By: Brian Crecente

Earlier this week Microsoft opened the gates to indie development on the Xbox 360 with the launch of the XNA Creator's Club.

While the free Game Studio Express development tool first hit the Internet in August, the key to getting games developed for the 360 onto the actual console didn't hit until this week with the launch of the club.

The club allows designers to push their games to the Xbox 360 and download free tutorials and starter kits to help them along the way.

I had a chance to speak with Chris Satchell, general manager of Microsoft's Game Developer's Group, about Microsoft's plans for buying user-created games and mods, Nintendo and Sony's version of the service and what this means for the Independent Games Festival.

Satchell explained that the club will come with access to a lot more than just the ability to test yours and other's games. You will also get access to forums, tutorials and even game development starter kits.

" We had this idea for starter kits," Satchell said. "Let's say you want to build a racing game but don't want to start from scratch, you can download a racing starter kit and mod it for yourself. It's lowering the barriers to making your own games."

But won't this, I asked, lead to a stream of cookie-cutter games, each based on these modular starter kits? Isn't that the exact opposite of what Microsoft is trying to do with the Creator's Club?

"I don't think it will stifle creativity at all," he said. "It will get more people started in it."

"Maybe their first game won't be groundbreaking, but it will get them into game design. Every time we see a roadblock we try to remove it."

Another thing that could help stoke interest in the development tools and creator's club is news that starting in January Microsoft will host a contest to find the best game created using the Game Studio Express.

But what the announcement doesn't say is what the developer will get out of having his or her game placed on Xbox Live.

Satchell said that's something they're still trying to work out.

"We still haven't announced how that side of it will work," he said. "What we will do, we will take the best entry and work with them to get their game on Xbox Live."

While I love the concept of the Creator's Club, I think the biggest hurdle it faces is making sure that the work budding developers put into a game is rewarded in a meaningful way.

I don't think it would be a very positive experience to create the next Geometry Wars and be rewarded with a handshake or free Xbox 360.

Satchell said his team understands that concern.

"We want to make (budding developers) successful," he said. "We aren't talking yet about details on the financial side, how we can get some revenue and flow it back to the creator."

One possibility, of course, is that third-party publishers could get involved, Satchell said. It's something that is, it seems, integral to Microsoft's plan for the service.

Satchell was as full of analogies as he was exuberance for the new service. He likened the service to Project Greenlight, Live Arcade to premium cable TV and the Creator's Club creations to the stuff that pops up on YouTube.

"What we are working on next year is creating the YouTube of games," he said. "We need to figure out how people who aren't in the development community, aren't in the Creator's Club, can get to these games."

"We need to create the community arcade. Give people tools so they can communicate on it."

But before they can open the floodgates to all of that original content, Microsoft has to figure out a way to allow people to sort through what will likely be a wealth of information. They will also have to figure out a way to make sure they can maintain security on the system while allowing for this free flow of user created content.

"Those are a lot of the problems we need to solve to allow effective sharing," he said. "Not only are we learning on the technical sides, but we are also learning how do you let people search a lot of content."

Once those problems are solved and user created games are available on Live, why not other user created content, like mods?

"At a platform level, I think modding could be interesting on the 360," Satchell said. "Certainly a technology like Game Studio Express points the way. So I think its interesting idea."

Developers too, it seems, are interested in the potential and possibilities of the new development tools, and not just for headhunting.

Some developers, Satchell said, like the idea of creating quick, easy, fun games using the tools, instead of just working on a game for a year with a team.

Even famed UK developer Peter Molyneux seems caught up in the excitement. He plans to make an appearance in the UK this week to talk about the development kit and its potential.

And in a few years, Satchell thinks that some of the games created using their tools could become the stuff of Independent Games Festival entries.

"It will be really interesting to work with the IGF in the future," he said.

While Microsoft was certainly the first out of the gate with this idea, they weren't the last. Both Sony and Nintendo have announced similar plans.

But Satchell says he isn't worried because neither Sony nor Nintendo have the same level of experience creating development tools.

"I think they are going to be really challenged to do it," he said. "From everything I hear from developers, I'd say (Sony and Nintendo) struggle to make compelling development environments for professional studios let alone for hobbyists and students."

For this to work, Satchell says, the development tools need to be easy and compelling.

"That's part of what we are good at doing, making great development tools,' he said. "I'm not too worried about our competitors' ability to produce that."