Valve enters the world of console 'engines' with their announcement of Xbox360 Source Engine.
Valve has, for a long time now, released development tools with their PC games freely for the modder community. Game enthusiasts can tinker with the tools and create their own games, one of the most well known Source Engine games is Counter Strike.
Not long ago Microsoft announced XNA which will let people build games for windows and easily port them over to Xbox 360 with the potential of having their game available to download on Live Arcade. Now Valve has their own set of professional level middleware tools that will let Source developers actually produce a full Xbox 360 retail title from something they've built on the PC.
The road from PC to Xbox 360 still isn't an easy one, but 360 Source Engine will cut out some of the steps and make the development path that much easier. You can start building your masterpiece with the free Source tools included with Valve products. Then when your game is done, working and tested and you you've jumped through the licensing and distribution hurdles, you can buy 360 Source Engine and port your game over to the Xbox 360 fairly easily. Your game could follow in the footsteps of Counter Strike, Day of Defeat and The Ship, all built on Source.
To port your Source game over to Xbox 360 you will need the Xbox 360 Source Engine tools and then you will need to re-compile your game. A re-compile will take care of most of the game logic, audio, models, textures, shaders and game level porting for you. Then you will need to adjust your games gameplay to work with a controller, tweak the games A.I., tweak network play for Xbox Live and make it work within the 512mb limit of the Xbox 360. The Source Engine comes with a complete network gaming solution that will let PC's game together and Xbox 360's talk with Xbox Live but it will also let PC's and Xbox 360's game together if Microsoft were to ever release their restrictions on letting PC's and Xbox's game together.
With XNA and 360 Source Engine, smaller development shops and game enthusiasts are starting to get choices for bringing their visions to console gamers. Before, the PC was the easiest way to develop and get something out there but it looks like Microsoft is trying to embrace and encourage the little guy to come to the table. With how much it costs to develop retail games, many small shops have had to close. Hopefully these steps will help encourage new ideas and unique game play so we as console gamers don't get stuck in sequel hell.
Not long ago Microsoft announced XNA which will let people build games for windows and easily port them over to Xbox 360 with the potential of having their game available to download on Live Arcade. Now Valve has their own set of professional level middleware tools that will let Source developers actually produce a full Xbox 360 retail title from something they've built on the PC.
The road from PC to Xbox 360 still isn't an easy one, but 360 Source Engine will cut out some of the steps and make the development path that much easier. You can start building your masterpiece with the free Source tools included with Valve products. Then when your game is done, working and tested and you you've jumped through the licensing and distribution hurdles, you can buy 360 Source Engine and port your game over to the Xbox 360 fairly easily. Your game could follow in the footsteps of Counter Strike, Day of Defeat and The Ship, all built on Source.To port your Source game over to Xbox 360 you will need the Xbox 360 Source Engine tools and then you will need to re-compile your game. A re-compile will take care of most of the game logic, audio, models, textures, shaders and game level porting for you. Then you will need to adjust your games gameplay to work with a controller, tweak the games A.I., tweak network play for Xbox Live and make it work within the 512mb limit of the Xbox 360. The Source Engine comes with a complete network gaming solution that will let PC's game together and Xbox 360's talk with Xbox Live but it will also let PC's and Xbox 360's game together if Microsoft were to ever release their restrictions on letting PC's and Xbox's game together.
With XNA and 360 Source Engine, smaller development shops and game enthusiasts are starting to get choices for bringing their visions to console gamers. Before, the PC was the easiest way to develop and get something out there but it looks like Microsoft is trying to embrace and encourage the little guy to come to the table. With how much it costs to develop retail games, many small shops have had to close. Hopefully these steps will help encourage new ideas and unique game play so we as console gamers don't get stuck in sequel hell.