How World Sharing will work in PC Kodu

mattmac — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

PC Kodu is going to have file import and export for Kodu Worlds. This will let you export a world, email it to someone, and have them open it using Kodu on their machine.

The goal is to enable you to use *any* sharing mechanism to share Kodu worlds. Want to make a gallery? Great! Use your favorite tool.

We do have internal community server tools but we only have resources to give them to some institutions. We're looking into sharing this more broadly; it's a pretty optimal Kodu sharing experience (don't have to select server.) We may just publish the protocol as it's small and clean.

Eric just checked it in. Here's his design.

- There are two special folders at the root of Kodu’s user space (below Documents/SavedGames/Boku/Player1). One called Imports, the other called Exports.

o Imports folder behavior:

§ Any “.kodu” files residing in this folder will be imported into the user’s Downloads bin whenever the user enters the load level menu.

o Exports folder behavior:

§ A new option is available on the load level screen’s “pop-out” menu called Export (it shows up underneath Play). This action will export the selected level to the Exports folder, as a .kodu file.

§ Export is not available for builtin worlds.

§ Terrain will not be exported if it is from a builtin world.

- The new installer registers the “.kodu” file extension with Kodu.exe, allowing the user to import a level by double-clicking on a .kodu file.

o This action will import the level to their downloads area, then take them directly into the level in play mode, similar to how trial mode works.

o If another version of Kodu is running when the file is double-clicked, the second copy of Kodu will copy the file to the Imports folder and then exit. When the first copy of Kodu navigates to the load level menu, the new level will be imported.

- Level metadata now contains the version number of the Kodu that saved it to disk. We don’t allow import of levels written by newer versions of Kodu.

- .kodu files are really just CAB archives with a different extension.

Emerging Community

mattmac — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:00:00 GMT

One of the hardest parts of Kodu was launching without a central community. It's a long story; buy me a beer next time you're in Redmond and I'll cry into it for you.

What we have been betting on (big time) is that communities will start to self-organize, and they are. My favorite right now is http://kodu.moco.net, which is packed with very active, knowledgable creators. Lots of people are offering up their gamerTags and saying "share with me!" There's even one that's acting kind of like a server. Get in there!

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How World Sharing will work in PC Kodu

Emerging Community