First XNA to XBLA Title Revealed: Schizoid
Billed by Torpex as "possibly the ultimate co-op game," Schizoid features two-person online and offline multiplayer in which each player is assigned a specific color--blue or red--and are invulnerable to enemies of that tone, meaning they can impact and destroy those particular foes. The two players must then work together to protect each other from the otherwise indestructible foes.
The concept is reminiscent of Treasure's vertical shooter Ikaruga (GCN, DC), which featured black and white enemies and allowed players to switch their polarity to inflict more damage on the opposite color.
“Every few years a game will come out that is so simple, yet so addictive that it becomes a phenomenon unto itself,” gushed Torpex president Bill Dugan. “We truly believe that if you and a friend spend two minutes playing Schizoid, you are going to ignore food, drink, your job and your family and play until they load you up on a gurney and head to the hospital."
“There are literally thousands of games released every year and yet very few of them have the originality of Schizoid," noted XNA director of marketing Dave Mitchell. "It’s amazing to me that this game hasn’t been invented before now. Schizoid demonstrates that developers can really unleash an ingenious game with XNA Game Studio Express."
Launched in 2006, XNA Games Studio Express is a development platform allowing for the creation of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Xbox 360 games. Part of Microsoft's vision of a "YouTube for games," the software itself is free, but executing XNA code on an Xbox 360 requires a $99/year or $49/four months XNA Creators Club membership. The company previously expressed hope that certain games created in XNA could be sold via XBLA, negating the need of an XNA Creators Club membership to experience.
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Online co-op? They must be using the new networking capabilities of XNA 2.0.
Wonder when XNA 2.0 will be ready for public consumption...