Belgian Dev Sees Game Go To XBox360
From the presspass: In a landmark announcement during the keynote address at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), Microsoft Corp. promised to soon allow Xbox LIVE members to play, rate and share community-created games. As the first in the industry to pioneer high-speed online gaming and high-definition games, Xbox 360 once again broke new ground by introducing a new, open distribution service for games created by the community and soon playable by its 10 million Xbox LIVE members. Community-created games on Xbox LIVE will quickly double the size of the Xbox 360 game library. By the end of 2008, Xbox 360 owners will have access to more than 1,000 games, making it the largest, most creatively diverse library across all next-generation platforms.
That is really AWESOME news. Especially because the game created by fellow Belgian Loïc Dansart (”Little Gamers”, a 2-D high definition action side-scroller based on the famous Web comic) has been selected to be made available together with 6 other XNA created games. The platform will be opened up, so that ‘consumer generated games’ can find their way to a worldwide audience!
The game was developed using Microsoft’s XNA technology, so it’s currently able to run on both PC and XBOX360 (the later requires a Creators Club membership). A fully playable XBOX360 prototype of 5 levels was submitted to the Dream, Build, Play! competition, and it won a place as a finalist. Currently, the full version is in development, and should be available for Windows in a few weeks.
The game is a 2D action sidescroller which borrows many gameplay elements from action games such as Metal Slugs and Madness Interactive and mixes them with the webcomic feel and humor of Little Gamers to create a unique cute but deadly combination.
An Xbox 360 community game created using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio software and XNA Creators Club membership will be able to be submitted for distribution on Xbox LIVE. Each community-created game must then undergo a thorough peer-review process and be evaluated for accuracy in representation and appropriateness. Community game developers will be able to beta test the process this spring and will be able to distribute their games on Xbox LIVE by the end of this year.
Related:
Little Gamers - Teh Game (info + download)
PressPass Release
Check out the comic!
See the demo below: