I thought I'd save this one for the end of the day, because it's rather long. And bizarre. Team Dakota recently had 343's community manager Jessica Shea over to sample Project Spark, the free game creation toolset for Xbox 360, Xbox One and Windows 8.
Obviously, the first thing they decided to do was make a game about murderous rabbits. And squirrels that excrete other squirrels. Take a look. Incidentally, if you happen to be a Rare employee, Shea might be worth contacting with a view to developing a next generation Conker game.
Unconvinced? Fine, take a gander at this video, in which Team Dakota knock together a goofy Street Fighter clone and a block-based puzzler. They have a few technical problems earlier on, so I've taken the liberty of jumping to roundabouts the 16 minute mark. Skip to 22 minutes if you want to hear about the puzzle game, and to about 38 minutes for the fighting game.
It's an extremely robust and powerful sim, as you can see, which supports a range of input devices besides mouse and keyboard - you'll be able to use the Xbox One's SmartGlass tablet app to shape the terrain, for instance, and even map your facial expressions onto characters by way of Kinect.
Those who loathe making their own entertainment may be more interested in Crossroads mode, which randomly generates a world and quests. Aoife had the chance to try this out at Gamescom, and came away rather impressed.
As of a few hours ago, Project Spark is officially in beta for (fairly powerful) PCs that run Windows 8.1 - the beta will migrate to Xbox One in January, according to the Verge. Keen? You can download the app from the Windows Store (availability may vary by region), though you'll also need to acquire a beta key by visiting the Project Spark website.
http://www.oxm.co.uk/67450/video-halo-4-developer-creates-giant-rabbit-fps-using-project-spark/
