Microsoft's four-day XNA Challenge

by Kyle Orland { Mar 6th 2007 at 10:30PM }

Game developers are used to tight deadlines and pressure-packed schedules. Even so, Microsoft's XNA Challenge at this year's Game Developers Conference pushes the idea of quick turnaround to a ridiculous extreme. Four "teams" (two of them are single people) have been thrown into GDC's crowded, noisy Moscone Center North lobby and given four days to put together a game from scratch using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express.

While the entries will be judged and a winner will be named on Friday, the six competitors seemed more concerned with learning from each other than showing off their l33t programming skillz. Each participant we talked to was more than willing to talk about how impressed they were with their efforts of their adversaries, and the teams apparently commiserate about the lessons they've learned during breaks.

Despite the common development environment, the four games being developed for the contest couldn't be more dissimilar. There's an overhead shooter, a collection-based platformer, a speech-controlled alien abduction simulator and a two-player, first-person, 3D dungeon crawl. We'll be taking a closer look at their efforts in future posts, but for now, enjoy the intensity of the above-pictured competitor Andree Furtado and be glad that you're not under such a tight deadline (and if you are, stop reading this and get back to work).

Tags: GDC07, Microsoft, Xbox Live, XboxLive, XNA, xnachallenge

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

SickNic @ Mar 6th 2007 10:52PM

l33t?

Sorry Kyle, but you totally murdered that one. Try 1337

Ignatius @ Mar 6th 2007 10:54PM

The funny thing being that the up-and-coming Gates back when he was at Harvard would have freaked out at developers for sharing their source code and ideas without profiting first.

Arcaynn @ Mar 6th 2007 11:11PM

@Ignatius

I see what you did there. TAKE THAT M$!11

steve17 @ Mar 7th 2007 1:22AM

should be impressive to see what these guys can churn out in 4 days. i hope we get to see the final products.

Brandon Paddock @ Mar 7th 2007 2:16AM

I can't wait to see what they come up with.

With my first two nights with XNA Game Studio Express, having never written a game before in my life, I was able to crank out a simple sprite-based 4-player (co-op) geometry wars clone. Including individual scores and ever-increasing difficulty.