January 3rd, 2009 by Sharky

kick it on GameDevKicks.com 

I’m thrilled to announce that Air Legends is published at last – on the Xbox 360 that is. (A windows version shouldn’t be far off)

It is available on Xbox 360 Community Games marketplace in US, UK, Canada, France, Spain & Italy. Other countries should follow as Microsoft enables them. (I’m guessing they’ll be schmoozing with a government near you to make it so.)

It’s a supremely satisfying moment, though it hasn’t really sunk in yet.

Even if you’re not in the supported countries, you can still check it out on the web marketplace here:

“Air Legends on the Marketplace”

Now to reflect on a little trivia…

  • 2 years & 5 months in development. Just me tinkering away in my limited spare time.
  • began as a tiny exercise to brush up on my .NET v2.0 skills at home – since my day job had me rotting in v1.1.
  • the game is based on an unfinished game I attempted in BASIC back in the 80’s.
  • the distinctive rotation of the planes was something I came up with back then. I wanted you to enjoy all angles of the plane rather than the traditional 2D side view.
  • I started it as a 2D game. Became 3D when I quickly learned what a mammoth task it would be coming up with sprites for all angles. In the 80’s it was easy with only 16×16, 2 colour sprites.
  • I started the game using Managed DirectX with .NET 2.0. I didn’t even know XNA was coming, so it was a very pleasant surprise when Beta 1 emerged late 2006
  • the game had no name. The exe name was Legends.exe. David Weller that suggested “Sharky’s Air Legends” when Microsoft needed a title for the first XNA showcase video. The name stuck. Thanks Dave.
  • the project was scuttled much of 2007 thanks to certain personal events that hit hard. With a whole new life ahead energy levels returned and I resumed with vigour and a serious goal to make the life dream a reality.
  • I dropped the “Sharky’s” prefix one day in 2008, when it dawned on me I could actually publish this thing one day!

That’ll do for now. Bound to be more trivia – but I can blog that later.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

:)

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9 Responses to “”

  1. Pieter Says:

    whoohoooooo!

    Congratulations!

  2. Sharky Says:

    Thanks dude!

  3. Pete Says:

    Kudos for you!

  4. Simon (Darkside) Jackson Says:

    Fantastic stuff M8.
    As one of the other original crowd, I’ve been watching with keen interest since day 1. Glad you managed to finally get it out there.
    Now I finally have a reason to spend some MS points :-) (other than a few select others)

  5. ZMan Says:

    COgnrats man – nice to see a properly polished game up on CG and I hope you make lots of money!

  6. John Says:

    Congratulations!!

  7. Sharky Says:

    Thanks everyone.

    xD

  8. Stu Says:

    Nice one Sharky!

    It’s available in the UK you say?

    I’m going to grab it as soon as I get some more MS points – spent all mine on Rock Band songs.

  9. Sharky Says:

    Hey Stu.

    Great to hear from you, and thanks!

    I wish we had Rock Band 2 in NZ. Only just got RB1 :(

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