The PlayStation has LittleBigPlanet for gamers that love to create, and now Xbox has Project Spark. To show off that game’s cross-platform creation capabilities, Microsoft closed out its Build 2013 developer conference today with an in-depth demonstration of Project Spark in action.
Project Spark is a digital canvas that has you using a controller, the Kinect, a mouse, or a touchscreen to design games that are immediately playable. It is due out this year for Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Windows 8.
As part of the demonstration, Microsoft Game Studios general manager Dave McCarthy walked through one of the Project Spark’s developers building something on a Windows 8 PC with a touchscreen. They then saved their stage to the cloud and picked it up and played the level on an Xbox One.
Since this demo was all about Microsoft’s dedication to cross-platform support, they didn’t stop at that point.
Next, McCarthy had the developer make some changes to the level using a Windows 8 tablet running the SmartGlass app that connects tablets to the Xbox console. After around a minute in the tablet, the developer was able to change the game from a controller-based title to a touch-enabled game.
Build is Microsoft’s developer-facing show, so it’s obvious that it wants to inspire studios to use its services in a similar manner. The software company is putting a lot of effort into its ecosystem, and Project Spark is a good example of something that takes full advantage of it.