From dream to reality...

Aug 14, 2007 07:35 GMT  ·  By

Just remember these titles: Schizoid, Blazing Birds, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, Gravitron Ultra, Yo Ho Kablammo!, Big Sky, and Burning Angels (screenshots included in this article), because you might be playing them in the future. The games have all been built via Microsoft's own XNA Game Studio, and with the exception of Schizoid, they're all connected with the company's Dream-Build-Play gaming contest. The Dream-Build-Play competition for Windows and Xbox 360 introduced earlier this year finished at the Microsoft Game Technology Conference Gamefest 2007 with the celebration of the winners.

"The games we received in the Dream-Build-Play competition are truly inspiring," said Chris Satchell, general manager of the XNA organization at Microsoft. "Created in just four short months using XNA Game Studio, these games demonstrate an incredible range of innovation, fun gameplay and technical achievement."

"We uncovered some remarkable talent with this contest and are pleased to include these original creations in our diverse library of games on Xbox LIVE Arcade," said Bryan Trussel, director of content and portals for Microsoft Casual Games. "It's aspiring, independent developers like these who are really driving our industry."

The Dream-Build-Play official website features a complete list of all the winners. Burning Angels from a team in Beijing, China only made it to third place, but it is without a doubt the sexiest concept ever built with the XNA Game Studio. However, Microsoft extended invitations to have their games published on Xbox Live Arcade only to the occupants of the first and second positions.

"Tied for first place were David Flook of Ontario, Canada, and James Silva of New York with their respective games: "Blazing Birds," and "The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai,". For their accomplishments, Flook and Silva were offered publishing contracts with Xbox LIVE Arcade, $10,000 (U.S.) each. Steve Olofsson of Sweden and Daniel McGuire of the United Kingdom received honors as runners-up for their games: "Gravitron Ultra" and "Yo Ho Kablammo!" respectively, (...) and were also to publish on Xbox LIVE Arcade to Olofsson and McGuire, along with $5,000 (U.S.)," Microsoft revealed.

Of course that in the end the Dream-Build-Play competition was also a way for the Redmond company to advertise its XNA Game Studio. At Gamefest, Microsoft announced that the studio was downloaded in excess of 400,000 times. In this context, later this year, Torpex Games will introduce Schizoid the first professionally produced Xbox LIVE Arcade game built exclusively with XNA Game Studio.

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Burning Angels
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