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Microsoft is reconfirming, about the eve of Gamescom 2010, that it is generating certain the Windows Telephone 7 platform might be a game-centric one.
On August 16, Microsoft officials confirmed previously reports that Microsoft Game Studios is creating a dedicated group to develop video clip games for Windows Phones. The group also will support recruit smaller sized, indie game makers, according to the enterprise.
Microsoft says the devoted group inside of Microsoft Game Studios will develop video clip games for Windows phones,Microsoft Office 2010, aid outdoors game publishers and scout out tiny, independent game makers. Provider officials also mentioned to anticipate Halo Waypoint, Star Wars, Crackdown two: Challenge Sunburst, and Guitar Hero five to all be obtainable for Windows Phone 7 when the gadgets start this drop.
All in all,Windows 7 Discount, one can find fifty titles that can be out there for Windows Telephone 7. Based on a spokesperson, these “are just the beginning of a full portfolio of video games and applications coming to Windows Telephone 7 this holiday – there is much more to come. Additional titles will be announced between now and the Windows Phone seven launch this holiday season; when the phone launches,Office Professional 2007, new Xbox LIVE titles will be added to the games portfolio every week.”
Microsoft has a team of dedicated evangelists working on convincing game developers to write Windows Telephone 7 versions of their items. This team is playing up the fact that developers can use the same XNA Framework and related tools as they used to build Xbox 360 games to design new titles for Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft decided rather than have different frameworks for each of its units (Xbox, Zune HD and Windows Phone) it would fold capabilities for all the platforms back into the larger XNA gaming framework, said Shawn Hargreaves, a Microsoft developer on XNA Game Studio.
(Hargreaves spent nine years in the gaming industry before deciding to join Microsoft. He was a lead programming on the MotoGP bike racing games. While in college, Hargreaves developed Allegro, an open source game programming library.)
“We didn;t want Xbox developers to have to commence from scratch” when developing for Windows Phone 7, Hargreaves said, even though the two platforms are quite different. So “we thought about what could be extracted.” In the end, about 97 percent of what (Xbox developers) are already doing may be applied to the telephone, he said.
Microsoft;s overall advice for Windows Phone 7 developers is to use XNA for developing video games and Silverlight for developing other Web applications. Hargreaves stated Microsoft is telling those who are building applications creating use of 3D graphics to think XNA, while those using text controls should gravitate toward Silverlight. (That stated, in some cases I know of developers using XNA to establish non-gaming content for the phones because they;ve been dissatisfied with Silverlight;s performance.)
The bottom line is gaming developers interested in targeting Windows Phone 7 need to learn the C# platform, Hargreaves stated. Hargreaves, a C++ developer himself,Cheap Office 2010, stated it took him two weeks to learn C# and one month to become “an expert.”
Microsoft is in the process of bringing its Game Studio environment to Windows Telephone seven, mentioned Michael Klucher, a Lead Program Manager for the XNA Development Platform team. His group also has started building Windows Phone 7 developer kits, such as a racing game kit and a puzzle game kit. There;s not some “magical potion” that automatically optimizes video games to run on Windows Telephone 7, he said, but the Game Studio could assist developers move the bulk of their codebase, art and extra to forthcoming phones.
“You do need to tune for the touch screen and high-resolution display,” Klucher stated. “You also have to think about how your game would tie together across different kinds of units,” like PCs, gaming consoles, phones and more.
(Klucher has worked about the XNA Game Studio since its original inception, and has worked around the design of features like XNA Framework Content Pipeline, Game Studio Connect about the Xbox 360 and the evolution of XNA Game Studio for the Zune platform. He started his careers at Rainbow Studios, working in the animation division. He then moved to the videogame industry, with a specialization in mobile gaming and devices.)
A few of the indie game developers already building for Xbox are sold on Windows Telephone seven as another potentially lucrative platform.
“This (Windows Telephone 7) platform is open like the Xbox 360,” said Nathan Fouts of Mommy;s Best Video games. Fouts is the creator of the Xbox Community Game “Weapon of Choice.”
“Initially we weren;t looking at developing for WIndows Phone seven until we heard it would use XNA and C#,” he mentioned. “After that, it was a no-brainer. It was so easy our intern handled the entire port himself” of 1 of the existing games to Windows Phone 7,Windows 7 Professional, he mentioned. “In two weeks, we had the whole game working and playable. Now we are just doing more polishing.”
Phillipe Rapin of Press Begin Studio (and TwinBlades) fame — another Microsoft Xbox 360 indie game developer — echoed the same ease-of-development comments.
“What pushed us the most (to do a Windows Telephone 7 game) was the ease of development,” Rapin said. “We had an Xbox version of Twin Blades and it only took two weeks for 1 of our coders to port the game onto WP7, and it worked around the device at the first attempt. With both platforms sharing a common tool -– the XNA framework — Microsoft genuinely eased the work of developers, with virtually no investment needed and on top of that they gave us tech and enterprise development support.”
Rapin mentioned the way Microsoft is structuring the Windows Telephone seven Marketplace and gaming hubs also is appealing.
“Microsoft’s gaming hub is definitely a lot more thorough not only in ensuring that great video games have more visibility in the marketplace, but also with providing them with the additional value of Xbox Live services such as leaderboards and achievements linked to Xbox,” he mentioned.
Any other Windows Phone seven developers on the market writing (or thinking about writing) video games for the Windows Telephone 7 devices coming this holiday season? Why/why not?
(Image above is from a slide deck on developing for WP7 from Microsoft Developer Evangelist Mike Ormond.)