Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

**Jasong7777** · 06-02-2009, 09:31 AM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

I downloaded a couple of the community games, but for some reason they are not working. Keeps telling me that there is a problem and to download the game again.

**Flawless** · 06-08-2009, 03:01 PM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

Kodu Launches This Month

Microsoft was mysteriously quiet about Kodu, its democratizing game-creation tool, at E3 last week. Maybe that's because the software is just about finished and ready to launch. The official Kodu blog was updated last week with the announcement that the team is prepping for release at the end of this month. An exact date hasn't been revealed, but it's nice to know we'll be making our own games soon.

**allBthere** · 06-08-2009, 07:45 PM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

Originally posted by Flawless

Kodu Launches This Month

any word on pricing for this one? If it's the same as other dl's I'll get it for sure.

**Flawless** · 06-24-2009, 06:00 PM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

Kodu Dated for June 30, Price 400 points

Next week on the Xbox Live Marketplace will see the release of ‘Kudo’ a game building program which allows anyone to create games using an icon based interface and an Xbox360 controller. Now anyone can create and play basic games straight from the console with a little imagination.

The Microsoft Research Kodu page gives the following information:

The core of the Kodu project is the programming user interface. The language is simple and entirely icon-based. Programs are composed of pages, which are broken down into rules, which are further divided into conditions and actions. Conditions are evaluated simultaneously.

The Kodu language is designed specifically for game development and provides specialized primitives derived from gaming scenarios. Programs are expressed in physical terms, using concepts like vision, hearing, and time to control character behavior. While not as general-purpose as classical programming languages, Kodu can express advanced game design concepts in a simple, direct, and intuitive manner.

Kodu provides an end-to-end creative environment for designing, building, and playing one’s own new games, including:

High-level language incorporates real-world primitives: collision, color, vision
Uses Xbox 360 Game Controller for input — no keyboard required
Runs on Xbox 360 and PC
Interactive terrain editor
Bridge and path builder
Terrain editor - create worlds of arbitrary shape and size
20 different characters with different abilities

Kodu will be released on June 30th 2009 for 400 MS Points on the Xbox Live Community Games area.

**Flawless** · 07-02-2009, 03:44 PM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

Another look at the top community games:

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**Flawless** · 07-02-2009, 04:11 PM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

This looks fun. It's coming to community games soon for 200 points.

"Control of each racing craft is actually handled with just two buttons – the left and right analogue triggers. They power the left and right rockets respectively, so movement is simple – press both at once to move forward, and alternate power to each for turning. Players will be able to customise their controls to find the configuration that suits their playing style, including using the left analogue stick.

Hitting the best racing line and cutting corners won’t always be the best way to win. Players will actually gain a significant speed boost by positioning the rockets against the walls and corners for extra thrust power. The concept is explained via a simple tutorial system in the game, and players will eventually be sliding and boosting around each level with high speed and extreme precision.

Gameplay is focused on shaving seconds off your best times, reminiscent of the legendary Trackmania series. Players can upload their best times on over 40 tracks to the Global Leaderboards and see where they rank among the world’s best. Local multiplayer is available with up to four players taking control of a rocket racer, drifting around corners and sprinkling the course with colorful glowing trails – a simple yet incredibly engaging graphical effect."

Trailer:

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**allBthere** · 07-02-2009, 04:34 PM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

did anyone pick up kodu? I tried the trial and don't know what to think about it. I thought it was going to make a really big spash and be a big deal when it dropped but noone seems to care - i guess partially since it's a community game, but I also expected bigger sites to review it.

**Flawless** · 07-02-2009, 04:40 PM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

I'm sure there will be impressions and maybe reviews forth coming, but I would imagine it's tougher to review something like Kodu compared to a regular game.

**Flawless** · 07-09-2009, 01:11 AM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

Eurogamer: Kodu Impressions

But Kodu Game Lab's ambitions outstrip those of its distant rivals, not to mention its paltry price point of 400 MSP. Here your creations are not bound to a single genre or set of game rules, or even a single visual style. Rather, this ostensibly-for-kids game-creation set has broadened its boundaries to encompass everything from third-person shooters to racing games to RPGs. While you're never going to be able to turn out the next Gears of War-alike with its modest XNA-based engine, you've a good chance of being able to approximate any ideas you may have, and the limits of what's possible are wide enough to allow your imagination a long leash.

If you are already a games programmer of even modest ability, you'll no doubt find this package restrictive, simplistic and a bit pointless. That's fine. Kodu Game Lab isn't for you. It's for us, the giant throng of gamers who feel like they might have the germ of a good idea for a game but don't have the time to learn C++ or LUA script in order to scale the massive learning curve that sits between our idea and our game. At the very least, it's for those of us who would like to understand just a little bit more about how videogames are put together, and on that basis, it's a triumph.

As this is an XNA game, don't expect a huge amount of polish to the tutorials. Everything is rough and ready in terms of presentation, but it's also been thoughtfully arranged so that you soon learn the basics and, if ever you do become lost, it doesn't take long to find your way back to the top level of the editing menus. As well as the 11 rudimentary learn-as-you-do tutorials, Kodu comes with a slew of example levels and game types, all of which can be tweaked and picked apart so you can see how they work. It's worth spending time with all of these before embarking on your own first blank project as, until you have a good handle on the basics, an empty 3D space waiting to be filled with cameras, textures, objects and ideas can be a terrifying prospect.

However, when you are ready to start on something from scratch, the options are pleasingly varied. You can add scores of different characters and objects to your world and, while there's no graphical editor to allow you to design these from scratch, stock items include things as varied as walls, roads, apples, fish, jets, blimps, submarines, cannons, clouds, stars, rocks, coins, castles, hearts and ammo. Adding ground to your game level is as simple as painting it on, Photoshop-style (from a palette of 121 different types, colours and textures), and you can change the lighting and even adjust the strength of the breeze. You can raise and lower the ground to make hills and valleys, set the camera behaviours, alter wave strength, how the game first appears to users (with a description or a timer counting down), and you even have some rudimentary tools for debugging sight and sound lines, displaying collision data and so on.

While good results will almost certainly take longer than even the most complex LittleBigPlanet level, and it'll only look half as good thanks to the blocky, N64-esque graphics engine, the two games are comparable. As with Media Molecule's title, Kodu will teach you the basics of game design. Maybe not in the sense of hard-coding, but certainly in the process of formulating an idea and then executing all of the various necessary components to bring it to life.

It will take the coming weeks and months for Kodu's boundaries to be pushed against and broken by creative types and through that process some gems may be formed. But my hunch is that Kodu's lasting worth rests not in the creations its users put out, but in the lessons and principles it teaches those users, in the young people that are inspired to become game designers when they grow up, and in the older people who gain a new appreciation for the effort that goes into even the humblest videogame.

**DXZeke** · 07-09-2009, 05:17 AM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

Originally posted by Flawless

Another look at the top community games:

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Thanks for posting that video Flawless. I hadn't even heard about or seen half of those games. Quite a few look really cool. Like what old school gaming was about.

**ExtremeGamer** · 08-17-2009, 06:48 PM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

LMAO, I found my favorite game from the indie games.

I Made a Game with Zombies In It!

LMAO!!! It has a theme song the guy who made it wrote, about his game and zombies and how it costs a buck.

It's basically Robotron 2084 with zombies. It rules! LMAO

**Keith121212** · 09-02-2009, 04:16 AM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

Miner Dig Deep owns my soul lol

**Pappy Knuckles** · 01-28-2010, 05:56 AM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

Anyone pick up Hoyle Texas Hold 'Em? I had a really good online tournament against a few people last night. I didn't really like the XBLA Hold 'Em game because it animated too slowly and it was just real clunky looking. I prefer this one a lot more.

**tj1182** · 01-28-2010, 04:36 PM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

What the? Is a pretty fun game. It's a 70's theme trivia game show.

Browse all games | Xbox

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550212/

A Fading Melody is a little odd but enjoyable.

Browse all games | Xbox

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585501c8/

**goh** · 01-28-2010, 05:45 PM

Re: Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

Twin Blades was pretty cool from the demo. Also enjoyed Goblyn Stomp,it's not much in the gameplay department (just jumping on heads mainly,stil fun) but it has style. Soul has tremendous style but the gameplay is awful and not suited for the 360 at all,might be good with a mouse. Still not buying any if I have to be online to play them.

Don't Sleep on Xbox Live Community Games

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