PlayBits Launch Date: July 10th
We’ve been hard at work to make the PlayBits Silverlight Game engine as fast, feature rich, and flexible as possible to make turn it into the easiest way to create games for the Web. Now that Microsoft has announced the Silverlight 3 release date of July 10th, we’re matching that with the release of PlayBits on the same day.
The PlayBits launch date is now set in stone for July 10, 2009. We’ll launch with the same Early Adopter program described in the last post with the same benefits of discounted pricing, extended support service, and customer feedback driving direction. The EA program will end on August 31, 2009 as we formally launch the locked-down official release.
We originally targeted a release date of July 30, so why did we change it? Our original plan was to release a Silverlight 2.0 compatible version of PlayBits and then later a Silverlight 3.0 compatible version. This would have left 2 distinct versions of our SDK and tools out in the market. However, now that Microsoft has announced their July 10th launch date, we can align our product launch so that only one version of our game development SDK is out there. This means less confusion for everyone and sharper focus on our Silverlight 3.0 features and testing.
Over the next couple of weeks, leading up to our July 10 launch, several sample games will be posted to our Website for everyone to interact with and try out different features of the game engine. I will also be posting more videos and a detailed list of our features. Our online forums are also just about to open up so that we can start sharing answers to your questions.
Good news on the advancement of the launch date. Been keeping an eye on this one and as soon as budget permits I shall definatly pick this up.
Good job!
Thanks, Gavin! We’re about a week out, and all the focus is on testing with Silverlight 3 as well as getting samples, videos, images, and documentation ready for public posting. I will be at the Silverlight 3 launch event in San Francisco on July 10 for anyone interested in connecting.
John K.
How can I join the early adopter program? There was an announcement about buying the software early but I can’t find any online store to purchase this.
The EA program is launching at the end of the week. The store, forums, samples, and videos are coming online throughout this week. We’re getting very close to the big launch.
John K.
Did this get delayed?
Hi John,
3 Quick Questions
1. How was the silverlight 3.0 launch event in San Francisco?
2. Are there great changes so that the release needs to be delayd?
3. Do you plan support for light effects? (I always hoped that feature would come to gg tgb but I think there I have to wait until the next major release)
Abdullah, in a sense, the broad release has been delayed. The Beta1 release went out to a limited number of participants to shakedown the public interfaces. The concern we had was that there might be game breaking changes in the next couple of weeks as that feedback comes in. For example, if we change the properties and method names around, your game’s XAML code will break. We really expect this to be a short delay that will reduce the overall confusion for everyone.
The other factor was that Silverlight 3 was released, but not Expression Studio 3. Microsoft has delayed that release for a couple of weeks and Expression Blend is our recommended game level editor.
We really want this product released as quickly as possible. But only in a way that developers can take it and run with it as opposed to running into problems wih a changing API.
John K.
marcus, the event in San Francisco was very well done and I was pleased to personally meet with the people behind Silverlight 3 and Expression 3.
The delayed release is tied somewhat to Expression Blend’s delay, but mostly tied to our desire to make sure that the public interfaces into the game engine are finalized. Even last week, there were some renaming of public methods which caused all of the samples to be changed. But the end result is a framework that is very intuitive and tied in well with the Silverlight SDK.
2D Light effects are definitely on the radar, but not in the initial release. The first release will include a simple drop shadow for game objects, but they will be projected at a fixed (programmer defined) angle. However, that does keep the door open for a new pixel shader effect in which you can specify a light source and then let the shadows drop naturally.
This, along with a larger collection of pixel shader effects, will be coming soon as they begin to really differentiate a Silverlight Web game from a Flash game.
John K.
Hi John,
I have played a bit with expression blend and the physics behaviors of andy beaulieu. Can’t wait to have such a workflow with a full game engine. Blend seems really smart. Any news for the public beta release date?