We’ve studied various toolsets at Philly GameWorks.  We’ve looked at the Unity Game Engine in depth, and spent a little time with MonoGame and GameMaker.  In October, we’re looking at BabylonJS for games on the web.

In November, we’re going to start by taking a look at an innovative game platform built for your Xbox One. Project Spark allows you to develop games with your Xbox One or Windows 8 PC using a game engine that is built right into the game, so to speak.

Project Spark Meetup – RSVP Here

You can build games with your Windows 8 PC and play them on your Xbox One.  Or you can record animations of yourself moving, dancing, jumping, or running with your Kinect on Xbox One and apply them to the characters in the game you are building.  The games are shared and rated among the Project Spark community.

There’s no “programming” the way we think of programming languages, algorithms, or code. However, you can create logic for your game characters on-screen, so that the game’s characters respond the way you want to make the game you want.

This is a perfect way to get the whole family involved in game development. If you have Windows 8 PCs, you can develop and play on those PCs. If you have an Xbox one, you can develop and play there. And if you have both, the games you make on one platform work on the other as well.

Bring your Windows 8 laptops and get started with Project Spark at Philly GameWorks.