Official_Xbox_Magazine_USA_Issue_202_July_2017

“Developers have
sold millions of
games through iD
and it’s awesome
to be a small
part of that”
games that are coming from devs from a
new territory—we just had our first game
pass cert that was developed in Africa—or
maybe a game uses an Xbox Live feature like
Arena in some cool way. So, I get excited
about a lot of games for a lot of reasons.
Personally, as a player, I am really looking
forward to Below, Tacoma, and Cuphead!
Out of the ID@Xbox games you’ve played
recently, which would you say have really
stood out for you?
Thimbleweed Park has been really fun—
there’s so much content in the game, and I
love adventure games. And it’s cool seeing
my friends’ names in the game—they were
Kickstarter backers! And I’m still having a lot
of fun with Astroneer and Ark. This weekend I
played a lot of Snake Pass too, which is
super original and super challenging (and
satisfying!). I end up playing a lot of games a
little bit just to try to and play everything.
how do you find new games to bring to ID@
Xbox? Do developers come to you, or do you
go to them?
Both of those things happen. Lots and lots
of developers join the program and submit
games, and that’s how we learn about them,
and we also do a lot of outreach at shows
like GDC, PAX and others, online, and at small
dev events we have. We are always on the
hunt for cool games!
how much do you think people are using
cross play to play against players on pCs or
other Windows 10 devices? Are many indie
developers adding it to their games?
Cross play is a feature we’re really excited to
support, and if you look at a title like Rocket
League that supports cross-network play
with PC versions of the game, it’s really
popular. For us, Xbox Live and everything we
do on Xbox is all about enabling play and
enabling players. So, from the perspective
of Xbox Play Anywhere—which means that
once you buy a game on Windows 10 or
Xbox, you own it for both platforms to cross
play on Xbox Live between Windows and
Xbox—it’s something we’re excited to
support. We’ve seen some good take up
across all those initiatives, although the bulk
of games that ship through ID are singleplayer,
so it’s not always possible to support
all those features.
next we’d like to talk about the Creator’s
program, which you announced for smaller
developers to bring games to Xbox. When it
was announced, ID@Xbox was designed to
be a way to make it easy for indie developers
to make games. If that’s the case, why do
you need the Creator’s program?
Looking at both paths, we want to give
developers more choice in how they bring
their games to Xbox Live. From the start,
ID@Xbox was designed for professional
game developers who wish to use the full
Xbox Live stack and have additional
marketing and development support,
including access to Xbox One and Project
Scorpio development kits. Games that come
through ID@Xbox get access to everything
any other game can do on Xbox, whether
that’s platform features or store promotion
features. On the flip side, they still require
full certification and full Xbox Live
implementation to work.
The Creators Program is great because it
allows developers to quickly publish their
game to Xbox One and Windows 10, with a
simplified certification process. And you can
integrate Xbox Live social features into your
game with minimal development time. The
Creators Program is for everyone, from
professional developers to educators,
students, hobbyists, experimenters, and
makers of all shapes and sizes.
All the way back in 2013, we were very
clear that any Xbox would be able to be a
dev kit, and that we wanted Xbox One to be
something that was as good for creating as
it was for enjoying games. This is why we
opened up Xbox One to Universal Windows
Platform (UWP) development last year with
the release of the free Dev Mode Activation
app. And we also opened up our app store
on Xbox One to all app developers.
With the Creators Program, we have now
opened the store on Xbox One to all game
developers. This is just another option for
developers—a lightweight, fully public way
to ship a game on Windows 10 and Xbox One.
I think it’s a great compliment to ID@Xbox
and one that enables Microsoft to offer the
broadest array of options to potential
developers, from large corporations that
manufacture millions of discs, to indie
developers who focus on digital distribution,
to folks who turn their retail Xbox One to a
dev kit and just start creating.
What sort of games do you expect to see
from the Creator’s program? Is there a variety
049
More great interviews at gamesradar.com/oxm
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