Just wanted to remind those of you who might not be keeping an eye on Twitter that Microsoft are hosting a Dream Build Play 'devchat' later today where you'll be be able to chat with Microsoft and other XNA developers about this year's DBP, ahead of registration closing and submission opening on May 17.

The chat'll start at 17:00 PDT (four hours away from the time of this post) and last for 30 minutes. It'll be tracked using the #DevChat hashtag on Twitter, so if you're not on Twitter but still want to keep an eye on it, you should be able to follow it through this page.

There's further info in the news section here.

~Richard Williams

The DevChat's now starting up! Microsoft have suggested that could also keep up with the chat via this TweetChat link - it doesn't require that you're a member of Twitter unless you want to participate.

@XNACommunity is the official account of the XNA team - multiple members of the team will be taking part in the chat for the next half hour - they're introducing themselves right now. :)

~Richard Williams

Edit: The DevChat's been extended to run an extra 30 mins (until 6pm PDT) and I'm planning to post a summary of it once it's done just in case any of you couldn't make it. :)

I've compiled a short summary of the DevChat just in case anyone couldn't make it. I'm not a journalist, so please excuse the slightly rough and dislocated nature of it. Also, I'm trying to avoid attaching too many links in order to avoid this post being swallowed up by the forum's spam filter. :)

XNA Team Members Rob Gruhl, Pete Isensee and Yuji Suzuki have introduced themselves and are now asking the other developers to do the same - the XNA team ask what the developers found to be the best part of participating in DBP this year. Some like having a set deadline - a clear goal to work towards. Others like many members of the community gearing up and working on games at the same time.

The XNA Team ask what everyone's favourite games from past DBP competitions were. Many different titles are being mentioned, but the most popular seem to be Dust, Lumi and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. There's been a really good turnout so far - I'm estimating around 30-40 developers have contributed at this stage.  The XNA Team have extended the DevChat by 30 minutes (to last an hour overall) and will be taking questions 45 minutes in.

The team are now asking what sort of games people were most looking forward to seeing in this year's DBP. There have been some really diverse answers including wanting more experimental games and more games from genres that have been traditionally under-represented on XBLIG, such as Fighters and Strategy games.

The XNA team are now asking if people have any funny stories about their development experiences. Among them are tales of needlessly wasted programming hours, running between floors to test networking code on a distant Xbox 360 and incredibly, DBP's very own love story!

Now for the Q&A which I think is probably the highlight for a lot of people. I'm trying to get down as much as I can.

@MikeVentron: "Will achievements come to XBLIG any time soon?"
XNA Team: "Good feedback. Our priority right now is to help developers by growing the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone audience "

@benkane "What's the stance on publishing games to XBLIG marketplace (before judging) as well as submitting to DBP?"
XNA Team: "WRT posting your #XBLIG game vs submitting to #DBP11 - it's up to the developer if they want to post their submission to XBLIG."

It's clear at this stage that most people are more interested in asking general XBLIG and XNA questions than DBP-specific ones. Can't blame them for doing so and the XNA team seem to be answering select ones. Carrying on:

@frogthedoor: "Any plans for an XNA marketplace on PC?"
XNA Team: "The #gfwl marketplace has indies, but does not have peer review like #xblig. For more visit: http://bit.ly/GFWL11"

@clingermangw: "Will we ever see a community manager for Xbox LIVE Indie Games again?"
XNA Team: "Thanks for asking, but we can’t comment on personnel changes."

@DMitsuki: "Why can you only play XBLIG while connected to Xbox Live and not when offline?"
XNA Team: "It has to do with security and content ratings."

@MartinDraszczuk: "Are you going to host chats like this more often?As you see the community has lot of questions and there's a need for communication"
XNA Team: "Yes, we are really enjoying the positive community response for this chat, look for more in the future!"

@Gigan22: "Will we ever see indies get a permanent(or even bi-weekly) mention in the Spotlight section on the main dashboard?"
XNA Team: "We're happy to help. We can’t guarantee we’ll do #IGWU type promo again, but will continue to support #XBLIG titles"

@benkane: "What's one thing you can point to that has kept an otherwise promising entry out of the top 20 in previous DBP competitions?"
XNA Team: "Crashing bugs. Overly complicated or deep menus/customizations to get into the game. Not enough gameplay polish."

@Orann: "If anyone has a question or request for the dev team, is there a way to contact members, or the team personally?"
XNA Team: "App Hub XBLIG forums and MVPs are great resources. CC:@clingermangw @mikebmcl"

And that's that - the XNA team have bid farewell, but I think the devs will probably continue the conversation for quite a while yet. Personally, I'm really impressed with the team - it was great to start off in a casual way and they answered a lot of tough questions which they probably weren't prepared for. A big thanks to them for taking the time to do it - I'm feeling really positive about a lot of the work that's been done lately.

~Richard Williams

Great job summarizing the #devchat!

Thanks a lot for the summary. Missed the first few minutes, helped me out.

Thanks for the summary sir.

This was a fun little event.   Pretty sure I speak for most of the devs that we greatly appreciate having the doors of communication swing open like this. 

Also nice to get some previews of what to expect in terms of DBP11 entries.

Thank you for the summary.  I really regret missing the chat (I choose a day to stay away from Twitter, and it bites me).  Sounds like a great time.

Yep, I missed it and really appreciate the summary also.  Too busy working on my project and forgot all about it until too late.