GDC09: MS announces new XNA features, Dream-Build-Play 2009, new dev kit

Microsoft today announced an update to XNA Game Studio, its free Xbox 360 development tools. The update will allow Xbox Live Arcade or Community Game developers to include Avatar support in their games. The update will also include support for the Xbox 360's Party system. Additionally, the update gives professional XBLA developers the ability to release downloadable content.

Along with the new XNA Game Studio update, Microsoft announced this year's Dream-Build-Play competition. The contest charges developers with creating an XNA game and offers cash prizes to the winners as well as a chance to publish their games on Xbox Live Arcade. Joystiq readers may recognize CarneyVale: Showtime and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai (pictured), both of which won previous Dream-Build-Play competitions. Dream-Build-Play 2009 will begin accepting submissions on April 6.

Finally, and much less interesting, Microsoft is previewing its latest development kit. The kit has "additional debugging memory" which should help developers "push the console to its maximum capabilities." Just don't push it too hard, mkay?

Reader Comments (34)

I like the XNA idea, but it doesn't seem to me like it's catching on that much. How many people here actually even try those XNA games? Am I totally off?

Wait until you see AVATAR BRAWLER.

I've tried a bunch of them. Unfortunately, I haven't come across any that I really feel like buying. It's mostly a feeling of, "oh, that's neat," and moving on.

I feel like once XNA is more streamlined, we'll start seeing better stuff. Right now, indie games are so much easier to make on PC, what with Flash and many other development tools available. I think it's a great idea to bring indie games to consoles, but with steep learning curves and other obstacles, XNA has a long way to go if it wants to really compete.

You people are dumb, it's not programmed on the 360. I hate ignorance.

i must agree though, to everyone that thinks XNA is a dumb idea, they're wrong. its a great idea, and it not that Microsoft couldn't pull it off... its that everyone has to start somewhere... and msoft just took the initiative to put money into it, even if they knew it wont pay off as much.

@wiredknight

Try Weapon of Choice, Johnny PLatformer's Biscuit Romp, or Percussone (Percussone is awesome over multiplayer)

I just hate how people think it's like you take a controller and do a Game Maker type thing. No they are programmed like real games are. Although in C#, it's still real programming.

Hey, if they were available in my country I sure would. I'd even be making some myself. But of course, my country is not deemed worthy by Microsoft, who don't like giving us Xbox LIVE features.

Eh, You'd probably release your games before they were ready anyways.

Tried a couple, bought none... no achievements, usually bad games, and overpricing are the reasons.

i wish these dev kits were a little more LBP and a lot less C#..

Not in the real world.How do you think lbp was made.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/ ?

Uh, that would defeat the purpose of XNA. LBP is a lot more limited than what is being offered here.

They need to give creators the ability to add achievements to community games. Then I'd actually play some of them. Sad, I know. But it's the truth.

Achievement Unlocked: Pressed A
1000 gs

Achievement Unlocked: Pressed A (very quickly)
1002 gs

Good stuff, Sony did this too.
Overall, anything that makes development life easier is a good thing.

I want a third person avatar shooter where your friends' avatars becomes the enemy.
I'd totally buy it.

That would be the best community game ever

Wait the kit is free? I thought you had to sign up for that $99 service to get hold of it.

It's free to dl VS2008 express + XNA and build games for the PC.
$99 to run on XBOX

It's a shame so many of those games are just plain bad. It's like searching sewage to find the good ones.

You don't really have to "search" sewage to find shit.

I know. It's like being a Wii owner.

What?

"Just don't push it too hard, mkay?"

Really, Richard? This is what we're resorting to now? The bloggers on joystiq are posting flame bait? I've had my suspicions about this before, but really this time it is blatant. Is it really relevant to the article to point out a potential hardware error that may or may not be legitimate. Is this here to draw more attention to joystiq's cute little poll so that we can stir up the fanboys out of their dens to increase traffic to the site and entice more advertisers? Ghastly sir, shame on you. I said it before and I’ll say it again; the little stunt you guys pulled with your shameless flambait poll proves one thing. People that read joystiq and hate MS also have email accounts. That’s all.

Agreed. This website seems to become more biast flame bait with every day. The journalistic integrity of this website is on a downward slope and it really just keeps sliding further down that slippery slope.

The E74 article is such total crap. General hardware errors occur more frequently as the average age of hardware increases? No way! That's not just common sense and a basic fact of life. The older stuff gets, the more likely it is to break down. Noooo, never.

Its common sense to most ppl but let's ignore common sense and make a sensationalized article that'll act perfectly as flamebait! It'll get us posts! advertisements! and money! Moneeeyyyy!

Joystiq, you suck more each day.

Flamebait = "Microsoft, your console is shit terrible (list of reasons why its so goddamn shitty, cluttered with references of Gaylo and Gears of Bore)"

Not, "Hey Microsoft, your consoles break. They actually break a lot. Do something about it"

I miss xbox360fanboy site.

It was great, hate this stupid merge!

I don't/won't care until these games are actually available for purchase.

I LOVED dishwasher.

Where have you been? These games *are* available for purchase. My game, Snake360, has been available since November 20th...

There are various sites and forums that discuss the different games and make recommendations, but really I would recommend you just start browsing by genre. Many of the games are actually very good, and a lot of them are great values. Classicard, for example, has several different card games in it and online play, and is just 400 MSP. Easy Golf is 800 MSP, the highest price point allowed for Community Games, but allows you to create your own golf courses and download other player-created courses...oh, and it plays well, too. Lots of replay value in those two titles, as well as in Snake360, which has 300 levels, 4-player battles and nine different modes.

If you haven't taken a look at Community Games yet...you should!

Dear Joystiq:
Give it a break with this E74 thing, we know the 360 have issues like RROD and others ; I had an E74 last month and I seriously, I wish all the manufacturers repair centers were as quick as Microsoft.

No, I want Joystiq to continue reporting the issues until Microsoft acknowledges it .

Miner Dig Deep is one of the most addictive little games. It is well worth the cost.
I like only a few XNA games so far enough to buy but it is nice to have the option. I think as developers get better with the XNA tools we'll start getting much better games too.

"Additionally, the update gives professional XBLA developers the ability to release downloadable content."

What does that mean? XBLA games have had DLC since launch haven't they?

GDC09: MS announces new XNA features, Dream-Build-Play 2009, new dev kit

Reader Comments (34)

Posted: Mar 24th 2009 3:03PM KaneRobot said

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