The upcoming Windows 7 phone is a game-centric device with over 50 games planned for launch via the phone's Xbox Live connection. To get all of the Xbox Live community on the phone, however, Microsoft wants the XNA Creators Club to make the jump as well.
To that end, the company posted the first entry in a series of blogs on how to use XNA Game Studio with Windows Phone Developer Tools to make Windows 7 phone games. The posts cover samples, articles, and labs designed to get existing XNA devs up to speed or introduce total noobs to the joys of indie development on Xbox Live.
Lest you think you can't get anywhere with Xbox Live, let us point you toward one-man developer Ska Studios (a.k.a. James Silva). He created indie-hit I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1, which is now so popular that it's getting a Hot Topic T-shirt line and a theme song release on Rock Band Network. This is after 308,000 sales on Xbox Live.
In the interest of educating would-be indie devs on Windows 7 phone, Microsoft has guidelines and a free set of Developer Tools available here. The Windows 7 phone is expected in the U.S. this November. The last of the Developer Tools hits the web September 16.
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Source: Daily News from GamePro.com
Tuesday, August 24, 2010