Gears of War Designer Thinks Well of Homebrew
In an interview with Cliffy Bleszinski over at ShackNews, that mostly focused on Epic Games‘ Gears of War for the Xbox 360, an interesting statement regarding homebrew was mentioned.
When asked what he thought of Microsoft‘s XNA Game Studio Express, a system that allows almost anyone to compile and run their own code on Xbox 360 units and homebrew games in general, he had this to say:
“I think it’s awesome. I get emails all the time from people who want to get into the biz; it’s trickier now than it was when I was a teenager and every possible venue for these eager gamers to get in is a step in the right direction. It’s that young blood that’s going to be able to take the design risks that the big guy just can’t afford to do. It’s the guys at gaming school who do a portal game that Valve then works with to make a new and innovative game like Portal.”
He might be right on the button. Homebrew allows young blood to hone their skills and take games in directions where established publishers that spend millions on their games can’t. The big guys have to worry about costs, angry fans, marketing, and a whole lot of other factors. People in homebrew can concentrate on the game.
What do you guys think about this? Will XNA pave the way for even more homebrew on the 360? Do you think Microsoft is trying to take a stance regarding homebrew that is very opposite of Sony’s? Comment away folks.
In an interview with Cliffy Bleszinski over at ShackNews, that mostly focused on Epic Games‘ Gears of War for the Xbox 360, an interesting statement regarding homebrew was mentioned.
When asked what he thought of Microsoft‘s XNA Game Studio Express, a system that allows almost anyone to compile and run their own code on Xbox 360 units and homebrew games in general, he had this to say:
“I think it’s awesome. I get emails all the time from people who want to get into the biz; it’s trickier now than it was when I was a teenager and every possible venue for these eager gamers to get in is a step in the right direction. It’s that young blood that’s going to be able to take the design risks that the big guy just can’t afford to do. It’s the guys at gaming school who do a portal game that Valve then works with to make a new and innovative game like Portal.”
He might be right on the button. Homebrew allows young blood to hone their skills and take games in directions where established publishers that spend millions on their games can’t. The big guys have to worry about costs, angry fans, marketing, and a whole lot of other factors. People in homebrew can concentrate on the game.
What do you guys think about this? Will XNA pave the way for even more homebrew on the 360? Do you think Microsoft is trying to take a stance regarding homebrew that is very opposite of Sony’s? Comment away folks.