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[Sanic]

Thanks for the info, Ill pick up Visual Studio 2008 and should be good to go. I did a little research and it turns out that I only have a 'trial' access to the XNA club which means that I cant actually upload my games to the marketplace. This kills the hype a little for me :lol

Haha yeah that's true, though keep in mind you can do a $50 subscription which lasts for four months. Not as good a value, but its an option if you're low on cash. And if you have a game on the marketplace and your sub runs out, it isn't pulled or anything, it'll still stay up for sale and you'll continue to get paid. You'll just need to have a sub to track sales as well as update your financial info if the need arises. Both of which are kinda important :lol. But you can definatley do without both for awhile if you have to.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

Haha yeah that's true, though keep in mind you can do a $50 subscription which lasts for four months. Not as good a value, but its an option if you're low on cash. And if you have a game on the marketplace and your sub runs out, it isn't pulled or anything, it'll still stay up for sale and you'll continue to get paid. You'll just need to have a sub to track sales as well as update your financial info if the need arises. Both of which are kinda important :lol. But you can definatley do without both for awhile if you have to.

Yeah I was thinking of spending a while developing a whole bunch of games, then buying a 4 month subscription JUST to put em up for sale. I graduate this year and I guess a few hours every few weeks could go a long way.

I hate how much the money factor seems to get to me, im really interested in just making a game, but making money would be awesome - what kind of cut do you get? If I made a game and put it up for 200 Ms points how much money is that for me per download?

 

[Sanic]

Yeah I was thinking of spending a while developing a whole bunch of games, then buying a 4 month subscription JUST to put em up for sale. I graduate this year and I guess a few hours every few weeks could go a long way.

I hate how much the money factor seems to get to me, im really interested in just making a game, but making money would be awesome - what kind of cut do you get? If I made a game and put it up for 200 Ms points how much money is that for me per download?

You receive 70% of every sale. 200 MS points isn't a price option. You can pick 80, 240, or 400.

I would release roughly one game a month if that's your plan, over the course of those 4 months. Do you know about peer reviewing? Keep in mind that you should make sure your games are fit for commercial release. That's somewhat subjective, but you'll have people tromping around harassing you if they deem your product to not be 'release-worthy'. If this is some pet/fun project, you'll still get it through, but you'll have to put up with crap from certain people first.

 

[Nemo]

I just put together a team of 4 people to make an XNA game

God I hope this somehow succeeds

 

[Feep]

I just put together a team of 4 people to make an XNA game

God I hope this somehow succeeds

Be prepared for a long haul. Making a videogame is fun and rewarding, but if you want to spit out anything of quality, expect to spend at least the better part of a year doing hard, hard work. Longer, if you can't devote too much time to it.

My biggest advice would be to START SMALL, especially if you guys are new to game dev. Everyone wants to make this epic, 40+ hour RPG (Final Fantasy XIII was so horrible, I can SO do better than that!), but you'll never make it. Draft a reasonable design document, and don't go overboard. You'll gain valuable experience and be able to release a polished product at the end.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

You receive 70% of every sale. 200 MS points isn't a price option. You can pick 80, 240, or 400.

I would release roughly one game a month if that's your plan, over the course of those 4 months. Do you know about peer reviewing? Keep in mind that you should make sure your games are fit for commercial release. That's somewhat subjective, but you'll have people tromping around harassing you if they deem your product to not be 'release-worthy'. If this is some pet/fun project, you'll still get it through, but you'll have to put up with crap from certain people first.

Im planning on putting a certain level of 'love' into my games, but I doubt they would be any good - this really is just a amatuer job at best. When you say people will give me hassle, will I have to prove my game to them to get through, or does theyre opinion ultimatly not matter? I dont mind people on the forums over there saying my games suck, but if those people have the power to stop my games going through then damn, ill suck up! :lol

I assume the peer reviewing is done through some 'official' board rather than the forum goer's? I guess releasing games one at a time helps me 'sneak' through the process?

70% is actually quite generous, but I doubt I will be able to make much of a profit using the system considering ill have to pay 30 quid just to get my games up. Ill gladly suck it up and give it a go if I can make some half decent games though! I really just want to make a 80 MS point game (or a free one) which includes some in jokes and getting mates to download it.

 

[Sanic]

I just put together a team of 4 people to make an XNA game

God I hope this somehow succeeds

Two bits of general advice:

-Price your game at 80 msp.
-Don't spend forever working on it. Like, a couple of months tops. If you spend a year+ working on your first game, no matter how awesome it is or critically acclaimed, you'll never get enough sales to make up for the time. If accolades are all you're after, than by all means go ahead and do what you would like.

Im planning on putting a certain level of 'love' into my games, but I doubt they would be any good - this really is just a amatuer job at best. When you say people will give me hassle will I have to prove my game to them to get through, or does theyre opinion ultimatly not matter? I dont mind people on the forums over there saying my games suck, but if those people have the power to stop my games going through then damn, ill suck up! :lol

I assume the peer reviewing is done through some 'official' board rather than the forum goer's? I guess releasing games one at a time helps me 'sneak' through the process?

They're opinion ultimately doesn't matter, but they'll verbally...I don't want to say attack, but annoy you about the quality of the game. And if it's really that bad/ticks them off in some way, they may spend more time than they otherwise would to try and fail it. Worst case scenario, if the game is bad, is that it will take longer to get through review as no one will be interested in reviewing it.

My main point is that there is a lot more politics and...morality, even, involved in the peer review process than there should be. The peer review process isn't perfect, or even good in my opinion, but your milage will vary. Lurk the forums over there for awhile.


Peer reviewing is done by all creators, which you will become one yourself when you sign up. You download a game, and you check it against a set of microsoft guidelines as well as a community developed 'evil checklist', and if it passes those tests you give it a 'pass'. A game needs a certain amount of passes to be put up for sale. I would check out creators.xna.com for more information.

 

[Nemo]

Be prepared for a long haul. Making a videogame is fun and rewarding, but if you want to spit out anything of quality, expect to spend at least the better part of a year doing hard, hard work. Longer, if you can't devote too much time to it.

My biggest advice would be to START SMALL, especially if you guys are new to game dev. Everyone wants to make this epic, 40+ hour RPG (Final Fantasy XIII was so horrible, I can SO do better than that!), but you'll never make it. Draft a reasonable design document, and don't go overboard. You'll gain valuable experience and be able to release a polished product at the end.

Heh, yeah. I spent at least half a year thinking and sketching/writing about the game. It's gonna be a simple 2D platformer but with a twist to make it appealing. Nothing complicated, according to the programmer he can get a working version of the idea done in 3 or 4 weeks, which surprised me actually. C# is pretty awesome, I goofed around with Visual Studio and XNA and was surprised how friendy it all is. And now we finally got the manpower and the will to do it. Finding random people you don't know and expecting them to be relaxed and cool to work with is HARD, but today somehow I got it all done.

Thanks a lot for the advice =)

Two bits of general advice:

-Price your game at 80 msp.
-Don't spend forever working on it. Like, a couple of months tops. If you spend a year+ working on your first game, no matter how awesome it is or critically acclaimed, you'll never get enough sales to make up for the time. If accolades are all you're after, than by all means go ahead and do what you would like.

We were thinking of 240 points since we wanna give it our all, and think we can do it in 4/5 months tops that's also the amount of free time most of us have. If the quality isn't to what we expected we'll do it for 80 yeah. But my sound guy and graphics guy are extremely talented in what they do and basically this is their chance to show it. It's gonna be a hell of a ride at least.

Totally agree on the second point. Thanks. Our budget is low as shit anyway. :lol

 

[Sanic]

Generally, it takes a special game to make very many sales at either 240/400. Indies games are a race to the bottom from a pricing perspective. I suggest you take a look at the sales thread on the XNA forums, you'll learn a great deal. Either way, good luck with the game, and 4-5 months is a good dev time to shoot for

 

[bobs...onGaf]

They're opinion ultimately doesn't matter, but they'll verbally...I don't want to say attack, but annoy you about the quality of the game. And if it's really that bad/ticks them off in some way, they may spend more time than they otherwise would to try and fail it. Worst case scenario, if the game is bad, is that it will take longer to get through review as no one will be interested in reviewing it.

My main point is that there is a lot more politics and...morality, even, involved in the peer review process than there should be. The peer review process isn't perfect, or even good in my opinion, but your milage will vary. Lurk the forums over there for awhile.

Peer reviewing is done by all creators, which you will become one yourself when you sign up. You download a game, and you check it against a set of microsoft guidelines as well as a community developed 'evil checklist', and if it passes those tests you give it a 'pass'. A game needs a certain amount of passes to be put up for sale. I would check out creators.xna.com for more information.

Ah I see what you mean, 'friends' could help eachother whilst enemies on the boards could potentially screw you over. Ive seen the 'evil' checklist and it doesnt seem too bad, especially considering im not exactly aiming for a hugely complex thing. However this whole process does seem long/ time consuming and financially not very worth it.

While I have free access to the 'dev kit' ill play around and see how it goes. I will keep an eye on the forums, but right now dont think ill proceed too far with it. Thanks a hell of a lot for all the advice, and ide love to check out any of your games if you have some up?

 

[Sanic]

Ah I see what you mean, 'friends' could help eachother whilst enemies on the boards could potentially screw you over. Ive seen the 'evil' checklist and it doesnt seem too bad, especially considering im not exactly aiming for a hugely complex thing. However this whole process does seem long/ time consuming and financially not very worth it.

While I have free access to the 'dev kit' ill play around and see how it goes. I will keep an eye on the forums, but right now dont think ill proceed too far with it. Thanks a hell of a lot for all the advice, and ide love to check out any of your games if you have some up?

No problem, I love getting people into game dev. it's a very rewarding hobby to get into. I wish we had a more active development community/thread here on GAF.

The evil checklist isn't too bad like you said, though some rules are open to more interpretation than they should be, so you have to be careful. Best advice like I said is to lurk the forums and see what people are getting failed for.

The process can be financially rewarding if you plan things out correctly. A good, general way to sum it up that applies to many (but not all) cases is that if you make a competent game and do a bit of advertising, you'll make a few hundred bucks. Check out the sales thread on the XNA forums. Look how many copies were sold and at what price, than look at the games quality. You'll get an idea of what you're getting into.

I do have two games up on the service but they suck so I would rather not point you to them :lol. They were experiments more than anything and both were profitable, but I don't want to get into that here.

 

[Nemo]

We got a working prototype going. Yay! I was afraid what I wanted to do wasn't really possible in such a short amount of time but we got it ready and it plays pretty damn well.

I'm thinking of getting the game going for windows 7 mobile too. Our game would be perfect on the go, assuming all the phones do have a headphone port. Does anyone have any experiences with XNA 4.0 and Windows mobile 7 yet? I don't really know how it works yet, unless it's pretty much as straight forwarded as on Xbox 360

 

[Noogy]

I just put together a team of 4 people to make an XNA game

God I hope this somehow succeeds

XNA is the business. Best of luck!

 

[Nemo]

XNA is the business. Best of luck!

Thanks a lot man! Currently it's up to 7 people and we're working very hard. I'm stressed out of my mind too for the past 2 weeks, but I figure that's a good thing

 

[ElectricThunder]

Sorry for the bump, but might somebody be able to talk me down from, or maybe up to, the ledge that is purchasing VS2010, presumably just the Professional version lest I crack up completely, towards game dev ends? Or if there was some substantial GAF topic I missed and the search didn't bring up.

Part of me hopes I don't need it, part of me reckons coming to grips with such a thing would probably impart nifty abilities/job chances, part of me wonders if I can sink such a chunk of cash into something like this...gah!

 

[Slavik81]

Sorry for the bump, but might somebody be able to talk me down from, or maybe up to, the ledge that is purchasing VS2010, presumably just the Professional version lest I crack up completely, towards game dev ends? Or if there was some substantial GAF topic I missed and the search didn't bring up.

Part of me hopes I don't need it, part of me reckons coming to grips with such a thing would probably impart nifty abilities/job chances, part of me wonders if I can sink such a chunk of cash into something like this...gah!

I hope I'm not too late, but the express edition was fine for me. At home and at work I use 2008 standard with VisualAssistX.

Use the express edition first, and if you discover there are features from a higher version that you need, then buy it. Also, if you're in school you can probably get it for free through MSDNAA or other programs.

 

[ElectricThunder]

Only Express wound up being needed, thankfully. Good advice though. If I read it right, isn't it also insanely cheaper to just upgrade from Professional rather than the likes of Ultimate from the start?----that's utterly insane if so! :lol

That you can't sell anything via MSDNAA according to the fine print, on top of my not being a student, makes it less useful outside the chance to get good enough with it to perhaps get picked up job wise using it.