Posts Tagged The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai

Well, as the title suggests, I’m currently developing Tribes of Mexica as an XNA game. Considering the somewhat poor sales of XNA titles, this might seem a bit perplexing. After all, no matter how much one enjoys creating games, it’s nice to get paid as well.

So why did I choose to go with XNA?

Well, a couple of reasons, actually:

• An XNA game is pretty much guaranteed to be released, and consequently to make some money. This might be a small consolation, but it’s hard to get any guarantees in the world of publishing.
• Although I’ve sporadically developed PC stuff, most of my professional career has revolved around very limited devices, i.e., mobiles/handhelds. The Xbox 360 is a beast by comparison, and XNA’s entry cost is about as low as it can get. The alternative is licensing a professional dev kit, which can be quite pricey and time consuming (and never a guaranteed thing). With XNA, registration is done online and only costs $99 USD.


The shady god Tezcatlipoca, one of the pivotal characters in Tribes of Mexica.

• The recently renamed Indie Games Marketplace is based on self-publishing, which means that you get to retain your IP and all the rights to your creation. If it flops, no one will stop you from tweaking it and porting it to another system.
• Aside from CarnyVale Showtime, Microsoft hasn’t really promoted XNA games that much. Now most of them (at least as of right now), are pretty rubbish, so that’s not really surprising. The option for future promotions is still there, though, and the upcoming ratings system might help as well. Regardless of all that, having your game available on Xbox Live! is still a great source of exposure for a brand new developer.
• Another possible reason why promotions haven’t been that prevalent is that the best XNA games have a tendency to make their way onto Xbox Live Arcade, e.g., Schizoid and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. Publishers seem to be keeping a keen eye on these titles and have shown a willingness to support XNA developers.
• DreamBuildPlay is a good exhibition of XNA games, and has some nice prizes to boot.
• There are 200+ games available on XNA right now, and although that might seem like a lot, it’s not nearly as many titles as there are on the oversaturated iPhone App Store. The opportunity to make a game that stands out and gets attention is still quite good, and things will probably stay that way at least for a little while longer.

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