Some first decisions

Some time ago, I met with Storm Bastard -it's his war name-, who is a good friend of Pau Novau. Sergi -Storm Bastard's real name- is going to be my companion in the Master in Creating Video Games, and we talked about the video game we'll make.

Sergi has some good ideas about the main characters and the aspect of the game, crazy ideas, but they're fun, lots of fun. But it's still too soon to write about them. Before, we will have to find in the Master two artists who like the ideas and want to work hard on it -something very difficult to find-.

The first decision we have to take is whether we want a video game for Xbox 360 or PC, maybe Wii is possible. Work for Xbox 360 implies a development with XNA, what implies creating a graphic engine from zero. This means dedicating less time to the story or playable elements, basics to obtain an amusing game. But XNA has a community with forums, tutorials, samples, tools, Microsoft behind the tool, etc.

Also, Xbox Live Arcade is a great platform of game distribution and a perfect place to be published and to obtain a certain recognition -if the game is well done-. And who knows if some money to finance the next video game.

I think that it's another advantage to develop for Xbox 360 because you don't have to worry about software and hardware configurations, something that happens on the PC and gives you headaches. This advantage could turn into a disadvantage, because not everybody has a Xbox 360, instead many people have a PC, but it's also true that not everyone who has a PC uses it to play.

However, PC is the platform for games creators per excellence. For a long time, people have been developpings for PC, there are lots of libraries, add-ons and tools, with a big community working every day on it. There is a tool well known called Ogre, a graphics rendering engine that can be used to create games and it's Open Source. The Teddy Incident has used this graphic engine -and other tools-. There are other graphics engines as Torque that doesn't look bad -but it isn't free- and lets you create video games for PC, Wii, Xbox 360 and, even iPhone.

We have to study the all options better, seeing what advantages we prefer and what disadvantages affect us less or with what tools we can work. Then we'll choose a platform for our game. Anyhow, let's wait for what the professors from the Master have to say. For sure, they can give us a better orientation.