While we've been repeatedly assured by Microsoft that we'll hear more about gaming on the recently announced Windows Phone 7 Series in a few weeks at the company's MIX10 event, Engadget spotted some early footage of a company rep demonstrating a fairly basic platformer game being played seamlessly across a PC, a "Windows Phone 7 Series prototype device," and an Xbox 360. In a speech at TechEd Middle East, Microsoft's Eric Rudder (to his own admission) poorly played a game that then allowed him to save his position on a PC, pick it up on his (Windows) phone, and eventually move it over to his Xbox 360.
Otherwise, Rudder was at the conference to show off the company's development software, Visual Studio. He revealed that 90 percent of the code between each iteration of the game is shared (and then went on to speak about code in a way that made us start seeing stars). Sure, we'll see more official (and likely cooler) stuff on this soon, but for now we've got the speech just after the break.
While this is really cool and good for developers who can reuse alot of code between the platforms, Microsoft really has to support it well for it to work. Remember how Microsoft were keeping the Zune HD marketplace for apps first party only so they could develop their own games for it? Well do you know how many games they have made for it? TWELVE. So please Microsoft don't waste a great idea by not throwing any support behind it.
I cant wait to fart when I'm on my computer, then take it into my living room through x360, and when a friend calls, I can fart on the go with my windows mobile 7 phone all without disrupting the flow of my overall fart meter.
Are downloadable games--especially ones that can be played on a zune or on a phone--important enough to have to save it like this? It might be cool to be able to play mass effect or any other game on a PC and then continue the game on an xbox but I assume that would require buying 2 copies of the game. and really who want's to do that?
I think this could be very cool, but I'd still like a gaming-centered phone that has a physical d-pad or something. I've had my iPhone for nearly a year now, and I still have yet to find a platforming or action game that has controls that are usable. I have big hands though, so some of that might be on me.
@ Altair - Weighing modders against the whole of the game 'industry' is like weighing youtube film makers against hollywood, or Sonic Fan-Fiction writers against some dime-store author like James Patterson, or that garage band down the street against the recording industry.
What are you talking about? Games like E.T. and PacMan for the Atari were quality products created with the consumer foremost in the developer's mind! You don't get value like that anymore.
strong integration throughout all of it's consumer products is one area way microsoft could really dominate other companies. they've got some of it now, like using the 360 as a media center extender, but i feel like they could do so much more. this is a step in the right direction.
yuck. using #ifdef on a OO language where you can abstract code to different implementation classes (in order handle device differences)
The same thing can be done using Java and Android phone (JOGL targeting full OpenGL on the PC and JOGL targeting OpenGL ES on Android). the only platfrm out of this is a home console. Come on Sony, you already have Java runtime for the blu-ray player, make it usable for this kind of games
I much prefer developing in C# to Java myself so I'm looking forward to this. Thankfully there are enough languages out there that we can all find some we like.
I did not even realize C# had #if's and I'm an c# developer. They really shouldn't use defines though, they make everything ugly. Just keep the properties there, but don't make them do anything.
I know their showing it off because of win 7 phones, but this isn't new. I program games for my zune hd, which are transferable between pc and xbox, controls ported of course.
on top of developing for the lowest capability system just think of the interface differences? How many great PC games are better with a controller than a mouse/keyboard? how many great console games are better on a touch screen/accelerometer? how many great portable games would be better with a controller? part of what makes a game good is the controls, if you have 3 different input options at the very least one of them is going to be terrible, if not all of them because they will have to give something up to let another method work.
Simple rule of thumb (there's always exceptions, but this is just in general) fast action with 1 character is USUALLY better with a controller (e.g. mario, sonic, kratos). Super precision is usually better with a mouse (FPS's in general, RTS's etc.). Menu selection and quirky controls are usually better with a touchscreen/accelerometer type device (touching a menu item is faster than scrolling or moving a mouse, accelerometers allow for some unique game designs e.g. rollando)
The biggest fear for me is the number of attrocities of game design that will occur as a result of mobile being in the mix. Developers are still barely capable of making a game that works well on both PC and xbox, now they're going to cut corners on art to be able to shoe horn the assets into a phone, and then use an abomination of an on screen Dpad to simulate the controller, and in the process never bother getting a mouse/keyboard combo to work right... so you get an ugly console game, an ugly and poorly controlling PC game, and a portable game with save points so when you get a call all your progress is lost...
Every platform is good, but you have to actually design for it, not just say "space marine + guns = doom for 2010! who couldn't love it!"
Swagman, great points. Sadly, there are many that don't even think about the tech side and just go off of their need for drama and discord. There is nothing about this project to be fearful of and no reason to dismiss it - but here they are doing it. I for one think this looks like a great step forward and could lead to many fun game variations - which is what gamers should be excited for. Sadly, they are too often more interested in rooting for failure.
Streamlining is good. I'd love to buy one copy of a game and have it work on a Windows PC and also a future Xbox console. On the Xbox, it just works, on the PC, I'll be able to apply mods, tweak the settings, etc.
I ported this demo to the iPhone months ago using MonoTouch and XnaTouch ( on codeplex ). Same code running on PC, Xbox, ZuneHD, iPhone and it would seem Windows Mobile 7 has finally caught up :). XnaTouch will be adding 3D API support as soon as its announced for Zune and WM7, next week at the GDC.
Go go Microsoft!!! Give me my Windows Phone 7 Series already.. This thing is huge for gaming! Just imagine the possibilities of that thing. Developers are going to amaze us in the future..Can't wait for Mix!
Sounds like these games will target the lowest denominator in order to make it playable across all platforms. Doesn't seem like that would make for great games...
That said, it's possible to program games that don't require any code changes, with APIs such as OpenGL and SDL. Hmm...
I hope that it comes out on the Zune HD. Don't have enough money to go out and buy a phone! Xbox Live for Zune HD and Windows 7 Phones would be awesome!
