Before leaving GDC Monday evening, I stopped by Microsoft's lounge to check on the XNA Challenge progress. And no, Microsoft's math isn't messed up. As I learned last night (when the clock actually stopped), the timer only keeps track of the hours these guys are supposed to be chained to their computers (9:30 to 19:00). Any additional work is off the clock.
I feel bad for them. Sure, Microsoft is footing their expenses and putting them up at the Argent, but these teams are missing out on all the GDC panels and the chance to actively network. At least they're getting a lot of exposure. As Jonathon Stevens told me, people are interrupting him every 20 minutes to ask what the hell they're doing. I have no idea how they're going to get anything done once GDC hits full force on Wednesday.
At least everyone has made significant progress and now has something resembling a game. Hit the jump to see what was accomplished in a day.
Team 1:
DungeonQuest
Benjamin Nitschke and Christoph Rienaecker have a huge advantage over the other teams: They have an artist. Benjamin is able to code A.I. and build the basic gameplay elements with stand-in graphics while Christoph creates character models. Once Christoph finishes the art, Benny can easily swap them.
The German duo is also the only team that isn't happy with its progress. Nitschke says they'll probably wind up working until 23:00 tonight. As Benjamin explained, they've had a lot of technical problems. Mostly due to Vista. Christoph's art and modeling programs require too many patches to run properly, so they had to waste time installing XP on Microsoft's machines. And for a while a shader was crashing their code. As Benjamin says, they're struggling a lot with the smaller details.
But Christoph has completed the entire cave, which serves as the level for their game. And since XNA doesn't natively support text creation, Benjamin spent part of the day shopping for a good Gothic font. Tomorrow the team plans to design and set up player interactions.
Team 2
AbduX
It might not be pretty (remember not everyone has a dedicated artist), but Andre has added all the basic elements to his game. The map is in place, people populate the screen, and you can control the friendly flying saucer. Andre says he's been aided by his software industrialization tools, which make it easy to replicate code and change the game state.
Today he's going to be working on the beam detection (it's currently just for show) and human A.I. Furtado might also add some voice recognition and try to obtain better art.
Team 3____
Josh Butterworth's game is perhaps the most playable of the four. Enemy swarms have basic A.I. paths, and the player can even shoot at them. Now he's working on the user interface and will begin refining the A.I. Tomorrow he plans to replace the current character art with some simple vectors before working on the various weapon power ups.
Team 4
Simian Escape
Jonathon Stevens and Patrick Glanville also hit some major snags today. Some of the design environments they were using to build Simian Escape aren't quite compatible with Vista. With workarounds in place, they're now, mostly, back on track. They've mapped basic level design and their Ape is able to move about the level -- and even die. Currently, they've decided that Simian's stamina will steadily deplete. The player has to dine on fruit in order to recover. When the A.I. is eventually added to the game, Jonathon says it will intelligently try to intercept the player on his route to sustenance.
Their big problem right now, says Jonathon, is their lack of art. Microsoft from the beginning has told the teams to not worry about looks -- how it plays is what matters. But with Nietschke and Rienaecker setting the tone, Jonathon and Patrick feel they really need to up their graphical presentation. So if there are any sprite artists at GDC who can produce some prehistoric art, the boys would be eternally grateful. You can find them on the far right of the XNA display in the lobby of Moscone North.
