ID@Xbox - Indie Developer program for XboxOne

edg3

So, I was just reading up on things I missed and what-not and I stumbled upon "ID@Xbox" and read up some more, so basically the tl;dr of it would be the successor to Xbox Live Indie Games, but sounds cooler in terms of what it offers us as developers.

You can read more here: http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/developers/id

So:

The ID@Xbox programme enables qualified game developers of all sizes to unleash their creativity by self-publishing digital games on Xbox One.

And:

What are the criteria for becoming a member of ID@Xbox?

Of course, we’ll be evaluating each developer application individually on its own merits, but in the initial phase of ID@Xbox, we are looking for professional independent game developers who have a proven track record of shipping games on console, PC, mobile, or tablet. We want to ensure your success in your development effort on Xbox One. Developing and publishing a console game is not trivial!

Our longer term plan is that anyone with a retail Xbox One will be able to develop, publish, and sell their game on Xbox Live.

And you can also put games up as free-to-play, and it looks like a 70/30 split still. Also, no stupid marketplace segregation of the apps (is what they are saying).

An interview: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-08-20-harrison-xbox-one-indie-publishing-a-valuable-on-ramp-for-talent
Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/198528/Microsoft_lifts_veil_on_IDXbox__Xbox_Ones_selfpublishing_program.php

There are a bunch of games that we have in our community who I think the developers of should definitely be applying now to try get in earlier if they want to target the platform.

Thoughts? Like? Dislike?

dislekcia

They've directly said they're looking for professional indies right now, people who have shipped successful games already. That means that if you're Vlambeer or Klei, awesome for you. Nobody in SA is anything like that successful, so I doubt you'd get approved.

Also, given how much Microsoft wants different content and exclusivity from developers, AND how often they've changed things around with XBLIG and how crap that got eventually - I wouldn't bet the financial future of my company on trying to get onto the Xbone.

Right now you have to already succeed somewhere else to get in the door and who knows when that will change? Plus if you're relying on a change of policy that you can't control, who's to say that any future policy change will necessarily be good for you?

Kobusvdwalt9

Ive heard or read somewhere that if you publish your game to the windows 8 store you will have a greater chance to get approved for XBone. You just have to convince them that you wont fail... easy...

LazyLizzard

...and that is if South Africa is one of the countries allowed to publish through the channel. Right now, XBLIG is off limits to you...

Ratel

For now it would be a nice to have if we would be allowed to publish to it but ya I also feel MS have a rep to make suden stupid dicisions, lets just hope they are smarter about this than previous ones.

dislekcia

Why would anyone want to publish to XBLIG? Seriously, do you know what the platform is like?

There are two SA projects on XBLIG right now, Ninja Crash and Dirchie Kart (I think @BrownBot just released Dirchie Kart 2 actually) AFAIK neither of them is doing fantastically, mostly due to limitations of the platform's reach and purchase model :(

Tuism

Why exactly are people needing to get onto fragments of the xBox market? Why isn't it just one market?

DaveRussellSA

ID@Xbox is open to any developers who have a proven track record (aka have successfully released a game) not specifically Pro dev houses, there are quite a few indies overseas who have applied successfully, and its not off limits to people in SA. Although having said that going forward even if we don't make it into the program the Xbox One platform is going to be open to developers (Yes its only going to happen after the first update). I think the purpose of this program is to sort out all the development teething issues to ensure the dev experience when they go live is as smooth as possible (I am just guessing here).

@dislekcia XBLIG is definitely a mess especially as we were not able to publish there from South Africa as well as the other complications, would be nice to hear from the @BrownBot, the Ninja Crash, and Most addicting sheep guys to get their view. The ID@Xbox drive is for Xbox One which is aiming to be open to everyone who owns a device around the world. MS already has local stores for both Phone and Win8 in SA that pays out to local bank accounts extending that to SA is a lot simpler for Xbox One.

@Tuism I think having a separate XBLIG market is also not a great idea. While technically it is just one market the the way its segregated is a bit :S.

With all that said I do think the past experience with XBLIG has left a rather horrible taste in peoples mouths and well we aren't the only country that faces this issue today. I do think that Xbox One will resolve most of those past issues but only time will tell. I would hope we all keep an open mind and take what ever opportunities are out there to get our games out to the public and be successful.

LazyLizzard

What I find most strange is that Microsoft has dropped XNA and also .NET support on Xbox one. So, using C#, given to the world by Microsoft, I can now code for every major platform except Microsoft's own Xbox One. Microsoft's one selling point is their dedicated programmer base, which they are now leaving vulnerable. Mr Ballmer is clearly a genius in his own mind, lol.

Maybe the mono guys will figure something out which would allow for unity and monogame. So there is still hope!!

edg3

Unity CEO David Helgason has revealed to OXM that Unity game creation tools for Xbox One won't, in fact, be "widely available" to developers till 2014, though they will be made available to certain developers as part of early testing this year.

Hope this helps @LazyLizzard.

Sauce: http://www.oxm.co.uk/62188/xbox-one-unity-tools-wont-be-widely-available-till-2014-clarifies-ceo/

I've been looking at DirectX stuff lately and it hasn't been as rough as I thought it would be, the prospect of only using C++ is daunting though, and its awesome that things like Unity are already in the process of adding support for it (it seems). In theory it means that Mono is already usable, or we would have by now heard that Unity has issues with their C# support.

EvanGreenwood

Unity will be working on XBox One sometime next year. http://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/10/unity-adding-xbox-one-support-later-this-year/

I don't really understand the reasoning for supporting a certain framework/language (like supporting C++) and not supporting others (like .NET) . Unless they're going to do zero screening of developers/games. (I'd think that the end product is what matters, regardless of the method of production) (Is it just designed as a barrier for entry then?)

AngryMoose

Not that it realllllllllly matters, but FYI, Dirchie Kart is actually Australian. BrownBot moved back there last year or so. He was only living in ZA temporarily :)

LazyLizzard

I have done a 3 month prototype of an isometric world with some terrain mods and tools etc using C++ and direct x. It's just ugly and not for the faint hearted but I'll be fine. Do I want to is another discussion...

@edg3 Thanks. I haven't looked into it for a while but I always expected people like unity to make it happen

dislekcia

@AngryMoose: Ah, I didn't realise he'd moved back. Only really met him once or twice...

For what it's worth, Ninja Crash is sold on XBLIG via the UK.

SniperED007

Notifications are to be sent out by end of this week, will be interesting to see if any SA dev's got in.
Anybody here apply? We did.

edg3

If I had the kind of portfolio to warrant possibly getting in early I would have applied. It will be interesting to see if people did apply and they get in though.

SniperED007

We got the email that was sent out last week from Microsoft but they still haven't announced if we approved or not, just them asking more questions to help them decide who gets in or not in the first round. Don't think we'll know for a while still.