• On TechRepublic: Five super-secret features in Windows 7
September 7, 2008 8:45 PM PDT

Peering inside video-game pitches

by Dave Rosenberg
  • Font size
  • Print
  • Post a comment
Share

James Goddard, CEO and founder of CrunchTime Games and professor of game development at the University of Advancing Technology, recently published the documents that got Shred Nebula the green light from Microsoft for the Xbox platform.

GameCareerGuide has his pitch paper and a manuscript required by Microsoft known as "60 seconds of gameplay." According to GameCareerGuide, Goddard said:

CrunchTime Games, Inc., is very excited to offer this reference to the vast communities of aspiring developers, students, educators, and peer in the industry, showing how we tackled the task of pitching Shred Nebula [which was tentatively titled R.I.P. ROCKET, and often referred to as such in the documentation] back in 2006. We hope this open sharing sets a standard for others in the industry.

Due to the normally ultra-secret nature of video game development, these documents are very interesting to see out in the wild.

I've written in the past that I think video games could be the next open-source frontier. But after reading these documents, I've realized that what will drive game development is collaboration, but not necessarily in an open-source way. As far as I can tell, the code isn't what drives the games as much as the user experience.

Generally speaking, I think there are far more great coders than there are great story-tellers, which is what makes video games so arduous to develop. Opening up design principles should help drive new games and new ways of user engagement.

Dave Rosenberg dishes up "Software, Interrupted" with nearly 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to multiple start-up IPOs to open-source enterprise software companies. He is co-founder of MuleSource and currently serves as the general manager of Hardy Way. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can contact Dave via e-mail at softwareinterrupted@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @daveofdoom.
Recent posts from Software, Interrupted
Survey: IT's key role in global economic recovery
Five free tech PR tools you need to know about
The 802.11n land grab
Trend watch 2010: Mobile movies
Survey: IT spending to recover in 2010
Nintendo launches paid video content for Wii
Analyst: Money transfer soon to be No. 1 phone app
Apple's App Store review irking developers
advertisement

The yogurt makers of tech: Gadgets to avoid

Don't buy these one-trick ponies--unless you like gizmos that gather dust.

Google wants to unclog Net's DNS plumbing

The Net giant, ever eager for a faster Internet, debuts its Google Public DNS service. With it, Google could become even more central to the Net.

advertisement

About Software, Interrupted

In "Software, Interrupted," Dave Rosenberg discusses disruption in the software market, as well as the products and services that keep business technology norms in perpetual flux.

With nearly 15 years of technology and marketing experience spanning from Bell Labs to multiple start-up IPOs, Dave co-founded open-source software company MuleSource and now serves as general manager of Hardy Way. He also happens to be a U.S. patent holder and a workaholic. Technology is his best friend and mortal enemy.

Add this feed to your online news reader

Software, Interrupted topics

advertisement
advertisement

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right