hi, since kodu is going to be a community game, im posting this question here.

my first question is about the price of kodu, will it have an upper limit of 800 points?

my second question is about the sharing of content. what kind of review process will we have to go through before our content is shareable?

if you havent seen kodu, check out this
http://g4tv.com/thepile/hdvideos/37357/Kodu-Game-Creator-Walkthrough.html

darthuvuis:

my first question is about the price of kodu, will it have an upper limit of 800 points?

It gets no special treatment, so it will be 200, 400, or 800 points.

my second question is about the sharing of content. what kind of review process will we have to go through before our content is shareable?

There is no real shareable content in any global sense. I presume they're talking about connecting with friends in a NetworkSession and just transferring the data around to the other users. Since they are a Community Game I'm fairly confident they aren't being given anything we don't have access to.

jeeze, i hope they arent talking about that. I thought we would be able to create worlds and then put those worlds online for anyone to visit.  oh well, could still be a good game, but it could of course be so much more.

darthuvuis:

jeeze, i hope they arent talking about that. I thought we would be able to create worlds and then put those worlds online for anyone to visit.  oh well, could still be a good game, but it could of course be so much more.

Well XBLCG doesn't allow for persistent servers so that's not possible for them to do. Besides that I don't think this is a "build a world" type of thing so much as it is a visual way to learn programming logic. Personally I see it more as a toy and learning tool than a game.

Nick is correct - the content is more like a 'level editor' that you can share with people - think Little Big Planet or Easy Golf. If you check out the videos you will see that calling these things 'worlds' is a stretch. Again Levels seems more appropriate.

AFAIK the Kodu people are building on the identical bits that we have.

yeah, I was surprised to learn that they used xna to make it.  30 people is still pretty good, I suppose with the right exposure you could fill up a world you make.

this is interesting to read
http://koduclub.org/progress.aspx

Although i still think they could do more. Instead of teaching the kids to make a game with kodu, they could teach the kids about life in kodu. I mean like virtual classroom type stuff. Something like that is what I currently plan to do if at all remotely possible when kodu releases.

Im also wondering if we will be able to edit on the computer and still upload to Live somehow, the kids in the club were all working on computers. Also Im hoping that when working on the computer you have the option to input commands with text instead of just with pictures. Should I make a connect issue about that?

darthuvuis:

Im also wondering if we will be able to edit on the computer and still upload to Live somehow, the kids in the club were all working on computers.

Nope.

Also Im hoping that when working on the computer you have the option to input commands with text instead of just with pictures.

If you're on a computer using text, just use a programming language. Kodu is intended to be a visual programming learning tool.

Should I make a connect issue about that?

Generally I say it can't hurt (and I suppose it can't hurt here either), but I really doubt they're going to make a PC version. Even if they did it wouldn't be able to connect to the XBLCG version as the networking APIs don't allow games that are purchased on XBLCG to connect to PC versions. But, since I always say it, it can't hurt to make one.

nah, i think ill just wait to see what its like, i hope it comes out soon.

You don't have to be completely upset.
Some of your ideas coincide with what a Kodu developer is "fantasizing."

I assume Microsoft Research is a division which fantasizes something the company may bring into reality.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22877

darthuvuis:

my first question is about the price of kodu, will it have an upper limit of 800 points?

They haven't said how much Kodu will cost, but I kind of assume that you buy Kodu the game world editor and then you share the content you create freely and within Kodu itself, not like Community Games. Maybe it would be nice if you could sell content for points, so children could buy games, but that's not the way it comes across.

DarthCheesiest:

Maybe it would be nice if you could sell content for points, so children could buy games, but that's not the way it comes across.

You are correct, that's not what's going to happen in this version since that kind of functionality doesn't exist in XBLCG.

OK sorry, now I get it, I still don't believe it will be quite the same as a community game though.

DarthCheesiest:

OK sorry, now I get it, I still don't believe it will be quite the same as a community game though.

If the game is going to go on XBLCG it will have the same things as any other Community Game and will even have to pass peer review. I highly doubt Microsoft is going to give special treatment to Kodu in those regards.

Nick Gravelyn:

DarthCheesiest:

OK sorry, now I get it, I still don't believe it will be quite the same as a community game though.

If the game is going to go on XBLCG it will have the same things as any other Community Game and will even have to pass peer review. I highly doubt Microsoft is going to give special treatment to Kodu in those regards.

Same bits and it will go through peer review

Thank you both, that is amazing, I wonder how they draw the backgrounds!

Nick Gravelyn:

Since they are a Community Game I'm fairly confident they aren't being given anything we don't have access to.

Isn't XNA 3.1 coming out in May? That version has support for DLC. If for whatever reason Kodu was given access to beta code of XNA 3.1, then it's possible it'll launch with DLC capability.

Mentil:

Nick Gravelyn:

Since they are a Community Game I'm fairly confident they aren't being given anything we don't have access to.

Isn't XNA 3.1 coming out in May? That version has support for DLC. If for whatever reason Kodu was given access to beta code of XNA 3.1, then it's possible it'll launch with DLC capability.

3.1 doesn't support DLC for XBLCG; only XBLA.

Hi there, I'm the guy that setup the program mentioned here at Explorer.

darthuvuis:

Instead of teaching the kids to make a game with kodu, they could teach the kids about life in kodu.

We had a few challenges, mainly -- This is setup as an after school program, not taught during regular school hours so time is a bit limited.

The teachers actually have structured the program so the students create a story outline about a world, experience or character that exists within the game, so they are trying to structure education based creative writing, idea sharing and other concepts with the students while they are learning the "programming constructs" as well as just having fun.  The kids really just get the system, the love it.  We've had two sessions of 25 kids go through now.   It's also great fun to watch them learn the more advanced features, which you all will hopefully be able to play with soon.

Yes I agree! In my classes just in first 45 minutes children made a lot of good sample worlds, and they smile a lot when they play theirs games!

In next lessons I will teach them how to:
1) Create sample school building and make real simulations of:
a) Fire alarm
b) "Plague"
c) "Crowd psychology"
2) Other samples
a) Game of Life
b) Games (FPP, TPP, etc)

End these samples are just for few lessons! :)

Sample from "Crowd psychology" - panic is here:
Video: KODU - "Crowd psychology", sample: panic
KODU - "Crowd psychology", sample: panic