GameMaker Studio 2 is touted as the ultimate 2D development environment and Microsoft is partnering with them for the Xbox Live Creators Program.
For those of you who don't know, the Xbox Live Creators Program requires minimum certification and has no stringent concept approval process. This means that once Xbox Live sign-in is implemented and Gamertags are displayed on the user interface, independent developers can easily bring their projects to both Xbox One and Windows 10. The whole process is simplified as well. A game developer just has to create a Dev Center account, build an Xbox Live-enabled Universal Windows Platform game with GameMaker UWP, and they're ready to launch on the Xbox One and Windows 10.
YoYo Games is integrating the Xbox Live Creators Program into its GameMaker Studio 2. With GameMaker Studio 2's simple-to-use 2D toolset, creators can now quickly and directly publish their games to the console. In a statement issued to the press, James Cox, general manager at YoYo Games, said:
The dream for many developers is to bring their games to every platform, and our GameMaker Studio 2 integration with the Xbox Live Creators Program takes them one step closer to this. This is where our partnership with Microsoft comes in – much of our efforts with GameMaker Studio 2 are focused on creating an engine that's cost-effective, easy-to-learn, and can port games to other platforms quickly. By partnering with the Xbox Live Creators Program, we have blown the doors open for indie games on Xbox One devices.
The integration makes the publishing process painless because it's all handled through the development tools they're working with. According to Chris Charla, Director of ID@Xbox at Microsoft, "GameMaker Studio 2 is already a really cool tool for development, and including easy-to-integrate support for Xbox Live Creators Program means that independent developers have another great option to use to showcase their games."
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