Globtrotting and Creators Club and DreamBuildPlay

I've been working on a windows version of an XNA game for a while now. I'm to the point where I want to get a creators club membership and move it to the 360. I've also been waiting for the details of the DreamBuildPlay contest, so I can plan the rest of the project. Also depending on the contest details I've been waiting to buy tickets to Japan and Australia. To my question: If I get a creators club membership and get my game going on the 360 here (US) then go to Japan for 1 month and bring my laptop/360 can I use my creators club over there Same with Australia Also are the ethernet connections the same in all 3 countries How about the power

Today is the last day I can get cheap tickets to Japan, so I'm going to get them, but if the contest ends before say May 1st I'd like to go for just 1 month, but if it ends after that I'd like to go to Australia for 1 month as well. Anyone with some insider information want to give me a hint.... long trip or short trip There's only one week left of January.... it would be nice to have a hint...

Thanks

I'm going to see if I can find some time to blog a few details I can share about the contest over at the XNA team blog over the next 24-48 hours...

Now on to your questions, I don't have the types of answers you might be specifically looking for but I do have a couple of suggestions.

1) You can continue to develop your game on a Windows PC/Laptop while traveling. When you get back, you can then focus on making it work on the Xbox 360 if you like. Speaking from personal experience, it is no fun at all to lug around so much hardware while on the road. My back hasn't fully recovered yet from a month of my lugging 2 Dell XPS laptops and a console around the US and abroad.

2) Xbox Live access works across the Internet so as long as you have access, you should be fine. You'll be pinging the US servers from significantly further away but it should work.

3) Networking cables and jacks seem pretty universal so I'd think you're fine there. I know you will be in Japan as that was one of my destinations last year. The places I stayed while in Japan also happened to have standard 110v plugs which was perfect for all my hardware. Not sure about where you're going so check with your hotel or other place of residence while in country. They can help you out with definitive answers.

As for the contest timeframes, all I'll say is that everyone should have plenty (TM) of time to work on their entries. You'll have more than a month to complete it. For those who are on the ball and have already been working on their games, you have that much more of a headstart and likely more time for fit & finish - the stuff that can really set your entry apart.

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Updates at http://www.dreambuildplay.com will be live within the next week. What started off as a fun idea to give all our XNA Game Studio Express fans something to do has grown to be something significantly larger and more interesting. I'm fairly certain you guys will appreciate what has been assembled.

</tease>

So your call really as to how much "Globtrotting" to do but definitely have a lot of fun while doing it by jamming on that XNA Game Studio Express game lurking in your thoughts!

--dave

As far as I know, the 360 and your laptop should work just fine (if you setup your GSE as the primary to deploy to the 360) as long as they are on the same network. If you setup a desktop to deploy from, then I think you will have to get another key and profile in order to have your laptop to deploy from.

So, in otherwords, if you plan to deploy to your 360 and want to be able to do it from your laptop, then set up your Creators Club key for your 360 on it.

Thanks for the reply.

My laptop is fairly underpowered, and I've got most of the gameplay hammered out. I mainly want to work on graphics/polish from here on out, so I'll probably bring the 360. Yeah, it's probably going to suck lugging it around, but it's better than a desktop!

I'm really looking forward to more contest details (as I have been since it was announced!) Thanks for the update!

B1narySh0t :

So this means you can only use one computer to deploy to one xbox per creators club account If so that kind of sucks. I'd like to use my desktop while at home and the laptop on the road...

Thanks for all the info, Dave

I can't wait to see some updates on the dreambuildplay site, since i've been checking it once every few hours :)

Also, if you manage to get some info on the blog, that would also be great.

Thanks again for the info.

That's a relief. I was hoping that's the way it worked.

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm using the 360 pad on windows, so that should be smooth. I've been kind of dreading the hud and the safe region. I'll have to buy a cheap tv and try it out on that. I've got a lot of level data and things that I'm loading straight from a file. Hopefully that's not a big change through.

Also my artist is living in Tokyo, so I'd like to show him the game running at frame. It'll suck packing the 360 around, but I won't be moving around that much. I lived in Kyoto for a couple years, so I know my way around fairly well.... although I've never been to Wakoku's...

Anyway, I got my tickets and I don't leave until Feb 26th, so I should have plenty of time to figure out what's going on with DreamBuildPlay. Maybe I won't need to bring the 360. We'll see.

Thanks