Xbox 360 Creator's Club and XNA Game Studio Express

R

rossdh

I found this today on Microsoft's site.

(NEW) Q: What is XNA Game Studio Express?
A: XNA Game Studio Express is a new offering, targeted at students and hobbyists for game development. XNA Game Studio Express is based on Visual C# Express 2005 and lets developers target both Windows and Xbox 360. XNA Game Studio Express contains the following:

The XNA Framework, a set of managed code development libraries that make it possible for game developers to be more productive when creating games for Windows and the Xbox 360.
The XNA Framework Content Pipeline, which is a set of tools that allow developers to more easily incorporate 3D content into their games. 
XNA Game Studio Express also contains a full set of documentation, how-tos, and starter kits that demonstrate how best to use the content pipeline and XNA Framework.
The beta of XNA Game Studio Express has now been released, and can be found here.  It currently supports Windows game development only.

(NEW) Q: Are there any prerequisites to run  XNA Game Studio Express?
A: Yes, you must download and install Visual C# Express and the latest DirectX runtime updates. If you wish to modify/created audio files, you must download the full August 2006 DirectX SDK in order to use the XACT audio tool.

Q: How much will XNA Game Studio Express/XNA Framework cost?
A: The XNA Game Studio Express tools and runtime environment for Windows is completely free. To develop, debug and/or play games on the Xbox 360 you will be required to purchase a XNA “Creator’s Club” subscription on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Marketplace. The subscription is available in 2 options, $99 a year or $49 for 4 months.

Q: What exactly is the XNA Framework?
A: The XNA Framework allows game developers to create modern games using the C# programming language and a rich set of development libraries. The XNA Framework provides its own content pipeline to make it easy to get rich content (3D, 2D, sound, etc.) from content creation sources into a game. The XNA Framework also provides a very high level of API unification across the Windows and 360 implementations, thus virtually eliminating the cost and effort required to port games between these two platforms.

Q: How exactly can I share my 360 game to other 360 users? Will my game only be available to people with the XNA “Creators Club” subscription? Will it be available to all 360 users that have an Xbox Live account?
A: There is currently no supported way to share binaries on the Xbox 360. Currently, there are four requirements that must be met in order to share a game targeting Xbox 360 which is developed with XNA Game Studio Express.

The individual you are planning to share the game with must be logged in to Xbox Live and have an active subscription to the XNA Creators Club
The receiving user must have downloaded the XNA Framework runtime environment for the Xbox 360
The receiving user must have XNA Game Studio Express installed on their own development PC
The game project, including all source and content assets, must be shared with the receiving user. The receiving user then compiles and deploys the game to their Xbox 360.
Click to expand...

Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/XNA/faq/default.aspx

This last bit sounds promising

Q: What if I have an 360 Developer Kit – can I use the XNA Framework with a title that I intend to send through certification?
A: We will be releasing XNA Game Studio Professional next spring which will support the creation of commercial games on the Xbox 360 using an Xbox 360 developer kit. Titles created with XNA Game Studio Professional by developers with approved titles will be able to be submitted for certification, unlike games made using XNA Game Studio Express.
 
Sounds like a learning tool more than a chance for us to get new games. I'm sure not paying $99 and installing all that stuff just to try out some games students made, I can do that for free on my computer.
 
I'm aware, but it doesn't help any of us. It's not easy to make a game, and the chance of one of us single-handedly putting forth the time and effort to do so is slim to none.
 
trkorecky said:
I'm aware, but it doesn't help any of us. It's not easy to make a game, and the chance of one of us single-handedly putting forth the time and effort to do so is slim to none.
Click to expand...

But that's the whole point of XNA. It's to make it easier for people who want have ideas and flesh them out somewhat. It's not easy to make a big budget game, but it's easy to make a simple game, at least that's what XNA is trying to do. The chance of anyone putting the time and effort has already been shown. People are already doing it and putting lots of time into it. Just check out some of the XNA boards. Plenty of people are already doing it. Within the first 24 hours of XNA being launched a game was already produced. It's simple but still a game. It doesn't take much to make a fun game if you have the right creativity. Me and a couple of others are already going to make something. Hopefully it comes out decent.

The $99 is only for people who want to try their game on a console. You can always play it for free on your computer.

Personally Im glad a big corporation like MS is giving the little guys something to help them out. Console games are much harder to produce than PC games.
 
I checked Amazon, and early next year there will be a new book from Microsoft on XNA. It will cover both the Xbox 360 and PC side of things. What is also great about this is you can just plug the 360 controller into your PC and be testing the game with the real 360 controlls.

I would also like to point out some more resources for those intrested. The first is from Gamefest 2006 and talks about XNA development. The second is a great set of tools for those who have never programmed in C# before. Only watch the first 7 or so of the lessons, because the rest deal with SQL and .NET.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/2/852b36ac-97d5-4014-8865-06016041ee24/Developer%20Tools%20-%20XNA%20and%20Visual%20Studio.zip

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualCSharp/learning/#beginners
 
Reasonably big XNA update today. Beta 2 is out, there is now an FAQ, and the logo has changed.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/XNA/default.aspx

UPDATE
Here are some shots of new stuff in beta 2:

1. New tools included in the programs menu

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2. New project templates including 360 game and spacewar for 360.

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3. The Spacewar Kit is actually decent now. :lol (this actually runs in HI-Def)

286941583_eb9c6222dd.jpg


286941586_ad2a4d23c7.jpg


286941591_4435a1b157.jpg
 
OK, Microsoft just released XNA version 1. Not only that, but there will be a contest in January.

http://www.dreambuildplay.com/index.html
 
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