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$10,000 and a game publishing contract go to the best Xbox Live Arcade entry

Microsoft today kicked off GDC with the Dream-Build-Play game development contest, offering a $10,000 grand prize and the opportunity for a winner’s game to be published on Xbox Live Arcade.

Dream-Build-Play is open to any user of XNA Game Studio Express, including the GarageGames Torque X platform. The contest ends July 2, 2007, and winners will be announced Aug. 13 at Microsoft Gamefest 2007 in Seattle.

Aside from the $10,000 top spot, Microsoft says that “more than 20 winners” will be selected to win prizes with a total value of more than $40,000 from Microsoft, Alienware, AMD, Autodesk and Softimage.

Together with the development of the XNA tools and new contest, Microsoft is encouraging students, hobbyists and independent game developers to showcase new and brave game ideas that gamers might otherwise never see from major game development studios. Microsoft said in a press release that its “investments in game development technologies are helping to spark a new creative era while ensuring the best games are being built for Microsoft platforms.”

Also at GDC this week, Microsoft will spotlight the ways that some of the most innovative game creators in the industry are bringing their visions to life on Microsoft gaming platforms. Today, Microsoft Game Studios is presenting “The Evolution of RPG Development,” a panel discussion featuring Hironobu Sakaguchi of Mistwalker, Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios and Ray Muzyka of BioWare Corp., the creators of the several highly anticipated role-playing games of the next generation.

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By AmpedSilence on 3/6/2007 4:16:04 PM , Rating: 2
As we have seen with YouTube and MySpace; user driven content is the future.

Of course this is of a more limited nature since not everyone who is a hardcore gamer is a programmer or can program for that matter. But everyone has ideas on neat games or games that can work. Here is a chance for the user base to truly try to build a better mouse trap; some will succeed and most will fail, but talk about a challenge.

I usually don't approve of MS, but this deserves a thumbs up.




RE: ...
By h0kiez on 3/6/2007 4:39:21 PM , Rating: 5
God I hope MySpace isn't a barometer of our future...


RE: ...
By AmpedSilence on 3/6/2007 4:45:10 PM , Rating: 3
the forum/environment that myspace provides not what is actually provided.

If what is provided is a measure of the future, i would be quite scared; may God help us.


Wow...
By KeithTalent on 3/6/2007 4:12:16 PM , Rating: 2
awesome contest! I would totally enter this if I had any design talent whatsoever...or an Xbox.

I hope some people from AT &/or DT enter and we get to see what they do!!




Futile effort by MS to cultivate game developers
By xuimod on 3/6/07, Rating: -1
By AmpedSilence on 3/6/2007 5:13:58 PM , Rating: 3
I disagree with you.

The US educational system is not the pits. Why is it that many foreign students come here to study rather than in their own countries? If our system was so sub-par then that would not happen as much as it does.

I would much rather point to the students themselves rather than the system.


By AmpedSilence on 3/6/2007 5:38:12 PM , Rating: 2
agreed; but this is slightly off topic is it not?

I would tend to go with that they don't care, more than that they aren't up to snuff. and the caring part is probably a by-product of the K-12 part of their education.


By xuimod on 3/6/2007 5:42:45 PM , Rating: 1
Yeah it's very off-topic. Didn't even realize it. LOL, sorry about that.


By dever on 3/10/2007 3:25:55 PM , Rating: 1
Yes, this thread is completely off topic. But the disparity is simple. Lack of competition and lack of school choice. When parents can decide which school to place their in, the schools will have reason to perform.

Back on topic, I think Microsoft is on to something by giving away game development tools. If I were 13 years old again, I would be spending every spare minute doing this (just like I did with the C64). What a great way to promote there console and their programming environments. I'm sure there'll be multiple teenagers who will end up preferring to program in C# because of the free XNA platform.


By isaacmacdonald on 3/7/2007 1:10:41 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
I read somewhere that 3/4 of PhD's in engineering at US universities are awarded to international students. Obviously, US students aren't up to snuff at the PhD level (or they simply don't care).


That's an odd conclusion. I've been considering pursuing a PHD myself, but I've found there's an oversupply of PHD's these days (particularly in the social sciences/liberal arts). Competition for professorships in all fields is fierce and compensation for most will be meager. There are some niche opportunities for PHDs in math/physics/engineering who are willing to work as quants at investment banks or hedge funds, but these careers are generally far from what most PHD students envision (at least from my conversations at my university).

The PHD route is hardly a no-brainer. If money is a prime concern, Law or Med School would surely be a better bet. Consequently it's silly to assume US students aren't getting more PHDs for lack of ability.


By PandaBear on 3/7/2007 2:42:51 PM , Rating: 2
You just mentioned IT, science, and engineering, so you clearly mean undergrad and graduate level. Now you are changing your subject to make you look more politically correct.


RE: Futile effort by MS to cultivate game developers
By SiN on 3/7/2007 4:09:38 AM , Rating: 2
In many cases the kids just want to get away from their own country while persuing a course they think they want to do. Someone down the thread mentions that your country has the highest number of high ranking universities, well your country is big enough, it's no suprise you have.
I'm not bashing, i have sense. Many have a brilliant time doing this, but it's not because you have better uni's, its because it's an adventure for the kids.
There's the possibility that they could not do the specific course in a more local uni in their home country. Its a battle to get into the course you want here in Ireland, with our points system. Plenty travel to the UK where they're spanning their options, not choosing the uni they want to go to, you can't just choose the uni you want, you can only aim.

Anyway, brilliant idea MS, this is the answer people have been calling for, at least some will be noticed, think of it as the sundance festival. Hope this is annual!


By SiN on 3/7/2007 4:12:11 AM , Rating: 2
Could have done with the edit function right about now! Bad punctuation and structure to my point.


By giantpandaman2 on 3/6/2007 5:17:54 PM , Rating: 2
As someone who actually works to fix this, I understand where you're coming from. The US K-12 educational system, as a whole, is far from world class. However we do have more top level universities, than any other country in the world, not to mention we also do have very high level K-12 schools scattered throughout. Simply look at the huge number of foreign students at American universities to prove both the top level university point and the woeful K-12 educational system point.

When it comes directly to MS and this contest, however, your statement totally lacks validity for one simple reason: the contest is not limited to US citizens.

And, quite simply, it's a good idea for MS to try to create incentive for people to learn how to create games. With the extraordinary complexity of games today it's very hard for "hobbyist" gamers to come up with anything substantial. Sure there's a thriving mod community, but they cut their teeth on making games that, while different from the original, are still quite similar. Perhaps why there's a paucity in "totally new" types of games and there's hundreds of FPS games released every year? Hearken back to the pre-internet, DOS/Shareware days where every game was totally different from every other, and you have MSoft's goal. Personally I think MS should be facilitating more of a shareware type ecosystem over XBox Live than simply running a contest now and again. Perhaps that's what they have planned in the future, who knows.

PS-I do realize some mods are very original, but my point still stands for the vast majority of them.


By kmiller1700 on 3/7/2007 2:41:46 AM , Rating: 3
dumbass


By PandaBear on 3/7/2007 2:40:41 PM , Rating: 3
If you are looking at the bottom 25% of the students/schools, I agree with you.

So tell me, who invented RISC, OpAmp, and where are all the high tech development done in the world? US has a big chunk of it. And where are these locations in the US? Near good universities.

As a matter of fact, I did work on a hybrid car back in undergrad in Davis, and some of the patent, technologies we worked on eventually productized.

Have you worked on these when you were an undergrad elsewhere? I bet that country's education system sucks too.


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