We already got a look at Microsoft’s little XNA show-and-tell as relates to Windows Phone 7 Series, but our colleague Andrew Yoon over at Joystiq had a chance for longer sit-down with Xbox Live general manager Ron Pessner and XNA Game Studio manager Michael Klucher at GDC today, and he’s been kind enough to share the interview with us. The main topic of conversation was the company’s plans regarding Xbox LIve and, specifically, how it would be integrating it into Windows Phone 7 Series. And believe us, there was plenty to discuss — including the sweet science of porting games from Zune HD to 7 Series phones (“it’s 90, 95 percent code reuse… in an hour or couple of hours, we’re taking games that were written for Zune HD and putting them on the phone”), the importance of maintaining a consistent gameplay experience amongst different hardware, and the reasoning behind limiting devices to asynchronous multiplayer. What are you waiting for? Hit the source link to embark on this miraculous journey of discovery.
Have you heard? The Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) is going on right now, which is why it shouldn’t go as a big surprise that all these companies are announcing things there. Yes, they’ll generally have a video game/gaming twist to it, but that’s okay. Especially when we have Microsoft presenting, and they’re giving details on how push notifications are going to work on the upcoming mobile Operating System.
Right up until the official announcement of Windows Phone 7 Series, there came a time when multitasking came under fire. Was it going to be included? Would Microsoft really ditch such an integral feature (and one that’s been highly scrutinized by the competition)? Well, at least in the form of their online “multiplayer” games, it looks like push notifications are going to be the rule, rather than the exception. As the video explains, this is going to be the best way to run these games. As we’ve mentioned before, asynchronous, turn-based games are definitely going to happen on Windows Phone 7 Series, and this methodology is going to make sure they run smoothly.
However, this is dealing with gaming. And while they do show that the live tiles, the ones that are displayed on the phone’s “home screen”, and explain that they are going to get updated in real-time, we’re wondering just what this means for third-party applications, as well as first-party ones. Will there be no multitasking at all? (Outside, of course, listening to music and the like.) Will Pandora, which was noted during the initial keynote, work while you’re sending a text message? These are the questions that people are still asking, and even though we may have just shed some light on it, we’ve certainly not illuminated the depth of the cave quite yet. MIX10 anyone?
Alright, we’re going to be straight with you: you’re not going to like this. See, Microsoft just showed us a pair of 3D games running on its ASUS Windows Phone prototype and built with its brand new XNA Game Studio 4.0, but wouldn’t let us nab a single photo or video of the process. What we can tell you is that they exist, they work, and at least Microsoft tossed us some screenshots to wave in your face. The two titles are The Harvest (pictured), a good looking touch-controlled dungeon crawler with destructible environments, being developed by Luma Arcade; and Battle Punks, a less impressive one-on-one sword fighting Facebook game by Gravity Bear that’s being ported over. We didn’t get to see any full motion 3D camera moves, since Battle Punks is just composed of two characters duking it out, and The Harvest has a fixed camera and some pre-rendered elements, but there were indeed some real polygons being crunched before our eyes at a full resolution (no upscaling), alpha-rev, choppy framerate, and we were assured that full screen 3D was possible. We also got to see one of our first glimpses of universal notifications on Windows Phone: Achievement unlock notices (also pictured above) that slide down from the top of the screen in a black bar and then slide back, and can’t be interacted with. Follow after the break for some more nerdy details, along with a video of VisualStudio in action, and screenshots of the two games are in the gallery below.
That title shouldn’t be that big of a surprise. If you’ll recall, the Zune HD does 3D gaming as well, and considering that the XNA Studios is heavily invested in the Personal Media Player, we’re not surprised to hear (again) that XNA and Windows Phone 7 are going hand-in-hand. We’ve seen that a game developed by XNA Game Studio 4.0 allows for developers to create three-screen gold, but the details that are starting to seep out of GDC are mouth-watering to say the least.
The Game Developers Conference is under way, and Microsoft is making sure that people know they are there. Despite the company’s big investment with console gaming, Windows Phone 7 Series is offering up a new, innovating, and in-depth new way to play games, with the sort of integration between platforms that we’ve only ever dreamed about. Microsoft noted that XNA Game Studio 4.0 will include accelerated 3D APIs, which means advanced 3D games are going to be the standard, and not the exception when it comes to gaming for the mobile platform.
The news doesn’t stop there, though. Just as was previously mentioned, the Xbox LIVE integration is pretty robust. It offers new ways to acquire those coveted Achievements, and there will be push notifications for turn-based gaming. Of course, at this point the big question is whether or not we’re going to get some real multiplayer games, but Microsoft is keeping mum on that subject for now. They’re releasing morsels right now, but MIX10 is just around the corner, so we’re expecting quite a bit more details to come from there. If you’re not interested in Windows Phone 7 yet, maybe you should watch this video again, just to make sure it sinks in.
We’ve all had a feeling that Microsoft is holding back some pretty big surprises (or at least completely reasonable revelations) when it comes to Windows Phone 7 Series and gaming, and here at GDC this week it sounds like we’re going to get a little glimpse into that. Microsoft is unveiling its new XNA Game Studio 4.0, which lets developers work on games for Windows Phone 7 Series, Xbox 360 and Windows PC. The integration with Visual Studio 2010 that we saw the other day allows developers to build a single project and then make slight modifications to let it run on each platform respectively. Most importantly, Microsoft specifically mentions that 4.0 will include hardware accelerated 3D APIs for Windows Phone 7 Series — not stunning, giving the fact that Zune can do 3D games (and is supported by XNA), but relieving just the same. Other phone-related tidbits are also telling: there will be fairly deep Xbox LIVE integration, including unlocking achievements from phone-based games and push notifications for asynchronous turn based gaming. Hopefully we can get some real live multiplayer gaming going as well, but there’s no mention of that just yet. Microsoft promises “much, much more” will be revealed at MIX 2010, but for now we’re gonna dig for all we can here at GDC.
If you’ve been looking to get in on some of that red hot game development action that Palm’s been all about lately, check it out: among the announcements at this year’s GDC, Palm has announced the release of its public beta PDK for webOS. This bad boy promises to let devs “use C and C++ alongside the web technologies that power the SDK and mix them seamlessly within a single app,” just the thing for porting game titles to the webOS platform. And it’s available now! Hit the source link to get started — and maybe someday we’ll finally get to play Mr. Jelly on our Pixi. We can dream, right?
EA has already said that it was able to get 3D games up and running on webOS in a “matter of weeks” using the OS’ PDK (or Plug-in Development Kit), but it looks like Palm might be ready to step things up even further at GDC next week. While any official word will have to wait until then, John Paczkowski of AllThingsD says that he’s heard from sources close to the company that Palm will be now demonstrating how iPhone apps can be ported to webOS “in a matter of days,” and with virtually no degradation in performance. Not much more to go on that at the moment, unfortunately, but you can be sure we’ll be there at GDC to how this and anything else Palm might have in store pans out.
Unless you’re press or a booth worker, major industry trade shows can be educational, enlightening, relaxing… dare we say even fun events that actually don’t fill you with dread at their mere mention. Of course, the trade-off is that you (or your employer, if you’re lucky) are then responsible for fronting the hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars that organizations command for passes to those events. So what do you get in return apart from a few days of schmoozing with some of the most important people in your line of work and the opportunity to play with cool stuff and steal as many promotional pens and USB sticks as you possibly can? In the case of GDC this March, attendees who sign up for either the Mobile / Handheld Summit, the iPhone Summit, or the Independent Games Summit will be gifted with their choice of a Droid or Nexus One, representing the hottest, latest Android gear from Motorola and HTC, respectively — potentially prime targets for the yet-to-be-tapped 3D gaming market on the platform. With Palm onsite, it should make for some interesting dynamics — but then again, they’re giving these things to people at an event called the “iPhone Summit,” for crying out loud.
That was a quick turnaround, wasn’t it? Palm wasted no time in retailing 3D games that are as visually engaging as the best the iPhone has to offer just as soon as it made the big announcement back at CES, and now it’s taking things to the next level by heading out to GDC in San Francisco this March. The Game Developers Conference is — as gaming goes, anyway — what you’d call a Big Deal, so the fact that Palm is leading a session there to educate interested parties in its Plug-in Development Kit is a promising sign that these guys are taking the concept of webOS as an entertainment platform very, very seriously. Of course, it would’ve been nice to see this kind of drive about a year ago — but better late than never.
