Tech Shout!

What if anyone could design games and then sell them on Xbox Live Arcade? And, what if those games also ran on Windows? Imagine being able to cook up a games, even if you are far from being a professional developer? Today, at Gamefest 2006 in California, Microsoft will announce their latest plan to try and make this a reality. On August 30, Microsoft will release a new Windows application dubbed XNA Game Studio Express (beta), which according to the Redmond-based company “will democratize game development by delivering the necessary tools to hobbyists, students, indie developers and studios alike to help them bring their creative game ideas to life, while nurturing game development talent, collaboration and sharing that will benefit the entire industry.”

XNA (Xbox/DirectX New Generation Architecture) is a development framework that extends existing DirectX tools with a set of new libraries and a custom implementation of the .NET development framework. With Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio Express (beta), game developers will be able to write code in the C# language and create games that will run on both Windows PCs and the Xbox 360 console.

Dave Mitchell, Director of Marketing for Microsoft’s Game Developer Group, said that despite the successes seen with Counterstrike and other great examples of hobbyist development, it is still too difficult for the average gamer to get involved. To this end, Game Studio Express will not only expose low-level XNA gaming APIs for ground-up development, the application will also include a number of “starter kits” that can be adapted for quicker development. These kits will provide various genres and game types from which new creations can be developed. While Game Studio Express will be most powerful for people with scripting capabilities, it is not required. Calling it a “YouTube for games,” Mitchell said that he believed that putting the creative power in the hands of users will lead to great things.

Mitchell also emphasized on the benefits of XNA Game Studio Express for commercial developers. Microsoft’s yet-to-be released game design application will also be included in academic environments. At the college level, Microsoft is pushing to get tools such as Game Studio Express in front of both computer science students, and those in fine arts as well. Microsoft is also hoping to stir interest at the high-school level.

XNA Game Studio Express (beta) will be free of cost for Windows users to download and experiment with. The additional “creators club” membership ($99 yearly) is required to build, test and share games on the Xbox 360 with other users. This subscription will also include access to special developer’s materials. The pricing for the professional version has not yet been announced.