Develop for Xbox Live Arcade?

[2SeeKU]

Hey guys,
Just found this game the other day and l have to say, l'm quite impressed. Have you guys considered developing this for Xbox live arcade? Would suit the xbox 360 quite nicely since they have leaderboards and the such, plus you can store your own music. Also, depending on what language the game is written in, it shouldn't be to hard to port over.

[Shadow The Rat]

The main problem is that getting mp3s on your 360 is like pulling teeth, plus it's a70MB game which means it wouldn't be a $5 download like most 360 games.

[2SeeKU]

They upped the size limit of Arcade games awhile ago. Some games are coming in over 100mb now so l shouldn't see 70mb being a problem.

Also, you can stream music from another computer or just use and ipod/zune.

[Dylan]

Why oh why didn't they make the zune double as a 360 hard drive.

[2SeeKU]

Why oh why didn't they make the zune double as a 360 hard drive.

Thats actually a great idea and would be a great way to push the zune.

[Pwntastic]

maybe, tho if the xbox starts storing game files and such on there, it opens up the modding community's ability to start hacking around with games which is exactly what microsoft does not want.

[Stabhappy]

Tell that to the thousands of people who've modded their X360's to accept sata hdd's with x360 games installed...

Anyway, although I would atleast get my brother to download this game on to his x360, I forsee many complaints of people with console issues (mostly the aquirement of MP3's onto the xbox). My brother in question however wouldnt have a problem as my MP3 files are shared over the network, but very few (~5%) of x360's have access to media content, disregards to how mind crushingly easy it is to set up.

[Pwntastic]

hehe my point was that microsoft is not going to do something that would make modding like that more official. if peopel mod their 360's to play games from a hard drive that rocks, ive got a modchip for my wii too etc etc. but microsoft isnt gonna do something that makes it even easier for that to happen, like provide you with your own hard drive to use

[2SeeKU]

maybe, tho if the xbox starts storing game files and such on there, it opens up the modding community's ability to start hacking around with games which is exactly what microsoft does not want.

Most, if not all games do that now. Xbox 360 has a space reserved in its memory just for game saves/game data. Don't see what the difference is..

Also, l'm not biased towards xbox. I own a 360 which is why l suggested it. Its just l see great potential for the game and a console is a great way for indie developers to go mainstream (e.g: Geometry wars).

[Stabhappy]

Hmm, all I'm saying is, such a game deserves to stay off of consoles purely because of the limits of getting media to said console. I mean how annoyed would you be if you've downloaded this amazing game, then all you can do is play the 4 tracks that come with it because your:

Mp3 player doesnt work properly with it (Ipods for example, won't let you simply drag and drop MP3 files onto them, well, not unless you enjoy having two copies of the song on the same ipod)
Networking isn't overly easy when it comes to understanding multiple machines and how sharing/permissions work on operating systems
Putting music onto the Xbox is legally questionable in general.

To be honest I think the whole 'modding made easier' you're speaking of is a moot point, becuase all arcade games and indeed save games on the harddrive can be manipulated by modders in the same way, for example editing a cod4 save so that you unlock all aspects of online play.

[2SeeKU]

Hmm, all I'm saying is, such a game deserves to stay off of consoles purely because of the limits of getting media to said console. I mean how annoyed would you be if you've downloaded this amazing game, then all you can do is play the 4 tracks that come with it because your:

Mp3 player doesnt work properly with it (Ipods for example, won't let you simply drag and drop MP3 files onto them, well, not unless you enjoy having two copies of the song on the same ipod)
Networking isn't overly easy when it comes to understanding multiple machines and how sharing/permissions work on operating systems
Putting music onto the Xbox is legally questionable in general.

To be honest I think the whole 'modding made easier' you're speaking of is a moot point, becuase all arcade games and indeed save games on the harddrive can be manipulated by modders in the same way, for example editing a cod4 save so that you unlock all aspects of online play.

It's actually quite easy to play music on a xbox (and l assume the ps3 would be similar):

1) You can simply plug in your removable hdd, psp, ipod, zune or whatever usb hdd device you have iwth music and play your songs directly off said media.

2)Stream music from another computer. No need to copy the music to the hdd and is quite easy to do if you own xp/vista or a mac (with connect360)

3)Play the music from the hdd. Probably the hardest option. Xbox 360 allows you to "rip" music from a audio cd, exactly the same way iTunes or Windows Media player rips the music to your computer. PS3 on the otherhand supports transferring music across the network (someone correct me if l'm wrong) along with ripping.

Also, both console's support streaming music so even the "radio" feature would still work.

[Stabhappy]

Well maybe it's just where I live, then, that people arent capable enough to set up their xbox 360's and PS3's in a way which allows for easy use of streaming media.

For the ipod, atleast, you can -not- plug it in and play the mp3 tracks properly, mostly because of the obscure and unnecessary copy protection resulting in a hidden folder (easily fixed, but by someone moderaly tech savvy) and then complete scrabled folders and file names.

Basically, what I'm saying is, it's a lot more trouble than launching the game on your home PC and selecting a song from your music folder.

[2SeeKU]

I use the ipod plugged into xbox 360 and it controls it fine, same with the ps3 actually..

The 360 has global classes available to the game which access the music currently playing by the dashboard (think of it like "explorer.exe" in windows). This feature can be seen in Test Drive, where you can control the music (skip,pause,play) in game.

However, I understand the point that music isn't naturally stored on a console, its just if your tech savy enough to get mp3's onto a pc, then you'll easilly be able to do it on a next gen console.

[Stabhappy]

I understand the global class implementation and realise the game would work perfectly well on the 360, I guess I've just been used to the 13 year old kids on XBox360 fan sites shouting about why their TV doesnt support HD and it's obviously microsoft's fault. It's a whole new level of stupid.

I agree. I'd certainly make sure to add a note on the live arcade that MP3 files are recommended to be used with the game if it ever appears of the XBLA at all.