Indie Gamer : GunTest 2 was written using Game Studio Express. How did it come about?
Jacob Repp:

It was the result of a brainstorming session with an artist friend. We wanted to make a game which could be visually interesting, fun to play and achievable for two people to write.

Indie Gamer : How long did it take to make?
JR: It only took a few days to get the basic game up and running. But was some time before a polished product was ready and I’m still tweaking it.

Indie Gamer : Was it easy to Game Studio Express?
JR: I think getting things up and running was extremely easy. The framework that is provided is rich and the beta provides almost everything I needed as a game developer to jump right into the important parts of game programming.

Indie Gamer : Will Microsoft’s initiative lead to a YouTube for games?
JR: It’s important to look at the difference between homebrew games and movies. It comes down to time and investment. It’s easy to just point a camera at something and post it on YouTube but the process of creating a quality game even with basic graphics is a very time intensive process.

Indie Gamer : How can Microsoft get round this?
JR: Well, in order for something like a YouTube of games to be successful there will have to be some kind of incentive for people to spend all this time making creative games such as earning marketplace points or cash.

Indie Gamer : Can you see a problem separating the good from the downright poor?
JR: I feel that in a YouTube-for-games scenario there will likely be a lot of games of dubious quality and originality with just a few gems rising to the top.

Indie Gamer : Is this bringing back the bedroom programming scene of the 1980s?
JR: I always thought that would happen when Microsoft created a way to make money with XNA Game Studio Express games. A royalty system would be nice, but that would mean that there was a revenue stream from these games. The only revenue I can see would be advertising based since paying to download games of unknown quality would probably not fly.

Indie Gamer : But is it a way into the industry?
JR: Perhaps. The major incentive will be for people trying to get into the games industry or for just having fun. Additionally, XNA GSE has been picked up by many universities for teaching purposes. I think what XNA GSE really needs to truly break some new game ideas is more WYSWIG features like Flash that allow people who are not hardcore graphics programmers (specifically artists) to get into the process of game making.”