Indie Developers Close to Acquiring Kinect Access

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
14,499
0
0
Indie Developers Close to Acquiring Kinect Access



The off-the-wall and clever experiences often seen only in the indie spectrum may soon be compatible with Kinect.


One of the coolest things to come out of Xbox Live is the Xbox Live Indie Games storefront which technically anybody can release a game to with enough know-how. In the near future, the Kinect lineup could see the likes of games on the storefront such as Breath of Death VII [http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585502a6/] added to it as Microsoft says it hopes to get the tools for indie developers to be able to develop Kinect-compatible titles in their hands soon.

Microsoft Game Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer told IGN the news when asked if he had plans to incorporate Kinect into its Indie storefront. He said that the new Kinect games [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103522-TGS-10-Codename-D-Kinect-for-Hardcore-Gamers] shown at the Tokyo Game Show this year were "exciting" because he realized "people can go create a flaming baseball game while somebody else is doing a river rafting game."

In relation to XBL Indie Games and Kinect compatibility, Spencer said: "When the community will light up, we don't have a date lined up yet. It's not that I'm hiding it from you I just don't know. But getting a broad set of developers supporting our platform at all levels is important to our success."

Though there isn't a planned date yet, Spencer says Microsoft isn't far from putting the Kinect framework in place for indie developers. "I think we're close...when you can simply drop the things in and go away and it works perfectly, then you're ready," he added. "And I think we're close given we're so close to shipping."

The XBL Indie Games store could probably still use some tweaking, but it is an awesome place to browse to find strange and fun experiences for a few bucks. Though I know I'll own the Kinect someday, if indie developers are able to get their hands on the technology I know I'll be more apt to drop the dough on one.

As an example of what we may see, Arkedo Studio has already released multiple XBL Indie games including the highly-rated helps you talk to girls [http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585503c9/] out there, but maybe it'd be more fun as a Kinect title.

Source: IGN [http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/112/1122614p1.html]

Permalink
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
5,630
0
0
Its about time MS lets others have access to the software. I still dont have much faith it will make any of the games good.

But, nice to know MS is sharing..
 

Sebenko

New member
Dec 23, 2008
2,531
0
0
Well, it's Kinect's best chance for some games that aren't unmitigated shite and/or party games.
 

Andronicus

Terror Australis
Mar 25, 2009
1,846
0
0
Sebenko said:
Well, it's Kinect's best chance for some games that aren't unmitigated shite and/or party games.
QFT

By the looks of what the major publishers are putting out, the only chance for the Kinect to capture my interest at this point would depend on what the indies manage to come up with. Here's to a hundred fantastic ideas (not so much to the other billions of crap ideas that will undoubtably come about as a result as well).
 

OceanRunner

New member
Mar 18, 2009
1,145
0
0
I'm pretty sure that the Indie developers can easily make a better Kinect game than Microsoft.
 

LawlessSquirrel

New member
Jun 9, 2010
1,105
0
0
The Indie community may be the saviours of the Kinect; at least they think outside of the box enough to not copy-paste game concepts.

Any word on when Australia gets access to the indie game service? Ended up losing a lot of money trying to get access only to be told that I shouldn't have bothered while living down here. It's a little tricky being a supporter of indie games when I can't access them.
 

DannibalG36

New member
Mar 29, 2010
347
0
0
If anyone can come up with great games for the Kinect, it's indie guys. Their minds are just wacky enough.
 

AMCization

New member
Jun 1, 2009
281
0
0
I'm gonna stick to my previous statements, and say I will never buy the Kinect, but atleast something...dare I say it, innovative, might come out of this shenanigan now.
 

mogamer

New member
Jan 26, 2010
132
0
0
Andronicus said:
Sebenko said:
Well, it's Kinect's best chance for some games that aren't unmitigated shite and/or party games.
QFT

By the looks of what the major publishers are putting out, the only chance for the Kinect to capture my interest at this point would depend on what the indies manage to come up with. Here's to a hundred fantastic ideas (not so much to the other billions of crap ideas that will undoubtably come about as a result as well).
You are probably right. But how many people, besides you, will buy a $150 add-on just to play those $1 - $5 indy games? And to honest, if you're using the current indy landscape as a measure, then it will only be a few dozen fantastic ideas. I can find plenty of freeware games for the pc that are better than the majority of XBLA indy games. I really find little to warrant a Kinect purchase.