Back during this year's Game Developers Conference, developer Torpex Games quietly announced the new co-op focused action game Schizoid ("skit-zoid") in a Microsoft presentation as the first game to make the jump from XNA development to a commercial Xbox Live Arcade title.
The first big piece of news: it's not a shooter. That's rare enough for an original Live Arcade game, but when the first handful of screenshots surfaced at GDC, many speculated that the game was a shooter along the lines of Geometry Wars. As it turns out, the action in the game comes from taking your ship and physically ramming it into enemies you see on the screen.
Warp Zoned writes:
"Jamie Fristrom is a name that you might not be familiar with, but you’ve certainly experienced his work. In 1996, Fristrom became part of the original team at Treyarch and had a hand in many of their earliest hits. But his biggest claim to fame is the creation of the webslinging engine found in Spider-Man 2 (and used in nearly every Spider-Man game since). In that dark period between GoldenEye 007 and Batman: Arkham Asylum, Fristrom’s work on Spider-Man 2 proved that licensed games could still be fun.
After his days at Treyarch ended, he went the indie route and created the acclaimed XBLA game Schizoid and founded his own one-man-studio, Happion Labs. His first game under the Happion Labs banner will be Energy Hook, a game that attempts to recapture the fun we all found in aimlessly webslinging around Manhattan.
Fristrom is readying a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the game, which will likely launch in a few weeks. In the meantime, I had a chance to talk to him about his career so far and where he plans to take it with Energy Hook."
Jamie Fristrom, Creator of Schizoid — and one of the lead developers of the critically acclaimed Spider-Man 2 — stopped by GamerCheese to give us an inside look into his exciting new project, the likelihood of Schizoid 2, and the thing he hated most about Spider-Man 2.
With over 250 games available and new ones every week, Xbox Live has a lot to offer. There’s so much content that you probably missed a few gems during multiplayer matches of Hydro Thunder Hurricane or solving puzzles in Limbo. That’s why we’re here to deliver the top five games you probably missed.
Robert Workman (RunDLC)
ROFL that looks amazing!
That actually looks like a LOT of fun!
This is the first game to actually be allowed by Microsoft to graduate from XNA? That is just SAD. I knew that Microsoft was tyrannical and illogical at times, but they create a game development tool kit and only one game ever graduates from it? I am glad when making my game, I decided not to turn to Microsoft, because they would only slap me in the face (reading what their support of Indy developers is and the money they charge you, that is true).
It looks like Geometry wars meets Gauntlet.
Anyway, a few Xbox fanboys were touting XNA in response to Little Big Planet's user generated content. I guess you're gonna get millions of XNA games from now on. Oh wait.
4 more games are coming out from guys who won the contest