All about Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7 Series

Microsoft’s Andre Vrignaud live-tweeted the Xbox Live on WP7 session that took place at GDC today.

Q: Will games have to go through cert? Or just XBL games? A: all games go through cert, XBL games will have a few more reqs.

Other resources: Windows Azure – microsoft.com/windowsazure

Other resources: pitch your Xbox LIVE-enabled game: [email protected]

Wrapping up… get the dev tools at creator.xna.com, go to MIX10 for more next week!

Focusing on asynch (turn-based) “mobile minute” friendly gaming at launch. No ad-hoc local WiFi/Bluetooth gaming initially.

Most APIs are present on all platforms – make it easier to write clear, crossplatform code.

Why Push? Efficent battery util, low memory/CPU use, simple model, no persistent connection required, web 2.0 friendly.

@smartyp Yes, these WP7/XBL capabilities are available to both Silverlight and XNA-based games.

Push Notif. to Tile: Allows you to push visual notif. to pinned tiles on user’s home page. See at a glance what’s up in game.

Notifications not guaranteed delivery – best effort.

Notifications: Raw (cloud notifies app), Tile (user pins notif. to quick launch menu), Toast (Cloud sends a title and sub)

Extend games with HTTP: consume 3PP web services (weather, shopping), connect to own WS. We will have policies, need to talk with us.

Game Invites handled through email; player chooses email recipients.

Avatars: 2D avatars for launch, via web service.

Trial Mode: developer owns trial experience. Simple check, can be simulated to test. Send player to Marketplace to purchase.

XBL Leaderboard data blob is 4KB – place to store ghosts, races, game data, etc. Some cool stuff you could do here with this!

Leaderboards: Track friends, score or time-based, fixed set of columns, game defined blob of data, paging, easy API.

Think I see a blog post ahead about Achievements best practices, recommendations, and learnings we’ve had over the years…

Achievements: real achievements, real gamerscore. Up to 20 achievements, 200 GS max.

Profile: your WP7 phone knows you by your Windows LIVE ID (associated with your Gamertag). Use existing WLID, or create new.

XBL conn. opt: HTTP req/resp, push notifications, XBL features (2D avatars, invites, profile, achievements, lb, trials)

XBL at fingertips with WP7. Games Hub = where XBL meets WP7 OS. Profile, game library, turn notifications, browse spotlight.

Some aditional XNA Game Studio 4.0 information was also posted by Charlie Kindel:

XNA Game Studio 4.0

•  
  • Power: XNA Game Studio 4.0 includes powerful audio and graphics tools that allow developers to create all types of games, from casual 2-D games to 3-D games with high-quality graphics.
  • Productivity: XNA Game Studio 4.0 is a managed code platform, which means that Microsoft has done the back-end work that will save developers time in the coding process. It allows developers to be more productive and focus on gameplay and design.
  • Portability: XNA Game Studio 4.0 makes it possible for developers to adapt games built on previous versions of XNA Game Studio to work on Windows Phone 7 Series without re-coding the entire game. Also, once a developer has created a Windows Phone 7 Series game, they can use some of that code in XNA Game Studio 3.1 to adapt that game for Xbox 360, Windows or Zune.

XNA Game Studio 4.0 is a set of software tools that will be used by developers to create games for Windows Phone 7 Series. This updated version of XNA Game Studio will allow game developers to create better mobile games faster by providing:

Pedigree: Microsoft has invested in XNA Game Studio for the past four years to make it one of the most comprehensive and trusted tools for developers. There have been over 1 million downloads of previous versions of XNA Game Studio since its initial release in December 2006

Game Development on Windows Phone 7 Series

•  
  • Collect Achievements and build your Gamerscore
  • View Xbox LIVE leaderboards
  • See your Xbox LIVE Avatar
  • Access Spotlight feeds
  • Add Xbox LIVE friends to your friends list while out on the go

Windows Phone 7 Series is a whole new approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences. It offers users new ways to find and play games, including:

The games hub. The games hub will contain all the games an individual has acquired through the Windows® Phone Marketplace. We are partnering with a select group of publishers to create great Xbox LIVE games for the games hub. The Xbox LIVE features include the ability to:

The marketplace hub. Windows Phone 7 Series includes the Windows® Phone Marketplace, where apps and games will be sold. Both independent and professional developers can offer games as apps via Marketplace, giving consumers a wide array of games to choose from.

GDC isn’t finished yet so we can expect more WP7S info in the coming days (and next week at MIX). Stay tuned…