I've been halfheartedly following the GDC '08 conference that was going on last week. Following it because I wished I was there, halfheartedly because I was jealous that I wasn't. Many cool announcements were made, and most, as far as I can tell, by Microsoft. The one I found the coolest was the announcement of XBox Live Community Arcade.
The Community Arcade is a way that wannabes just like me can write and distribute games over XBox Live to other players. They've already got a few samples you can download. My favorite is JellyCar. I dig it because all of the sound effects were done by some guy with a microphone. That's what my first game will most likely sound like.
If you've been following this blog at all, you know that I just bought an XBox, and that I've been a wannabe game programmer since approximately age 10. Short of announcing my age, let's just say that a really freakin' long time. I downloaded XNA Game Studio and started playing with it. A bit dissatisfied with how stuff ran on my PC, I bought the Creators Club membership so I could deploy stuff to the XBox. If I can just take a moment here... I deployed a game I compiled (didn't write however) to the XBox and set a break point. Far out, man. 
It takes so little to please me.
I've been wondering exactly how I would distribute a game I developed for XBox. Just in time, the folks over at XNA created a way to do it. I don't know if it's a charge-money-for-it kind of proposition or not, but I'm not too concerned. I'm not doing it for money. Money is nice, but I already have a day job.
There was another cool announcement too. Starting with XNA 3.0 you can target the Zune as a platform. Yuh huh, you can play games on the frikkin Zune. You can write games for the frikkin Zune!
Add to Cowboy's shopping list: One Zune, black. Microsoft has sooo much of my money....
Now, there's just one thing left, actually write a game.....
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