Microsoft's XNA initiative has finally borne some real fruit. The Xbox 360 maker positioned XNA as an easily accessible development platform for small-time and indie developers to create games that would work on both the 360 and Windows. Early next year, Bellevue, Washington-based developer Torpex Games will become the first developer to release an XNA-developed game, Schizoid, on Xbox Live Arcade. We got the exclusive first hands-on with the game to see what kind of mind-bending stuff Torpex has come up with.
Schizoid is like the two-player hybrid love child of Geometry Wars and classic Japanese shooter Ikaruga. Players have an overhead action stage full of brightly colored, abstract enemies. Half of the enemies are blue, and half are orange. They also have two ships, each controlled by one of two players. One ship is blue, one orange. See where this is going? Each ship can only destroy enemies of like color (by colliding with them; there are no guns), while one brush with an enemy of the other color means doom.
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)
that looks potentially really cool. especially for shump fans like me.
If the first look is from gamespot,I'll just wait for the second look,thank you very much.
No cnet,no gamespot,no eidos.