The rules state:

"Using the tools above, build your XNA Game Studio Express video game for Windows XP SP2 or Xbox 360†."

The tools listed are XNA and TorqueX. The problem arises with using a 3rd party solution, for instance Xna5D or Blade3D, which wraps up functionality into either a DLL or an IDE (both a .NET Assembly). Will it make my submission ineligable if I were to use an engine that was built for XNA, but was wrapped up in a DLL? What if I wrote the engine myself (Xna5D)? The reason for doing so is two fold, the big reason being code reuse. I created Xna5D for a reason, and that reason being the easier development of other XNA games for myself and others. The other reason is code protection, if I wrap my engine up in a DLL it becomes a tiny bit harder for people to steal my code.

So can we use other solutions?

It would be unfair to say no, and would force all of us to provide [Microsoft] with our engine's source code, or force us to use TorqueX which many people do not want to do (for many reasons).

TorqueX is a prebuilt engine with IDE..

Does anyone think thats unfair?

More info, straight from the "Rules".

"Participant grants (including on behalf of any collaborators) to each of Microsoft (including Microsoft's other affiliates and subsidiaries, employees, agents, and contractors), any testing partners, and the Administrator and Promotion judges an irrevocable, royalty free, fully paid up, worldwide, non-exclusive license to use, review, assess, test and otherwise analyze the submissions and all their content in connection with this Promotion."

"Microsoft shall not have any obligation to limit or restrict the assignment of such persons or to pay royalties for any work resulting from the use of residuals."

This seems to mean...

a) Microsoft and everyone else affiliated gets to look at your code, review it, test it, and use it however they see fit. This could include, but is not limited to, future XNA releases, future starter kits, future IDEs.

b) Microsoft is not tied into paying you any royalties for using the code. Thus if you produce a game, they can turn around and use it for free, eliminating you from the credit list.

Krisc:

More info, straight from the "Rules".

"Participant grants (including on behalf of any collaborators) to each of Microsoft (including Microsoft's other affiliates and subsidiaries, employees, agents, and contractors), any testing partners, and the Administrator and Promotion judges an irrevocable, royalty free, fully paid up, worldwide, non-exclusive license to use, review, assess, test and otherwise analyze the submissions and all their content in connection with this Promotion."

"Microsoft shall not have any obligation to limit or restrict the assignment of such persons or to pay royalties for any work resulting from the use of residuals."

This seems to mean...

a) Microsoft and everyone else affiliated gets to look at your code, review it, test it, and use it however they see fit. This could include, but is not limited to, future XNA releases, future starter kits, future IDEs.

b) Microsoft is not tied into paying you any royalties for using the code. Thus if you produce a game, they can turn around and use it for free, eliminating you from the credit list.

The part "in connection with this Promotion" would seem to eliminate "future XNA releases, future starter kits, future IDEs".

Machaira:

The part "in connection with this Promotion" would seem to eliminate "future XNA releases, future starter kits, future IDEs".

 Except for the tagline "Microsoft shall not have any obligation to limit or restrict the assignment of such persons or to pay royalties for any work resulting from the use of residuals." which includes "any work resulting from the use of residuals" which I took to mean that they can look at our code and use it to create "their own" work and be free from any legal obligation to credit us or license from us. The "in connection with this Promotion" seems to deal with the actual looking at the code. It does not limit them from using the code in other places since once they see it, they may decide to use it elsewhere.

Say I have produced a DLL that does something awesome, for instance something like a real time radiosity engine that works really well. What is stopping them from looking at the DLL's code and using it to develop there own? This is partially why the rules seem to only allow TorqueX and pure XNA code: it limits them on what they can see and use. But it also limits us in a big way.

Its more than likely just to cover their arses, so you dont get situations like:

M$ brings out somthing after the competition (which they had already written) and then somone going up and saying "hay thats mine im gona sue you!"

Phantom PF:

Its more than likely just to cover their arses, so you dont get situations like:

M$ brings out somthing after the competition (which they had already written) and then somone going up and saying "hay thats mine im gona sue you!"

That is exactly what everyone should be afraid of though. The rules state that your code and idea become property of Microsoft in essence, but if we put code in DLLs and attach a license, they cannot use that code and/or steal it. But the way the rules are put, you are not allowed to do this except with TorqueX, which is partnered with Microsoft.

Even though they would legally have every right to do so (wether or not morally is another question), I highly doubt they would, anyway.

JeffWeber:

If the small-print, lawyer-speak scares you then please do not enter the contest... it will better MY chances of winning. :-)

QFT! :D

Torque X is the only 3rd party engine and tool called out specifically due to our partnership.  That said however, any other engine, tools, etc. based on 100% managed code output in C# will be accepted.  What we won't accept is native libraries wrapped in managed code.  So Blade3D and others like it are perfectly valid provided they satisify this criteria.  This is not meant to be exclusionary of other great work the community has done.

Additionally - you'll be seeing a great post from Michael Klucher soon that will detail our updated release of XNA Game Studio Express with several nice features.  One of which we will also employ to help make submissions easier.  More on that later after Michael posts.

--dave

Dave Mitchell | Director | XNA Game Platform Marketing