XNA: Creating Creators
Charles Naut

Microsoft’s XNA
• First released in 2006
• Toolset for creating games in C#
• Create games for PC, Xbox 360, and Zune
• 1 million downloads - 25 times the number of
professional developers in industry
• Xbox‟s Game Hierarchy:
▫ Disc games
▫ Xbox Live Arcade
▫ XNA Community Games

Community Review
• No ESRB Ratings
• XNA Creators Club paid members review games
• Community rates games based on
accuracy, bugs, and content
▫ No prohibited content
▫ No misrepresentation of game
▫ Not defective
• Community games need peer review approval
• Community can playtest games

Selling your own games
• Community Games launched in November
2008
• Games on Xbox Live Marketplace
• Over 17 million Xbox Live members
• Own complete IP over games
• Developers make 70% of each purchase
• Games can cost 200, 400, or 800
Microsoft points ($2.50, $5.00, $10.00)
• Need to be peer approved first

Current Sales Results

Visibility Issues

Nonmonetary Incentives
• Educational
• Recognition
• Game development resume
• Social

Development Support
• Beginner‟s guides
• Development kits
• XNA Game Studio Express
• XNA Forums
▫ Over 100,000 users
• GarageGames‟ TorqueX
• Free software

Dream-Build-Play
• XNA game development competition
• Microsoft sponsored
• Teams of up to 7 people
• Compete for a total of $75,000 in prize
money
▫ $40,000 grand prize
• Publishing contract for Xbox Live Arcade

Blazing Birds
Dream-Build-Play
2007 winner
Recently released
on Xbox Live
“I've been interested in game design Arcade
since I was writing text adventures
on the Apple II. However, I haven't Created by David
given game development any Flook by himself
serious attention until XNA Game
Studio was released.”
– David Flook

Blow
Xbox Community
Game
 New game by
“I work at a grocery store… I get home around David Flook
3:00 PM. This is when I get most of my \"other\"
work done. I have two or three good hours for  Added brother to
game development. After dinner, I'll sometimes
put another hour of work in. Although I keep
calling it „ work,‟ this is my kind of fun.
team
Additionally, I'll spend one of my two days off
entirely working on games.”
-David Flook

XNA Quicks
• Created by web developer and game fan
Marcellus Miles
• Tetris clone
• Modified version C++ game found on
GameDev.net forum
• Around 700 lines of code

XNA Quicks Screenshot

“I‟ve been a programmer for some time now and
have always wanted to give game development a
shot… I enjoyed figuring out how to manage the
update and drawing of what was on the screen. ”
- Marcellus Miles, marcellusmiles.com

Future of XNA & Player Game Dev
• “Youtube for games”
• Modest sales may turn away professionals
• Casual game development
• Lower costs = higher risks
• Crowd source game development
• Quick iterative development with instant feedback