One thing I remember from my childhood was that idea that anyone could be a games programmer. “Bedroom programmers” came up with very simple effective and popular games, many of which would be scorned today or turned into those annoyingly addictive flash games. Codemasters started out very small and very simple, but look at them now!
The games industry is huge now, though, and the idea of someone managing to build and make money from a game in their spare time is by no means as common as it used to be. It’s not impossible, but it’s definitely more difficult – especially given the rise of consoles (console titles are often closely controlled, meaning you can’t just knock out a game and stick it in your console).
Xbox360 owners, however, will soon have the chance to play low-cost, community-built games when Microsoft introduces Xbox Live Community Games this winter (their website says “Holiday 2008). Games creator will get 70% of the sale price of their game when it is sold on Xbox Live.
To have your game listed on Xbox Live you must be a premium member of the XNA Creator’s Club at $99 per year or $49 for four months. It seems Microsoft will also be picking certain games to promote and feature on Live when the time comes.
So, if you’ve got the programming know-how, you could make dome decent money off Xbox Live this Christmas – I mean, how many people will get a new console and decide to download a few games before the shops re-open?
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