The new Kodu gaming lab is very cool and my kids are into building their own worlds but there's one problem... I have to disable family settings and even their ability to access user created content for them to be able to play on their profile.  Given that this game is targeted at younger gamers this is a pretty big conflict in the design.  I understand the need to limit the kids access to user created content and want to (and did) use family settings but since Kodu won't even launch with family settings enabled I had to remove much of that protection.  I really hope a fix for this is in the works as family settings are important to me but I want my kids to be able to play and learn using Kodu.

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"Now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb" - Darth Helmet

Kodu? Never heard of it.. I am actively trying to find games my 8 year old will enjoy.  She's still a silver because I am afraid for her to go online.  She plays marble blast on my account on ocassion, but I am sitting right there.  Is kodu an arcade game?

Kodu Gaming Lab, basically a tool to let non-programmers create their own games.  I can't get the marketplace for it to come up but there is more info here: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/press/2009/0107-kodu.htm

It's 400 points but you can try the demo (5 minute times trial) too.

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"Now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb" - Darth Helmet

Yeah, Microsoft should have added in a way to choose to allow individual games you deem appropriate while still leaving anything else unplayable when they launched Community Games instead of the all or none method.

Microsoft chose to release Kodu through the Xbox Community Games section (shortly to become Xbox Indie Games) rather than Xbox Live Arcade.

The Community Games portal is considered unrated by the dashboard since that is what they are - unrated games.

Unfortunately this does mean that with parental ratings turned up your kids won't be able to play the games.

I can't see Community Games having this restriction changed anytime soon as there are simply too many laws around the world that require content to be checked properly.

However maybe if Kodu does really well and gets a big following or team at Microsoft they could publish it through the more mainstream channel in the future. This is also not something that could happen quickly either.

Allowing exceptions to the parental process would be another option but would require dashboard updates so my guess is that's not a short term option too.

Right now your only option is to let them play the game logged in as you rather than change the settings every time.

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ZMan

XNA Game Studio MVP
http://www.thezbuffer.com

Note: Kodu now has its own forum here http://forums.xbox.com/1608/ShowForum.aspx

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ZMan

XNA Game Studio MVP
http://www.thezbuffer.com

Thank you Z for the link