We have concluded the XNA Game Studio Express Challenge here at GDC this week.  4 teams from 4 countries were flown to San Francisco and set up in the XNA Lobby Lounge at the Moscone North complex.  The Challenge was simple but completing it was anything but - make an original game, from scratch in 4 days. Each XNA Game Studio Express Challenge team worked from Monday March 5 to Thursday March 8 to bring their game to life. We are pleased to now offer these games up to the public to also enjoy and appreciate 4 very different games, by 4 teams, in 4 days!

To play these games, you will need to have XNA Game Studio Express installed.  If you don't have it, head here to get going.

The four games include:

“DungeonQuest,” a 3D action RPG from independent game developers Benjamin Nitschke and Christoph Rienaecker from exDream in Germany. Benjamin and Christoph managed to include two player co-op multiplayer in this expansive dungeon crawler.

http://exdream.no-ip.info/blog/ct.ashx?id=ff31f4b8-bea4-456b-8e87-68ba7cb2b07b&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.unifaces.de%2fDungeonQuest%2fDungeonQuestSetup.zip

“Simian Escape,” from independent game developers Jonathon Stevens and Patrick Glanville from the United States, is a 2D run-and-jump game in a prehistoric setting built with the help of Torque X.

http://www.codeplex.com/XNAChallenge/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=2229 

“Damage Control” is a game created by hobbyist game developer Josh Butterworth from the United Kingdom with the remote assistance of Maher “m0dus” Al-Samkari and the NeoGAF community. Damage Control is a four player multiplayer siege game where you must defend your base from wave after wave of invading aliens.

http://www.codeplex.com/DamageControl/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=2228

“AbduX,” from graduate student game developer Andre Furtado from Brazil, is a zany action game that turns the tables on the classic humanity vs. aliens formula. This time, the player assumes the role of an alien and pilots a flying saucer through the countryside to abduct unsuspecting earthlings while trying to avoid detection. What’s impressive about AbduX is how it incorporates voice recognition commands to control functions of the spacecraft.

Hi everybody,

I've just released the binaries of the game I've developed for the Microsoft XNA Challenge (Game Developers Conference). You can download it here:

http://www.cin.ufpe.br/~awbf/xna/AbduX-1.0.zip
Updated to: http://www.cin.ufpe.br/~awbf/xna/AbduX-1.1.zip (new readme file) 

Please notice that you should have either Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2 with the Microsoft Speech SDK and the .NET 3.0 Redistributable Package installed (check readme.txt file for instructions). It may take a few turns for the computer to accurately recognize your commands.

Regards,
 -- AFurtado

Parabens, Andre!

I'm curious about the voice recognition system in your game: is it a PC-only feature or does it also work on the 360?

tchau.

Well first of all, I'm surprised to see a fellow brazillian amongst these 4 game titles. I'll be testing it here, can't wait!

Gratz, Andre!

Ultrahead:

Parabens, Andre!

I'm curious about the voice recognition system in your game: is it a PC-only feature or does it also work on the 360?

tchau.

 Nope... the speech SDK that's required to give that functionality is not on the 360.

CodeCube:

Machaira:

"Dude, sweet!"

Dude, where's my car! 

Probably in the parking lot, why are you asking me? ;) :D

Hi everybody,

The binaries for my XNA challenge game are also now online, you can get them off of codeplex here:

http://www.codeplex.com/DamageControl/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=2228

 You'll need a 360 controller to play. There's a real brief readme in there to give you the controls. If you need any more guidance I'll be posting loads more info over at www.grassrootsgames.co.uk later today.

 Enjoy!

 Josh Butterworth

Simian Escape has a cave painting artistic style.  Imagine an ancient man in a cave with torchlight illuminating the walls. A variety of creatures, trees and food parade across the cave wall.  The flickering torchlight illuminates an eerie evocative landscape.

It's life or death on this ancient wall.  Keep your simian alive by staying within the illuminated section of the wall.  Death awaits in the darkness.  There is good fruit(light colored) and bad fruit(dark colored). Picking up bad fruit will reduce your stamina while good fruit increases it.  Keep stamina above 0 or the simian will be wiped out of existance.  Rocks are scattered over the landscape for use in fending off prehistoric carnivores.

Last Straw Productions (www.last-straw-games.com) has made Simian Escape available to download from http://www.codeplex.com/XNAChallenge/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=2229

Jonathon Stevens, CEO
Patrick Glanville, CTO
Last Straw Productions

KARIDIAN:

Last Straw Productions (www.last-straw-games.com) has made Simian Escape available to download from http://www.codeplex.com/XNAChallenge/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=2229

When I run this I get a System.ArgumentNullException that says "You must pass in a valid audio engine."