Also on XBLA this week we have Golf: Tee It Up!(800 MS points), Housemarque and Activision's answer to Hot Shots Golf, with customizable golfers, online tourneys for 2-4 players, and two full golf courses, a number I am almost certain will grow with downloadable content down the line.

"Schizoid" and "Golf: Tee It Up!" hit Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday!

“Schizoid,” the first Xbox LIVE Arcade game developed with Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio technology, and “Golf: Tee It Up!” launch on Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PDT).

“Schizoid” is a fast and furiously paced action game with simple, intuitive gameplay. Billed as “the most co-op game ever,” reflexes and smarts are key but sharp teamwork pays off even more! Ram your way through waves of glowing enemies: single player with an AI bot helper; or co-op multiplayer with two players offline or online through Xbox LIVE. “Schizoid” features over 120 challenging levels of mayhem that will appeal to casual and hardcore gamers alike. For the brave player, “Schizoid” offers the intense Uberschizoid game mode, in which a single player controls two different ships at the same time.

Developed by Torpex Games, “Schizoid” will be available worldwide for 800 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.

Pick up and play a few quick holes on your own or compete in a full 18-hole multiplayer tournament with friends in “Golf: Tee It Up!” Both beginners and experienced golfers can easily join the fun on beautiful, panoramic and challenging courses. With the unique Focus feature, you can read the green or control the ball’s spin in flight to achieve amazing precision! “Golf: Tee It Up!” features zany, customizable characters and a variety of game modes including stroke, cup, or match play with local or Xbox LIVE multiplayer modes.

Developed by Housemarque and published by Activision, “Golf: Tee It Up!” will be available worldwide for 800 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.

For more details on “Golf: Tee It Up!” please visit http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/g/golfteeitupxboxlivearcade/. For more details on “Schizoid” please visit http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/s/schizoidxboxlivearcade/.

Schizoid Game Page [Torpex Games]

"We truly believe that if you and a friend spend two minutes playing Schizoid, you are going to ignore food, drink, your job and your family and play until they load you up on a gurney and head to the hospital. Schizoid is that rare game that comes along once every few years and we are very proud to make it our first release for Xbox LIVE Arcade."

So it's World of Warcraft? Well not quite.

The mechanic is deceptively simple. One player is red, the other is blue. Enemies matching your color can be destroyed by you hitting them, yet enemies of other colors can kill you. Teamwork is the key to survival in Schizoid, taking co-op to a whole new level. Both players have to be on the ball to survive. It should be an excellent opportunity to call your friends 'fuckwads," which is important to any friendship.

PREPARE TO GO SCHIZOID™! TORPEX GAMES DEBUTS SCHIZOID™ FOR Xbox LIVE® Arcade AT MICROSOFT'S GAMEFEST 2007

Schizoid is First Xbox LIVE Arcade Title Built Using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express

BELLEVUE, Wash. - August 13, 2007 - The next game genre is here! Torpex
Games, a developer and publisher of addictive console games, announced
today the upcoming release of Schizoid™ for Xbox LIVE® Arcade and will
showcase the game during Microsoft's GameFest 2007. Possibly the
ultimate co-op game, Schizoid is an action game where teamwork equals
survival and players must team up to protect each other from a seemingly
endless stream of glowing enemies. Schizoid will be the first-ever Xbox
LIVE Arcade title built using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express, and
is anticipated to be released before the end of 2007.

"Every few years a game will come out that is so simple, yet so
addictive that it becomes a phenomenon unto itself," says Bill Dugan,
Torpex Games' President. "We truly believe that if you and a friend
spend two minutes playing Schizoid, you are going to ignore food, drink,
your job and your family and play until they load you up on a gurney and
head to the hospital. Schizoid is that rare game that comes along once
every few years and we are very proud to make it our first release for
Xbox LIVE Arcade."

Featuring addictively simple gameplay, in Schizoid one person plays
'red' and the other plays 'blue'. Each player moves his ship around the
level as a seemingly endless stream of enemies attack. Each player can
burst enemies of their own color merely through contact, but each player
can be bursted by enemies of the other color. Both players have to
"step up" on every level to handle the enemies of their own color, so
their partner is not destroyed.

"There are literally thousands of games released every year and yet very
few of them have the originality of Schizoid. It's amazing to me that
this game hasn't been invented before now," says Dave Mitchell,
Microsoft's Director of Marketing for XNA. "Schizoid demonstrates that
developers can really unleash an ingenious game with XNA Game Studio
Express."

Bryan Trussel, Microsoft's Director of Platform Game Services, added,
"Schizoid combines a very fun and innovative game mechanic with really
creative level design. Thanks to its cooperative game-play experience
and variety of scenarios, Schizoid is a great game to play with friends,
either on the couch or over Xbox Live. We're delighted to exclusively
add this creative and unique game to our incredible Xbox LIVE Arcade
library."

Fristrom had been trying various coding tools to try and come up with a game prototype for their new company, but found that many of the common tools available were too unwieldy or too difficult to allow him to quickly get something up and running. Finally he turned to C#, which is the langauge used in XNA, and within four days had a working prototype built.

These weren't four gamer days either. These were four real person days, which include eating, sleeping, taking a moment to check out what's on TV, etc. Granted, as Dugan pointed out during our meeting, Jamie Fristrom is a stud, but four days to a functional prototype is pretty spectuacular no matter who you are.

Fristrom figured they would have to take the C# code and port it over to something a bit more professional, but that's where XNA came in. With the code already in the correct format, XNA was simply the most logical and cost-effective choice for a small startup development studio finding their stride. While most big devs have to spend upwards of $15,000 or more per person for all the tools needed to create a title, XNA development costs next to nothing in comparison.

Fristrom likes to practice agile development, where instead of mapping out exactly what you want in the game and then implementing, you instead start the implementation and tweak it until it feels right. It's how he arrived at with the perfect swinging system in Spiderman 2, so the results speak for themselves. With XNA they can quickly tweak ideas, behavoirs, etc., meaning that when a revision is needed it came be performed not only quicker, but with less potential code screwup than programming in other languages.

Now Torpex Games is planning to release their new game, Schizoid, via Xbox Live by the end of the year. Overall development has been a mere two months, a fraction of what it might have taken them using more expensive tools. While the XNA team has provided them with special tools to incorporate Xbox Live hooks into the game such as leaderboards and online play, the rest of the game is purely a product of the XNA Studio toolset.

As to what exactly Schizoid is...well that remains a little fuzzy to me. What I saw was a balck backdrop where crafts very reminiscent of the critters from Flow manuevered about, and there were explosions. It looked rather beautiful, and I will be following up with Torpex as more information becomes available.

While I will touch a bit more on the potential of XNA to the development community later in the week, I thought it was quite interesting to see two great industry veterans embracing the technology that up until recently I attributed mainly with homebrew hobbists and weekend coders. Apparently you can teach old dogs new tricks, and Torpex is living proof. Michael Fahey