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Project Spark Information Q&A

D

dejay

Banned
Can't wait for this game and I can't wait for the beta. Hopefully I'll get in although work wise it's going to be a very busy time for me. Thanks for making the thread OP.

I've just watched all the streams (some I've watched twice now). The tower defence stream in particular made me very happy.

I used to play with a lego robotics kit that came with visual language similar to Spark's. I did find the Lego's language a little limiting after a while (I discovered a more traditional language for it). From what I can tell though Spark seem more sophisticated than the lego one with more procedures so I'm not too worried. It seems to hit the sweet spot for me between depth and ease.

jond76 said:
Sweet! Thanks for popping in! One question I had was, besides using Kinect as a motion capture device, would we be able to use it as a control input for our game as well?
Click to expand...

Another Kinect question (or request). Can you voice search with Kinect in edit mode? I'm probably gonna create most stuff in Windows and using the keyboard search like the people were doing in the streams but it would be cool if you had the capability to search using Kinect if you're editing on XB1.
 
B

belushy

Banned
OP, make sure to mention that the game is free!

Though there are talks about content packs (Zombies, Urban, Western, Space-esque if I had to take a guess) which will cost some money. Though I'm about 99% sure they are not required to have fun. Might wanna ask Mike Lescault about that, but I doubt he can answer that at the time.

(yes I'm putting you on the spot Mike :) )
 
D

dejay

Banned
belucheez said:
OP, make sure to mention that the game is free!

Though there are talks about content packs (Zombies, Urban, Western, Space-esque if I had to take a guess) which will cost some money. Though I'm about 99% sure they are not required to have fun. Might wanna ask Mike Lescault about that, but I doubt he can answer that at the time.

(yes I'm putting you on the spot Mike :) )
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the grey area - the big Marketplace button next to Create and Play. I guess the main questions for me are:

- Is all the content shown so far included for free or only a bit?
- If there's a bit of paid for DLC content in someone's level, will I be able to play it if I haven't bought the DLC?

I'm not expecting a lot of stuff for free - people have to earn a living and publishers have to make a profit.
 
S

Stampy

Member
So what do you guys think when can we realistically expect for this game to be published. If the beta for Xbox one is in January, then I don't think we will play the full game up till March.
 
N

nbraun80

Member
belucheez said:
OP, make sure to mention that the game is free!

Though there are talks about content packs (Zombies, Urban, Western, Space-esque if I had to take a guess) which will cost some money. Though I'm about 99% sure they are not required to have fun. Might wanna ask Mike Lescault about that, but I doubt he can answer that at the time.

(yes I'm putting you on the spot Mike :) )
Click to expand...

Update the OP with a question about the cost. :)
 
G

Gowans

Member
I watched the stream where they made a tower defence game, looks great.

I really hope I get in the win 8 beta, so many ideas.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
belucheez said:
OP, make sure to mention that the game is free!

Though there are talks about content packs (Zombies, Urban, Western, Space-esque if I had to take a guess) which will cost some money. Though I'm about 99% sure they are not required to have fun. Might wanna ask Mike Lescault about that, but I doubt he can answer that at the time.

(yes I'm putting you on the spot Mike :) )
Click to expand...

In regards to content packs, if I purchase the Zombie pack and make a game with it. Is that game playable by others without the pack?
 
V

VRMN

Member
This might be my most-wanted game right now. It seems like more of a platform than a game, though, with the cross-platform functionality between the various Microsoft platforms. Every time I've seen it demoed, from the E3 press conference to when they launched Join Project Spark, to the live stream demos, to the stuff they did at Gamescom, I've just gotten more and more hyped for it. I seriously can't wait to get my hands on it.
 
S

Silky

Banned
Welp. It's time. TIme to make Jet Set Radio 3 with Spark.

Could multiple people work on a single world online?
 
S

Sylver

Banned
The game concept really looks awesome I hope this finally don't get release limitations many games suffer (ehem Molyneux ehem) and don't ends being just promises.
First news it will be released on PC, ^^, I thought it was XOne exclusive.
Cannot wait.
 
H

Hindle

Banned
Creating levels in this seems way more easier then LBP. The tools seem more accessible and therefor the game should be more fun.

Any news of a release btw?
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
VRMN said:
This might be my most-wanted game right now. It seems like more of a platform than a game, though, with the cross-platform functionality between the various Microsoft platforms. Every time I've seen it demoed, from the E3 press conference to when they launched Join Project Spark, to the live stream demos, to the stuff they did at Gamescom, I've just gotten more and more hyped for it. I seriously can't wait to get my hands on it.
Click to expand...

I'm also seeing this as a platform, and I hope MS sees it that way too, so they can keep incrementally increasing it's capabilities instead of releasing new versions and fragmenting the community.
 
P

Prologue

Member
This game looks awesome and I'm not much of a creative person myself. I watched one of their 30 min demos and it really does look straight forward.


Hoping for spring release!
 
F

flamingotripod

Member
Prologue said:
Why is the game free to play? They could have gotten away with selling it at a full retail price.
Click to expand...

Because if they charged money for it, the userbase would decrease tremendously compared to it being free. This is a game based on user creations and the more people that own it, the more creations that can be shown to demonstrate the power of the X1.
 
F

Fleshfeast

Member
This is one of my most anticipated titles for Xbox One. I've been aspiring to make games for literally decades, but always manage to let something get in my way (my fault, I know). This seems to have almost zero barrier for entry, and I can't wait to see what I can make with it.


the one thing I'm really curious about that I haven't seen talked about, is the creation of custom art assets. Obviously there's not going to be a 3D modeling program embedded, but can you take things apart and use pieces to make new stuff? Can you squash and stretch existing assets?

I want to hear that I can replicate Doom or Quake.
 
D

dejay

Banned
Fleshfeast said:
This is one of my most anticipated titles for Xbox One. I've been aspiring to make games for literally decades, but always manage to let something get in my way (my fault, I know). This seems to have almost zero barrier for entry, and I can't wait to see what I can make with it.


the one thing I'm really curious about that I haven't seen talked about, is the creation of custom art assets. Obviously there's not going to be a 3D modeling program embedded, but can you take things apart and use pieces to make new stuff? Can you squash and stretch existing assets?

I want to hear that I can replicate Doom or Quake.
Click to expand...

Yes you can pull apart assets and reuse the pieces. The mech in the E3 demo was made from the pieces of a house if I remember correctly.
 
F

Fleshfeast

Member
dejay said:
Yes you can pull apart assets and reuse the pieces. The mech in the E3 demo was made from the pieces of a house if I remember correctly.
Click to expand...

I'd heard that before, but I was just looking for confirmation I guess. I know (from one of the livestreams) that you can also change the colors of objects. Squash and stretch I'd like to hear about also though.
 
S

Stampy

Member
Fleshfeast said:
the one thing I'm really curious about that I haven't seen talked about, is the creation of custom art assets. Obviously there's not going to be a 3D modeling program embedded, but can you take things apart and use pieces to make new stuff? Can you squash and stretch existing assets?
Click to expand...

I think there is really low chance we will be able to custom create objects (other than gluing exiting ones. The strategy is clear, the game is free, but they will be releasing new content for us to buy. If there would be an advanced sculpting and animating tool, the need for DLC would not be as high.
 
T

too much eslim

Member
Stampy said:
I think there is really low chance we will be able to custom create objects (other than gluing exiting ones. The strategy is clear, the game is free, but they will be releasing new content for us to buy. If there would be an advanced sculpting and animating tool, the need for DLC would not be as high.
Click to expand...
I hope what they are selling are themes. For instance I want an anime/ cel shaded look theme. I would pay for that.
 
P

PG2G

Member
Would be nice if there was a way for some of the higher rated or more popular spark games to be compiled for release as standard XBLA games.
 
H

hydrophilic attack

Member
This is the most interesting XBO (console) exclusive to me.

A couple of questions that were not in the OP:

How are they planning to monetize this thing? If they do it in a bad way, it could be a dealbreaker.

Is it fully F2P, or do you need a Live subscription on 360 and XBO? I am assuming no subscription on PC, at least.
 
N

nbraun80

Member
Silky said:
Welp. It's time. TIme to make Jet Set Radio 3 with Spark.

Could multiple people work on a single world online?
Click to expand...

yeah they really haven't spoken about editing in the same project at the sane time. They have said in the live streams that they aren't ready to talk about multiplayer, not sure if they mean simultaneous editing or actually making a co-op game both would be awesome.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
Stampy said:
I think there is really low chance we will be able to custom create objects (other than gluing exiting ones. The strategy is clear, the game is free, but they will be releasing new content for us to buy. If there would be an advanced sculpting and animating tool, the need for DLC would not be as high.
Click to expand...

They could allow content creators to sell the custom objects and TD could take a cut of the profit.
 
M

Mike_Lescault

Neo Member
MCD said:
Will this be bundled/installed with say...Surface 2 or later Windows 8 products? This is an app in Windows 8 store and not a desktop app, correct?

Also, any chance Windows Phone 8 can get a port or perhaps smartglass like functionality where we can manage some stuff on the go?
Click to expand...

Obviously, we'd love to have it included anyplace we can, being free-to-play and all. We're still working out the details on where and how it will exactly appear.

Regarding Windows Phone functionality, it'd definitely be very cool to have, but as of right now, the team is focusing on the Win8, Xbox One, and Xbox 360 versions to get them ready for beta & launch.

dejay said:
Another Kinect question (or request). Can you voice search with Kinect in edit mode? I'm probably gonna create most stuff in Windows and using the keyboard search like the people were doing in the streams but it would be cool if you had the capability to search using Kinect if you're editing on XB1.
Click to expand...

I don't believe we've announced it yet, but it's definitely something we'd like to do. There's a million cool features we want to add, and not a lot of time, so we want to be careful not to promise anything until we know for sure it'll make it in.

dejay said:
- Is all the content shown so far included for free or only a bit?
- If there's a bit of paid for DLC content in someone's level, will I be able to play it if I haven't bought the DLC?
Click to expand...

Yeah, good questions. We're holding off on sharing any marketplace details until we're able to roll out the entire picture, so we can provide folks with the full context.

Silky said:
Could multiple people work on a single world online?
Click to expand...

Multiplayer is another area we'll be addressing once we're able to share the complete story. The E3 announce reveal provided some pretty good clues to some of the things that will be possible.

Sorry for all the non-answers, but wanted to at least offer some response. We really do appreciate all the interest folks are showing with the game. The team is crazy excited!

-Mike
 
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