Gamerscore Blog : Zune game development with XNA Game Studio 3.0

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 2:17 PM by johnporcaro

Zune game development with XNA Game Studio 3.0

David Weller (Let's Kill Dave) posts an interesting Q&A on the XNA Team Blog. From his blog post:

The XNA Community Games Platform team is delighted to offer you a sneak peek at our first major feature for XNA Game Studio 3.0: The ability to build games for the Zune platform! This will let you write one game and deploy it to all three platforms that XNA Game Studio 3.0 will support: the Xbox 360, Windows, and now the Zune. ...
Our current planning is to offer a preview release of XNA Game Studio 3.0 in the Spring 2008 timeframe, with a final release scheduled for the holiday 2008 season. We look forward to your feedback and seeing what kind of amazing games you can create for the Zune!

Filed Under: Dave Weller, Game Development, Game Developer's Conference

Comments

# re: Zune game development with XNA Game Studio 3.0

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 10:47 PM by phylum sinter

Now this is a genuine pleasant surprise -- i was just fiddling with my zune today [just got the regular a/v cable] and, while appreciating the touchpad interface, was thinking about how it would be suitable to gaming.

I'll definitely be looking at this one more closely once it's released.

# re: Zune game development with XNA Game Studio 3.0

Thursday, February 21, 2008 12:06 PM by Deezul AwT

I haven't seen anything that says whether the games will work on the original Zune, or if I'll have to upgrade.

# re: Zune game development with XNA Game Studio 3.0

Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:19 PM by AriesDog

My only concern is that the Zune interface is pretty poor for games. (To be fair, the iPod and cell phones are no better.) Seems like you'd be limiting yourself to VERY simple games. Or at best, turn based RPGs. Doom RPG on my cell phone was surprisingly good.

# re: Zune game development with XNA Game Studio 3.0

Saturday, February 23, 2008 2:21 PM by phylum sinter

CHOICE!

Also - from the faq [re: will this work with previous Zunes]:

"Q: Will this feature only work on newer Zune devices?

A: XNA Game Studio 3.0 currently will support Zune 4/8, Zune 30, and Zune 80 devices. "

So i'm going to take that as a yes, yes it will work with older Zunes.

...but what really gets me is the integration of the wireless capability:

"Q: How does the wireless support work?

A: The Zune device can support multiple Zunes that have wireless turned on. If all the Zunes have the game deployed, and the game is written to work in a multiplayer mode, you can join in and play games with other Zunes."

!WEE! Now only if i could find someone else that has one near enough to mp with...

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About John Porcaro

John is a Sr. Group Manager in Microsoft's Global Games Marketing Team, managing Online Communications. His team is responsible for Online Community for Xbox and Games for Windows. He's been at Microsoft since 1990, where he's been a Product Manager, Channel Marketing Manager, Communications Manager, and Events Manager, mostly working in our Consumer Division (currently called Entertainment & Devices Division).

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Zune game development with XNA Game Studio 3.0

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