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Games by regular people

August 29th, 2008 by Marc Olano

Both of these developments happened (with some fanfare) over the past year, but together they’re particularly exciting for the opportunities they give for just about anyone (student groups, amateurs, small start-up companies) to create and sell games on popular platforms.

First is the iPhone app store. You can join the program and download development tools and a simulator for free. For $100, you can join the program to be able to develop programs that will actually run on a real iPhone or iPod touch. You can submit programs you develop to the iPhone app store at any price you choose (most are free or <$10), and get 70% of any sales.

Second, is the XBox Live community games. Actually, they were first with the ability of users to write their own games with XNA, and first to let you upload them to your XBox 360 with a $100/year creators club subscription (free through the Microsoft Academic Alliance), and first to let you distribute them for free, but the ability to make money on them came later. The terms are similar though, you can write and submit a game, choose how much it costs, and get 70% of any sales.

I think both developments are really exciting because they seriously lower the bar to develop and start making games, and potentially making money on them. The especially interesting part isn’t that everyone can make yet another clone of everyone else’s game, but that some new and really exciting game ideas might see widespread use. Portal without the period of hoping a Valve comes along to pick up the game. If you’ve seen some really unusual and cool user-created iPhone or XBox game, post a comment…

Posted in Game consols, iPhone, sofware, xbox |

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