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| Community Spotlight: Microsoft Portugal |
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XNA Pizza Night 2010 took place in early March and is an event hosted by Microsoft in Portugal. The event is open to all students, game developers/designers, and hobbyists. Every participant/team must create a game with XNA Game Studio, and show the game to the attendees. At the end of the event, attendees vote on the games.
With 18 games, it was an exciting night, and attendees were able to share their game development experiences and knowledge, and had a lot of fun!
As a result of this event, a new XNA Game Studio Community in Portugal was created. Check them out at http://xnapt.net.
What was the idea behind XNA Pizza Night?
XNA Pizza Night was born in Portugal and is a community event. The idea is to gather students, game developers/designers, story writers, and hobbyists who create videogames with the XNA Framework. Each participant or team presents their game and lets the others participants play it. It is a good way of knowing and getting in touch with people passionate about videogames and XNA Game Studio, to share knowledge, and to show projects where we are involved, and above all to spend one different and great night. And of course, the dinner for that day is pizza.
Is XNA Pizza Night an annual event?
Yes, it happens once a year at Microsoft Portugal at Lisbon.
How many years have you hosted this event?
We’ve organized XNA Pizza Night the last two years; the event has grown a lot since the first edition. We hope to see it grow even more now with the new XNA Game Studio 4.0 release supported on the fantastic Windows Phone 7 Series.
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How did you get to 18 games?
Throughout the year, the Microsoft Academic Team works at universities, with the support of Microsoft Student Partners, in events such as the Imagine Cup Road Show or Hands On Workshops, where XNA Game Studio is promoted and is well received by students. Many of them have their first contact with this technology at our events, and start creating their videogames afterwards. In a general way, most of the entries submitted to XNA Pizza Night 2010 are born from these initiatives.
How many people involved?
It is organized by the Microsoft Portugal Academic Team with the support of the Xbox LIVE Portugal Team. This year we also had three speakers at the event, giving great sessions, from Microsoft Student Partners, to game studio developers: Vando Pereira (Microsoft Student Partner) – Working in a videogame Studio; Gonçalo Chaves (Fullsix Portugal) – XNA Game Studio is not only games; and Fernando Moreira (Microsoft Student Partner) – DirectX 11.
How long did participants prepare for this event, or is work done onsite?
This year we noticed that some participants put months of work into their own videogames; others wrote them on one evening in the train trip to Lisbon coming to XNA Pizza Night 2010. In general, we had a great time with all the great games shown that night.
Are prizes awarded?
Yes, there were prizes for the top five games, including Xbox 360 consoles, games, and books. This year we think the largest prize is probably the creation of the first XNA Game Studio Portuguese Community – XNAPT (http://xnapt.net/), an idea that was born from this event by some participants and is now live.
How was working with XNA Game Studio for the students?
The majority of participants had knowledge about XNA Game Studio and Visual Studio and how the XNA Framework helps to minimize development time of a videogame in a simple way. Most of the participants only had to think about the videogame concept, code, and content. So yes, it was quite simple.
Are there any quotes from participants that you would like to share?
“We were on vacations and we thought, XNA Pizza Night seems to be a cool event, let’s make a videogame with XNA [Game Studio] and have fun." - Chaparro Studios Team (Artur Claro, Eduardo Knopfli, Filipe Isabelinho, João Coxixo, Miguel Coxixo)
“Pizza 4 fuel, XNA [Game Studio], and Colors as Art 4 a night full of Games” - Vizati Team (Rita Silva, David Amador)
“XNA Pizza Night was a great experience. It was great to see so many good games and ideas being shown. And also getting feedback about my project. Amazing event. I'm anxious for the next year edition.” – WiiPlay (André Barbosa)
”Congratulations to the organization by one event so successful. Good company, good speakers, good pizza and games to the mixture all. Thank you.” - Ana Figueira (DefKiller)
Check out some of the games that were shown at this event:
Do you have a great academic story to tell about XNA Game Studio? If so, we would love to hear from you! Contact us at creators@microsoft.com to participate. |
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