XNA Framework Improvements

Since the XNA Framework lies at the heart of XNA Game Studio, it would be surprising if we hadn't made some improvements here as well. In our efforts to continue to expand and improve our Xbox LIVE integration, we've added rich presence and invitations to the framework.

Rich presence lets others who are playing on the Xbox 360 know what game you are playing and where you are in that particular game. With Game Studio 3.0, this presence will be the name of the XNA Game Studio game you are playing.

You can also specify the current state of your game from a set of several dozen strings ranging from things like "At Main Menu" to "Fighting the Boss."

XNA Game Studio 3.0 games also support invitations to other players to come play the game with you. You can send invitations from the game or from the Xbox 360 Guide. Also, you can invite others to play even if they are currently playing a different game ("cross-game invites").

Given the new support for the Zune, we've thoroughly revised the Audio APIs as well. Starting with Game Studio 3.0, you can now include just WAVs, WMAs, and MP3 files in the content pipeline, and use the new SoundEffect API to play them back.

While still supporting the rich feature set of the XACT Audio Tool and Runtime Engine, this provides a much simpler and easier way to get sound working in a game. There is also a new MediaPlayer API set that pulls music and pictures from the media libraries present on Xbox 360, Windows, and Zune. On Xbox 360, we can even pull media from other Windows PCs that are connected to the Xbox 360 through Windows Media Connect.

There are some new features that support Xbox LIVE Community Games, too. Gamers can download and play any community game in a trial mode before buying it. As a game developer, you probably want to know if your game is in trial mode or has been purchased by the player.

Naturally, you want the player to have a good trial mode experience. There is a new API call that tells you whether the game is in trial mode or is sold. You can also simulate the trial mode for testing purposes. This ensures your game correctly handles the transition from trial mode to purchase. If you're like me, you'd also like to make some money selling these games. After all, isn't that what Xbox LIVE Community Games is all about?

You can create a menu entry in your game that takes the gamer directly to the Marketplace offer for your game. This enables the gamer to buy your game -- without leaving the gaming experience you have created!

Games for Zune

Although it seems like a long time to me, it's only been six months since we released the Game Studio 3.0 CTP, which gave everyone a preview of the Visual Studio 2008 support and our newly minted Zune support.

In that time, Zune has upgraded to the 3.0 version of its firmware. This includes two games written with XNA Game Studio, Hexic and Texas Hold-em Poker.

In just six months, we went from previewing the means to make games on Zune to actually shipping games with the Zune firmware! Fortunately, I don't have to review all of the Zune features as I already covered them in this article.

Xbox LIVE Community Game Support

As Dax points out in his article, the Xbox LIVE Community Games effort is getting underway at the same time we release Game Studio 3.0. Indeed, a tremendous amount of work went into the underlying code and services exposed by Game Studio on the Xbox 360 to enable these Community Games.

While it was a ton of work, the payoff has been unbelievable when we consider the quantity and quality of these games. While the XNA Community teams have been hard at work preparing both the Xbox LIVE Community Games pipeline and XNA Game Studio 3.0, it's obvious that the game developer communities have been equally busy building some the most innovative and entertaining games the industry has seen in a long time.

The Circle Is Now Complete!

I've had both the honor and the privilege of being associated with XNA Game Studio from its inception in 2005 to the completion of the circle here in late 2008. We've gone from a grand experiment designed to help hobbyists and gaming enthusiasts make the games they've always wanted on Xbox 360 and Windows to the cusp of a new age where new platforms like Zune are coming online.

The hobbyists and enthusiasts are ready to become the next great Indy game developers through Xbox LIVE Community Games. And although we've completed the circle from game conception to incubation to development to distribution, judging from the conversations that occur daily here in XNA at Microsoft, there is a whole lot more we can do. Stay tuned!