When Will Josh Create His First Videogame?

Microsoft announced this morning that they are releasing a suite of tools to make it much easier to create videogames on the Xbox 360 game system.  Regular readers of this blog know how big a fan I am of letting the user be the creator as well as the consumer.

But to be honest, I never thought that videogames were on the table. If they are (and I have no idea how simple the new tools are to use), then this is going to be a big deal.

I remember when I was in high school and a friend of mine and I created a football game on the TRS80 computer. It wasn’t very good but we built it and we played it.

When Josh and his buddies can create a NFL 2006 game of their own, with their own rules and players, then that’s what they are going to do. I am not saying they won’t play the games from the publishers, I am sure they will. But I think they’ll have more fun creating games of their own and playing them.

Comments

[just.a.guy]

This should be a huge boon to the Live Arcade especially in the casual game category, where compelling games can be designed and implemented without Hollywood-sized budgets.

Step 2 which they're probably working furiously on is ensuring that there's a good way for end users to separate the wheat from the chaff once submissions start rolling in...

[Sharpshoot]

Allowing players to create games and then distribute these (perhaps through revenue share) could have a huge impact upon the future of casual gaming. The Xbox already has a network of players to do this and i suppose by creating a marketplace mechanism for it could empwower gamers as much as citizen media and blogging has done now. Very interesting development.

[James Kahler]

I tend to disagree, or rather I believe the benefit is misplaced. By way of example, given the dramatic reduction in costs of music and video, I can now produce my own movies or own music. In fact, as a hobbyist musician, I've invested thousands of dollars in music equipment and related Mac-based music production hardware/software that I truly intended to use. It doesn't me that I do, however. Apple's Garageband is free, for instance with every Mac, but few use it in any meaningful way. On the other hand, those few that do, often use these products in new and innovative ways. It's just another example of "democratization of X". Add it to the list of publishing, printing, programming, etc. My point is that it's not that everyone (sorry Josh) will use it, it's that anyone can use it. But like any other tool, it is the usefulness of the tool itself that determines what will come of it. I don't know much about gaming, but as an observer, I see a lot of duplication since everything seems to be based on very limited gaming and development engines. Like New Wave, disco and the British Invasion, if the tool just enables everyone to re-hash the same old stuff, the music and games will get old fast.

[Sharpshoot]

James,

The success of this application is dependent upon a) Incentivisation b) Transparency in the marketplace and c)the mechanism of distribution of these games

a) Incentivisation: Revenue share via a marketplace or even the kudos of creating a game for many thousands of users will drive many teenagers to use it if they had the choice against it. Our natural instinct is to play and experiment when young. Why not create the coolest video game?

b) Transparency: democratisation will also mean that the quality difference between the very best and worst will be a question of darwinian evolution. Only by spreading these tools to as many users are we going to see some truly fanastic user generated games and some god awful ones. By making this transparent, good games and bad games can be distinguished easily and standards are set. The same can be said of the current Web 2.0 landscape, we are seeing more startups but because more people are participating the best startups produce a higher quality product. Through transparency only the best startups persist.

c) Distribution: Providing there is the correct incentivisation, filtering mechanisms and above all a mechanism to distribute these games to the widest audience of consumers will this app be successful.

These things combined will be crucial for the adoption of Microsoft's new product.

[rhhfla]

I see the opportunity differently from this Microsoft tool set. If purchased games had the equivalent of an easy "API" then people could customize their games using the tool set from Microsoft. Sort of the del.icio.us logic that an easy, well defined API builds customers.

[Greg]

Bosh. Josh can create his first video game starting today. If you define "video game" as "a game played on a computing device" rather than "a game played on a closed console system the access to which is controlled by the manufacturer."

There are any number of good tools widely available for game development on the PC.

All Microsoft is doing is charging you $99 to give you access to tools that let you do games for Xbox--with the proviso that you cannot commercially exploit these games without Microsoft's permission.

Frankly, this sucks. I mean yes, you didn't even have -this- level of access to Xbox development before--but it's still indicative of the command-and-control mentality that the game industry has been afflicted with since the arrival of Nintendo on our shores.