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The unofficial Xbox developer NFO:
-by Ken Deel

We assume the following are true:

1. You have an interest in becoming an XBOX game developer

2. You have a Stable company or development team formed already.

3. You have a game concept ready to present.

4. You are serious about the full completion of your title.

5. The game is suitable for the XBOX. (guidlines may need to be discussed with Xbox team)

6. The game is not a companion or add-on to another marketed title (no half-life custom maps and mods) Too early to try this.

Write Microsoft at xbox@xbox.com in you are interested in becoming a developer.

 A good starting point would be to request the XPK (XBOX prototype development kit). I don’t believe that you will need to have much of anything to show for your game, nor will you have a time limit as to how long it takes you to get your DEMO/prototype ready. After all this is the early stage, no promises, no commitments. Yet.

You will however have to sign a license agreement and non-discloser agreement, and Fax it back to them.  These documents will be sent to your e-mail and must be signed and faxed back before you get anything else. Save you questions until after these DOCS have been Signed and returned.  This is to ensure proprietary information is “Non-disclosed”, because you are legally responsible for not revealing ANYTHING you read in the forthcoming Prototype development Kit (XPK). XBOX is a trade secret and you MUST keep it that way. Just a warning there.

 After returning the NDA, and signed license agreement at some point, (Unless your not approved),  you will receive the “XPK”.  Note that there is no promise from Microsoft that your request for the XPK won’t be rejected. They are not giving this information away to just anyone. I have no clue as to what is enough for you to have as a set company or early concepts of your game, or if they even look much into that.  However,  noted at the bottom of the license agreement there is a small place where you pitch your game idea and provide some brief  info on it. So think this ALL through carefully. You don’t want to get shot down before you really get started. I really don’t think Microsoft would send you an XPK if your game doesn’t look or sound appealing, and your company is made up of all pre-teen wanna-be’s. (For example)

So be as professional as you can, and truthful. Don’t fake a company; this isn’t a small business you’re dealing with. I recommend at this stage you need your game designed and ready to develop at the very least. And have at least the appearance of a real development team or organized company.  (A company name, website, etc.)

  More on the XPK:

The XPK contains documents with the information you need to set up your computer(s) for creating an XBOX prototype/DEMO of your game.

Also some XBOX development tips for good graphics, audio, etc. And other needed information I am not going to get into now.  After receiving this you will learn that you will be working primarily with DirectX and Visual C++ 6.0.  The G3D code, since it is in full source can be adapted to accomidate the new XBOX code I presume. But will need to be updated with the Direct X 8.0 libraries, etc.

So get yourself the SDKs for the hardware included from NVIDIA, and the Directx 8.0 SDK, among other things.

So...with the XPK you will get all you need to know in information to help you develop an XBOX prototype and it will also tell you what to do next. Have no fear, if you follow the guidelines to the prototype, we are guessing it won’t be hard to change your prototype into something useable for the full completed version instead of starting from scratch. To what degree  this may be true I don't know yet. You will need to rebuild a new app with the XBOX code though. But now we are getting ahead of ourselves. To some it up, the XPK is written so that you can develop your prototype on a PC for a PC with similar specs.

NEXT PHASE: (after your XBOX prototype is ready…)

 Some of you actually may be ready to jump to a later stage that is a “next step” to others.

 That is the INCUBATOR program. and XDK

This is where you must submit your game idea; a DEMO of your game needs to be ready for Microsoft approval for this level of the XBOX development program. A team at Microsoft specially hand picked and who are part of the XBOX team will basically decide if you are in or out at this point. Your games potential of landing a publishing deal will also be considered. Landing a publisher is part of the plan with the incubator program. That is why you need a fully interactive DEMO: polished, bug free, and truly reflecting the game's, design, style, and yes the game engine. Showcasing what you will have to offer when your game is completed with a smaller sample DEMO. This is why I say don’t be in a hurry to fork out your XBOX prototype because you will be using it most likely to land a publishing deal as well.

YOUR IN (Microsoft approved you)?

Good news! Congratulations are in order! But don’t over celebrate yet!

Now you will have 6 months to get a publishing deal, and will need to send in a license fee to get your hands on the needed software, hardware, and documents needed to get started in actual development.  Six months is not long at all in that you shouldn't use this time to develop a DEMO, if you somehow got this far without one, you should start development on the full version now that you have the XDK signed, paid for, and delivered. The 6 months is a reasonable amount of time to land a publisher deal. my guess is this time period is not set in stone. Microsoft may perhaps extend it if you are close to sealing a deal. but again I don't want to speak for them. you'll have to ask this if the need arises. 

Getting accepted into the incubator program will probably not be easy; basically it is as difficult as landing a publishing deal. So if you got this far don’t worry, you’ll probably get a deal in the allowed time. All publishers want a working DEMO now-a days anyway and your DEMO should be enough. This is why it is important that Microsoft filters out developers further before reaching  this INCUBATOR program. No point in letting them get to far when no publishing deal is in sight.  This is for your own good especially.  This is why you need to make a DEMO that truly sells you game alone with no explanation. So this road is much easier and there is little to no risk here. I believe that you will not be added to the Official Xbox developers list until at least after landing publishing deal while in the 'incubator'. One can’t ride on the coat tales of Microsoft until you have an officially approved game that WILL be completed because it basically has all of the financial backing it needs from a publisher. I am not sure if or not you need to approach XBOX only publishers or not. But you can bet the publisher’s list will be even bigger by the time you have a DEMO ready for submission. After all what publisher would not want to sign up as an official XBOX publisher? Most of the major companies already have. As have the major developers. So be very proud that you got this far you are part of an elite, special group!

Don't forget you are NOT an XBOX developer until Microsoft approves your game, and you have a publisher. until then your still an Xbox "Wanna-be" developer, working on a prototype.

YOUR OUT? (rejected by Xbox for the Incubator) :’(

(They rejected you submitted game concept and presentation. (DEMO)

 Don’t cry over this one, you wouldn’t get a publishing deal anyways.

This way you save the license fee for the XDK (XBOX development kit) and you probably got some good advice from the guys at Microsoft. Maybe your barking up the wrong tree? You maybe like that basement band still stuck in the basement wondering why no nightclubs have given you a gig. To say; many think they have a great game idea and it is far from great. Time to take a hard look at what you presented and the DEMO itself. Did you really make a Prototype/DEMO showcasing the game concept, game play, rendering engine (etc)? Basically it needs to be a mini version of what you have in mind for the full game. Have you ever downloaded and played a DEMO like ‘Thief: the dark project’?

See how it truly reflected the game? It was basically a sample game level from the full version and one of the best game levels at that. This is what your DEMO needs to be like.

Now step back and take a second look at your game design... and everything. At this stage you may need to redesign your game, or rebuild your DEMO presented.

The guys at Valve L.L.C. when making Half-Life had to do this but woke up and smelled the Coffee without a rude awakening from a publisher or capitol investor. they saw the need to do it on their own. In other words you may also want to totally re-evaluate the game at a whole.

Was Microsoft the first to see it?  It is best to get other opinions first maybe from the many online game fan websites. Send them a download link and listen to them. They are unbiased like you team and friends.  How about the guys at MSXBOX.com? Don’t keep sending re-polished versions to Microsoft until you get some other opinions form places/people like these. To put it simply don’t try the INCUBATOR program unless you have a already great DEMO that the known critics like as well.

Getting Started:

Get your computers up to where you think they will meet XBOX’s specs, the specs are public, look at the website www.xbox.com. The specs are there even the hardware manufactures. So it can be easy to get the idea, and perhaps some SDKs on some hardware early on. Now start buying the needed hardware. I can’t give much more information that this, you’ll have to ask the Xbox guys about that. And again I suggest you do that only after signing up for the phase one XPK kit. After all they are extremely busy there.

 What kind of games?

Don’t approach Microsoft’s XBOX team with a game idea that consists of outdated graphics and technology. I have no idea what they will do with it. But a high performance machine like the Xbox I seriously doubt will have games like Donkey Kong, or Duke3D v1.  This is a note to first time developers, previously released PC titles, and other console titles are a different story. You can ask Microsoft as to what they expect, or surf the web, maybe that question has been already answered and posted.  

Keep in mind that Genesis3D will need to be modified to utilize the Xbox code. This can be done upon recieving the XDK developers kit after paying the licensing fee. The Modified version of G3D CAN NOT be shared with other as the Open source agreement states.

 That’s about all I can tell you, the rest of the Q’s can be answered after you sign up for an XPK kit.

 Either way good luck!

Disclaimer: I do not represent Microsoft, and that the information I am telling you here is NOT proprietary information on the XBOX technology. If your company/team is serious about becoming an XBOX developer and you want to validate any given information stated on this document. Please feel to do so by contacting Microsoft’s XBOX team at xbox@xbox.com

Also please note that the above is simple advice to those who may want to develop for XBOX some point in the near future.  Based party on the information Microsoft has made available to the public.  XBOX (tm) is a trademark of the  Microsoft corp. all rights reserved

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