Are you a high school student? Do you like to play games on your XBox 360? How would you like to be able to create games for your XBox 360? Now you can.
At the Government Leaders Summit today, Microsoft announced that they are extending the Microsoft DreamSpark program to high school students and teachers. This program was previously available to college students and instructors.
As part of the program, students get access to Microsoft software that they may not have been able to. In the case of gaming, XNA Game Studio is an extension of Visual Studio 2008 Express ( and other editions ) and these have always been freely downloadable. But in order to deploy your games to the XBox 360 you need a Creators Club membership. As part of the program you’ll get a 12-month standard Creators Club membership so you can play your creations on your XBox. Below is an excerpt from the DreamSpark website:
XNA Creators Club 12-Month Student Trial Membership coupled with XNA Game Studio 3.0, opens up video game development to untapped creative minds, enabling students to build and play their amazing games on Xbox 360 systems. The access key below grants access to a 12-month trial membership that provides aspiring game developers the ability to develop games for their Xbox 360 without having to pay the $100 yearly membership (minimum Xbox LIVE silver membership required to deploy your games on your Xbox 360). However, this membership will not give you access to premium content or the ability to submit your games to Xbox LIVE Community Games.
Check out the FAQ (https://www.dreamspark.com/FAQ/HighSchoolAdministratorFaq.aspx) for more information and pass this information along to any high school administrators you know.
