Designing XNA for XBLA

[Anonymous]

Hey Guys,

After a few years of programming and art design, myself and a friend have decided to rip open XNA and Visial C# and make a game for the xbox360 over the summer & beyond.

So far weve been working out the gameplay and content (trying to keep it as structurally simple as possible) but it crossed my mind that these games might be applyable to XBox Live Arcade.

I understand that MS are very stright over Beta and Alpha builds for XBLA, and can withdraw contracts if the stuff isnt up to scratch, but im just wondering if anybody here knows anything about the constraints put on developers trying to make these games.

In other words:
> Do they have to be programmed in any particaly language
> Do you have to have a publishers backing
> Content Restrictions
> anything else…

We plan to go to GDC next year, and possibly use it as a pitch, but at the moment, were just looknig forward to getting a game on the console. Even if its just in both our living rooms.

Thanks in advance for the input guys

[Anonymous]

After a few years of programming and art design, myself and a friend have decided to rip open XNA and Visial C# ….

> Do they have to be programmed in any particaly language[/quote:7b99f9fa0c] C# would seem to be the intended language. I don’t know the technical details but I assume that if there are language requirement these would be stated in XNA somewhere.

> Do you have to have a publishers backing[/quote:7b99f9fa0c] Yes. Anyone can do stuff on PC using XNA but if you want to do commercial development for 360 (inc Live Arcade) you will need to be an authorised developer and have MS concept approval for your title (which you won’t get without publisher backing).

It is possible to "self publish" which means you self fund the game development (and all the other jobs necessary to publish a game) and submit it to MS and they act as the publisher – however you still have to be an authorsied developer have to pass a pretty tough due dilligence.

I am not sure how Marketplace works. There might be some scope there to sell/give away an amatuer title on Marketplace but I wouldn’t bet on it.

> Content Restrictions[/quote:7b99f9fa0c] depends who you are and how good the game is. Take2 doubtless have the clout to get anything they want to onto the platform but as an indie start-up you would likely have to be careful of nudity, obscene material, excessive drugs or any other ratings issues such as vilonece towards women or children. Killing soldiers in gruesome was is perfectly OK !

> anything else…[/quote:7b99f9fa0c] more than I have time to type here.

We plan to go to GDC next year, and possibly use it as a pitch,[/quote:7b99f9fa0c] Best read http://www.obscure.co.uk/articles-2/preparing-a-product-pitch/.

Edit: see http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=446143 for some info regarding the language/dev system you need to use.

[Anonymous]

Exellent, thanks a lot of all that obscure.

Im sure it looks like we are punching above our weight, but ive always had the mentality of aiming high, so even if you dont make it, u get somwhere.

At the moment, were tying to read as much as possible from developers, just to soak up as much of an understanding of it all as possible.

So yea appreciate the input. And if any1 else has somthing they think might help, please put it down.

[Anonymous]

If you haven’t already chack out Introversion as a good example of how to boot strap and indie developer. Focus on PC as your primary platform but take into account 360 during development, just in case. Self publish the PC game and then use that as a calling card to build a relationship with MS or other publishers. Introversion are now at the stage where they are making PC games and licensing the rights to other (console) formats to publishers.

[Anonymous]

A quick but good one, the obviousness of which is inversely proportional to how often indies put it to practice :wink:

Make sure you keep a development log which diaries and details all of the IP creation as you go along: code, art, sound, etc, etc. – author, particulars, representations if applicable, date of creation.

[Anonymous]

Yea, im looking very closely at The Behemoth, since both Alien Hominid, and Castle Crashers art style is very much what ours is aiming towards.

Thnx for the intro on introversion, my only concern is that the genre we are going for doesnt lend itself to Pc Gaming. But its definetly somthing to consider, expecially since XNA seems to be quite flexible between the 2 platform (well, moreso than C++).

haha, yea ive had that rammed down my throat Steph, from lecturers, cos im terrible at keeping note of these things. Yea, thanks for that, i had actually forgotten about making a log :D

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