It Has Begun! First Sessions on Developing Games for Windows Phone at GDC

Pretty exciting day today for the team – as I speak, Michael Klucher is presenting the first public talk on how to develop games for Windows Phone 7 Series devices. There’s been some good buzz around the show about the phone, and it looks like it’s translated nicely to filling the room!

So far Michael’s walked through the basic XNA Framework, and is currently demoing how easy it is to build a game for the PC and re-use much of that code to launch the game on the phone. It’s cool stuff – I can tell how excited he is to finally be able to share what he’s been working on for literally years… I’ve been there myself with Xbox LIVE and Xbox 360, and I can tell he’s having a blast!

Beyond today’s talks, I’d also like to point you to some of the coverage yesterday from our press demos. We showed off a couple of titles, including hardware accelerated 3D support and achievements which Engadget hit on in their post. The thing that’s most exciting to me is that we’re finally able to show off full-screen 3D titles, rendering in real-time with full hardware acceleration. All through the 3D functionality we supply in XNA Game Studio 4.0. Here are some sample shots:

Some folks are asking how they can start developing a Windows Phone game. There are some amazing ideas floating around out there about how to build experiences across devices with Xbox LIVE at the center. I’m really excited by some of them, and am looking forward to seeing the innovation you all bring to the platform. Some of these folks are already looking ahead and asking who they can talk to about their game – and we have an answer for you.

The bar is pretty high for titles to be able to use Xbox LIVE services – we’re aiming for a very high-quality, managed portfolio. But if you feel you’ve got the ideas and the chops to hit that bar, both our publishing partners and ourselves are interested in talking with you! You can start developing today with XNA Game Studio 3.1; XNA Game Studio 4.0 with Windows Phone support will be available later this month. (And fear not – everyone else will of course be able to release your titles to the Windows Phone Marketplace – we’ll be talking a lot more about that next week at MIX.)

Feel like you’ve got game? Here’s what you do:

1. Email wpgames@microsoft.com with a description of your game and your contact information. We’ll send you a content submission form. We love playable demos!
2. If your game is accepted, you’ll hear from the developer relations staff and we’ll work with you to get you the resources required to get started.
3. We’ll take care of the rest – game integration, promotions, marketing, data analysis and community support.

Please note, by submitting your game, you agree to the following: Unless and until we sign a contract for the publishing and distribution of this game, we don’t have any kind of formal relationship other than under existing contracts between us. This is to protect both of us: for example, it means that if you spend money working on the project, then you don’t expect us to reimburse you, and it means you may develop and publish this game (excluding any Microsoft intellectual property) for other platforms without consequences. Nothing anyone who works for either of us says or does will change this unless and until your game is selected and we enter into a formal written agreement for our Xbox LIVE portfolio.

Look forward to seeing how you push the boundaries of what’s possible with Xbox LIVE!

Related posts:

1. Windows Phone 7 Series at GDC
2. Want to Make Games for Windows Phone? Go to GDC!
3. How Do I Use Xbox LIVE APIs on Windows Phone?
4. Break with the Past, Bright New Future: Windows Phone Application Development Platform built on XNA and Silverlight
5. Questions about Windows Phone? Find me at MIX10!