compilation nor the hardware to test it on before submision.
You don't need a 360 to submit a program. What you need is something that is fun and interesting. If you can build something on the PC with XNA that's worthy of the Live Marketplace, getting your hands on a 360 debug in order to pass final cert will NOT be a problem. If you're hoping to target the 360, then build your project on the PC with XNA. Use the 360 controller, write a console interface and have it work with the 360 UI standards. Test it, play with it, refine it, then test it again. When you have something good, submit it to Microsoft. At that point, sign your license paperwork, get the 360 tools, do a recompile, some more bug testing, pass cert and finally launch the game on Live. -hl718
Sounds like you have been through cert before. I appreciate it. I have launched games on windows before but never for xbox so that part is a learning experience. I have a few arcade style games I made a while ago I wanted to take over. I just need to update my dx engine since I used dx8 and certain calls changed in DX9.
