> for the
purposes of sequels or games that use external data (anyone ever play
monster rancher) can my game access other games savedata, or can game A
write savedata for game B?
No, games cannot access another games save location. There's a thread on here somewhere discussing this with some ideas of how you could still do episodic content using passwords t that unlock and setup your characters, etc in the next game. There's also a chance this could change in the future, but for now, this is not possible with XBox Live Community Games.
> for pc there are programs to test where a program is laggy. are there similar utils for the xbox?
There are, but they aren't available to the general public. You have to have an XBox 360 dev kit.
> CG would be impractical if the game size is limited to 50 -150meg (26
mins of HD video = 150 mb ish). however could there be mechanisms to
say stream the video content. or download additional resources as they
are required ingame?
No, this is not possible with XBox Live Community Games.
> presumably general (£50) xbox games dont use XNA. what do they use?
They're programmed against the XBox SDK using C++ generally, but there are a few "general" games that have used the XNA framework with the "extra bits" that you get when you have an XBox Live Arcade contract with Microsoft.
> how would game updates work? for example. savedata may need to be
converted to a new format, can we run code as our game is being updated?
Game updates currently aren't possible with XBox Live Community Games but it's possible that might change before it's officially released. There's been no word if there will be a solution for this or not.
> with no ESRB rating will all players have to be 18 or over to DL?
To download XBox Live Community Games, parental controls must be turned off because the content is unrated.
> if i create an uber game, or a brand new game style. would similar games be disqualified for plagerism?
Gameplay can't be patented so no. If you create an uber style game, the entire industry will copy you and you can just feel proud for having started a new trend. Lots of examples in the industry of this.
> whats the point for content rating and the parental control on
xbox if games that have severe nudity or violence or depict illegal
actions ( drugs prostitution etc presumably ) are disalowed? also it
shows no room for how it was depicted, i.e. in a crime/investigation
game such actions are unnavoidable yet depicted in a negative light as
opposed to say... grand theft auto. why should we follow rules
disreguarded by profesional game creators... not that i have anything
against GTA =p
There are forms of partial nudity etc. that are allowed. Read the rules for the specifics on what is and isn't allowed. But because of what is allowed, that's the point of the content rating.
> "We will not payout creators in points.
All points generated by games will be converted to U.S. Dollars and
then converted to the relevant currency." being not of US nationality,
would there be further deductions for monitary conversion costs? why
not convert MS points directly into GBP at the same rate that they are
charged at?
There's a whole thread on this somewhere...maybe even a FAQ.
> as community games are taxable. how many
'lots' of tax would i pay, as a full time student i dont pay tax. how
is this handled?
Not the kind of question that can be answered (at least in any way you can trust) on a forum. Ask your local accountants and tax officials for how that should be handled.
> with apparently 60+ titles available,
all costing a minimum of 200 points. add to that the games generated by
imagine cup and the other XNA competitions. it will be difficult to
seporate good from bad games. with no free games... what about demos?
All games will be required to have a demo version of the game. There is still talk of how the good from the bad will be separated. Nothing official has been announced but it's speculated that an online search similar to how XBox Live Arcade is being handled will be created for XBox Live Community Games.
> what if the peer review system is wrong. (more likely with no
longer valid copyright, or copyrights only applicable to certain
countries/areas) is there a higher authority you can take it to, or any
oppertunity to state the case for a game which you believe has been
incorectly reviewed.
Re-submitting would be your first option. Then if the game is rejected again unfairly there is contact information all over the site that can be sent to Microsoft. A post in the forums would also get noticed and the issue could be escalated that way. I haven't seen any official word on how to handle a scenario like that, but those would be the logical steps.
> does microsoft "own" the games i create? or am i free to distribute it freely elsewhere as well?
Yes, you can distribute them elsewhere. Microsoft does not own them in any way.
Lastly, please if you have all these questions again, don't do a large one shot all the questions post like this. It's way to hard to answer. I'd rather you ask them one at a time. With all this content in one post it gets lost and like I said makes answering it a huge headache.
Also, note that I do NOT work for Microsoft so my answers could be incorrect. I'm just going off of what I've heard and observed here on the forums so there may be others that will chime in to correct me.
