Microsoft XNA is a freeware set of tools with a managed runtime environment that Microsoft Gaming developed to facilitate video game development. XNA is based on .NET Framework, with versions that run on Windows and Xbox 360. XNA Game Studio can help develop XNA games. The XNA toolset was announced on March 24, 2004, at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. A first Community Technology Preview of XNA Build was released on March 14, 2006.
Xbox Games Store was a digital distribution platform previously used by Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console and formerly by the Xbox One. The service allowed users to download or purchase video games, add-ons for existing games, game demos along with other miscellaneous content such as gamer pictures and Dashboard themes.
Games for Windows – Live or GFWL is a deprecated online gaming service used by Games for Windows–branded PC titles that enables Windows PCs to connect to Microsoft's Live service. Users, each with a unique Gamertag, are able to play online, keep track of their friends' status, send and receive messages, gain and keep track of Achievements and associated Gamerscore, voice chat across platforms, and more. Some games allow for cross-platform play, such as Shadowrun, putting Windows players against Xbox 360 players.
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information announced later that month at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). As a seventh-generation console, it primarily competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii.
Xbox Live Indie Games were video games created by individual developers or small teams of developers released on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360. The games were developed using Microsoft XNA, and developed by one or more independent developers that are registered with App Hub. Unlike Xbox Live Arcade titles, these were generally only tested within the local creator community, had much lower costs of production, and generally were less expensive to purchase. The service was released to widespread use alongside the New Xbox Experience, and as of November 2014, over 3,300 games had been released on the service, many receiving media attention. All Indie Games currently require the user to be logged into their Xbox Live account to initiate the start-up of each game. Indie Games were not available in Australia due to local classification requirements which were unable to be fulfilled, though there were workarounds which allowed Australian users to download them regardless. The Xbox Live Indie Games program did not continue with the release of the Xbox One, and the marketplace for these games was shuttered on October 7, 2017.
The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is a beat 'em up game developed by independent software developer James Silva for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service.
Visual3D Game Engine is a 3D game engine and game development tool written entirely in C# and built for the .NET Framework, with development of its 3D rendering engine first beginning in 2003.
I Made a Game with Zombies in It!, is a zombie-themed multidirectional shooter video game for the Xbox 360, available through the Xbox Live Indie Games service. Released in 2009, it was developed by Ska Studios and was designed entirely by company founder James Silva, previously best known for the Xbox Live Arcade game The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. The game was developed using Microsoft XNA, though its tongue-in-cheek description claims it was made using "Hypermagic Engine 3.0 and the Megacore X parallelization processor." The game's title makes excessive comic usage of features of Internet writing, such as leetspeak, overuse of exclamation marks, and typographical errors. It has since been re-launched through Steam in November 2021 and through Xbox Store in October 2022, and is currently still available for download.
CarneyVale: Showtime is a vertical platformer developed by Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was initially released on Xbox Live Indie Games on Xbox 360. Players play as Slinky, "a circus acrobat trying to rise up the ranks by performing acrobatic tricks and death-defying stunts through increasingly complex arenas".
Microsoft XNA Game Studio is a discontinued integrated development environment (IDE) for building video games on the Microsoft XNA platform. Such video games can run on Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone and the Zune. XNA Game Studio is targeted at hobbyists and experienced programmers, and is primarily used to develop 2D and 3D video games for various Microsoft platforms. XNA games can be published for the Xbox 360 using an XNA Creator's Club membership, that has a yearly fee.
Honor in Vengeance II is a 3D space shooter by American developer MichaelArts. It was released for Xbox Live Indie Games on August 5, 2011. The game follows the story of a Martian pilot named Leo Lucas, who is tasked with finding the remnants of a recon team that vanished near Earth.
MonoGame is a free and open source C# framework used by game developers to make games for multiple platforms and other systems. It is also used to make Windows and Windows Phone games run on other systems. It supports iOS, Android, macOS, tvOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It implements the Microsoft XNA 4 application programming interface (API). It has been used for several games, including Bastion, Celeste,Fez and Stardew Valley.
Charlie Murder is a beat 'em up video game developed by Ska Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 and Ska Studios for Microsoft Windows. First revealed in January 2010 for Xbox Live Indie Games, the studio announced in May 2010 that the game would undergo a "complete overhaul" and be published in 2012 through Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360. Charlie Murder was eventually released on 14 August 2013 to positive reviews, with critics praising the game's soundtrack and hand-illustrated visuals. Versions for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS were released on May 12, 2017 via Steam.
Ancient Trader is a turn-based strategy video game developed by the Slovakian studio 4Kids Games. It was released in 2010 for Microsoft Windows, Xbox Live on Xbox 360, and iOS. The player controls a ship, allowing them to explore the world and engage in trading while seeking three artifacts that will help to defeat the game's main antagonist, a sea creature called the Ancient Guardian.
Xona Games is an independent Canadian video game developer founded in 2008 and headquartered in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Dream Build Play is an annual $75,000 Microsoft video game contest used to promote Microsoft XNA Game Studio and eventually Xbox LIVE Indie Games. It was announced in 2006, started in 2007, and ran until 2012. In 2008 and 2009 it spanned over 100 countries and in 2010 it spanned 110 countries. It was restarted in 2017 as the Dream.Build.Play 2017 Challenge. Notable winners include Dust: An Elysian Tail and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai.
Sickhead Games, LLC is an American independent game development studio founded in 2002. It is best known for its multiplatform turn-based strategy game ARMED!, its involvement with the MonoGame framework and Torque series of game engines, and the development of several PlayStation 4/5, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch ports of indie games including TowerFall Ascension, Stardew Valley, Darkest Dungeon, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, Slay the Spire, and Axiom Verge. The studio has updated classic console and PC games from the late 1990s and early 2000s, including ExZeus, Enclave, and Grandia, to run on modern gaming systems.
Salt and Sanctuary is a 2D action role-playing video game developed and published by Ska Studios. The game was released on March 15, 2016 for the PlayStation 4, with later releases for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. It is heavily inspired by the Dark Souls series by FromSoftware.
Salt and Sacrifice is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Ska Studios. As the sequel to Salt and Sanctuary, the game was released on May 10, 2022, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows. It was later ported to Nintendo Switch on November 7, 2023.
