If the 85 master recordings aren’t enough for players of “Guitar Hero: World Tour,” they can create their own playable tracks with the in-game music studio feature.

Neversoft senior producer Aaron Habibipour, who also plays real guitar and is in a band, showed me the game’s music studio during a demo in a New York City hotel suite last month.

Here’s a rundown on the three main sections — recording, mixing and sharing — of the “GH: WT” music studio: Read more…

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 downloadable Community Games initiative doesn’t roll out until this fall, but I’ve been playing around in the beta for weeks and found some…interesting entries.

But I’ve discovered the most impressive Community Game so far: “Colosseum.”

“Colosseum” is a four-player, cel-shaded 3D brawler with its own, albeit basic, combo system — combat is handled on the right stick, a la “Too Human” — and a multitude of characters and game modes to choose from. There’s even a tutorial!

Most Community Games are better regarded as prototypes for something else that might someday be mad, but “Coliseum” stands out as a game that can be praised on its merits rather than just potential. It needs work, sure, but it’s impressive, and something that could catch the eye of a publisher.

“Colosseum” looks like the real deal. You could have told me it was an Xbox Live Arcade release scheduled for later this year and I would have believed you. Check out a few more screen shots of the game in action below.

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“Spore” is coming to more than the PC and Mac in September, but the experience is - a little — limited. EA wants to fix that.

One of the big draws of “Spore” is the potentially unlimited supply of user-generated content from the Sporepedia. You can’t do that on the iPhone, mobile or DS versions of “Spore.” Not yet, anyway.

While checking out the minimalist iPhone version at E3 (it’s only the amoeba stage), I frowned at the lack of interoperability with the rest of the “Spore” universe. A nearby Electronic Arts representative told me the developers are looking into the issue.

There’s no universal connection of all “Spore” games yet, but the creators’ intention is for every version of “Spore” to access and use the content from the same, single Sporepedia. That isn’t happening with the first wave of “Spore” spin-offs, albeit the iPhone version could be patched to include such functionality.

Readers, is the ability to export your “Spore” creations, regardless of platform, important to you?

There isn’t much in the way of “Adults Only” content on consoles. Games dealing with sex and drugs are most often left to the indies on PC.

That doesn’t look to be changing too much, even with Microsoft’s new Community Games initiative. Microsoft told me they aren’t setting rules, but the ESRB’s guidelines are a good rule of thumb.

“It’s not exact, but a way to think about it is anything that would have been M-rated I think we’re fine with,” said Chris Satchell, Microsoft’s new chief technology officer for Xbox. “Things that would have been AO…that’s probably not what we want from the service. That’s just not what our platform is about.”

He didn’t rule out games with edgy themes, though. “There’s an awful lot of breadth there, and it’s really just about accurately describing what’s in your game more than saying we can’t do it,” said Satchell.

What Community Games titles definitely won’t have access to, however, is achievements. “Achievements is currently not available to the Community Games,” said new XNA head Boyd Multerer, before teasing possible future plans. “We’ll always be looking at ways to improve the service.”

Do you think the Wii sex game that Stephen talked about yesterday would fly on Community Games?

Do you like to make games? Do you want to make money? Microsoft wants to help you.

Microsoft has revealed their business model for Community Games, the YouTube-influenced service for games made on Microsoft’s free toolset, XNA Game Studio.

The company has teased this step in “democratizing” games for almost a year now. MTV Multiplayer spoke with former XNA head (now chief technology officer) Chris Satchell and new XNA leader Boyd Multerer about the announcement.

The basics: users can charge between 200, 400 or 800 points for their games. They cannot be free. Microsoft takes 30% of the profits, but if you make a popular title, they may help promote it. You can’t opt out of marketing assistance and Microsoft charges a fee, but the idea is increased sales balances that out.

For more on the reasoning behind each of these decisions, keep reading.

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I’ve never thought about making my own game before.

Even though Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio tools lower the hurdles for amateur developers, you still need programming experience. I don’t have any.

But Electronic Arts thinks it has a solution with Sims Carnival. You needn’t know a programming language; just apply your creativity to their already-built toolsets. Currently in beta, I hopped on the Sims Carnival website to see what people have created.

And that’s where EA “rickrolled” me. (See the definition of “rickrolled” here.)

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While EA Maxis has been actively removing sexually explicit creatures from the Sporepedia, video game characters created with “Spore”’s tools are everywhere.

Mario, Yoshi, the Chimera, Master Chief, Metroids, Goombas, many disturbing variations of Sonic the Hedgehog and even Metal Gear Ray have been recreated.

I have to admit, though, some have made the transition better than others. I’m having trouble looking at Sonic without feeling slightly uneasy.

Keep reading to check out our favorite video game-inspired “Spore” creature creations. And feel free to share your finds in the comments!

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It hasn’t taken long for “Spore” users to start cranking out content. Much of it has been interesting, a few disturbing, and some were taken down (hint: phallic creatures).

But that’s partly what Dan Moskowitz, a software engineer at EA Maxis and lead programmer on the “Spore” creature editor (we featured some of his creations yesterday), anticipated when their tool was let loose on the public.

“The editor is so flexible, it’s almost like putting a kind of paintbrush in people’s hands,” he told me over e-mail. “I expect we’ll see some jaw-dropping works of art, some hilariously funny, some edgy, maybe even controversial creatures.”

He even expects some folks to spend up to 20 hours on a single creation.

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You’re looking at a coveted creation from the lead programmer of “Spore”’s creature editor. EA Maxis software engineer Dan Moskowitz made countless monstrosities over “Spore”’s development, but this remains one of his favorites.

The creature’s name is Cheeky Monkey. “I particularly think this one is cool, because it shows off how flexible the animation system is,” he told me.

Have you thought about what you’ll make in “Spore”? Check out another one of his creations — a pear-shaped thing named Bosc Johnson — by reading on.

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I’ve seen and played part of the future of Xbox Live: Community Games. It’s a feature whose success relies on almost everyone but Microsoft.

Community Games is the recently announced program that allows independent developers to publish games created using Microsoft’s XNA Design Studio toolset. Gamers will be able to download these games through their Xbox Live account on a regular Xbox 360.

Microsoft allowed me access to the Community Games beta, where I proceeded to download more than 10 completely user-created games.

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Gross, isn’t it?

Even though I don’t have an artistic bone in my body, I managed to create something cool in “Spore.” Cool enough, in fact, that the “Spore” developers around me asked me to save it to the Sporepedia when I was done with it.

I wanted to make the MTV logo, but didn’t have time. I did snap another shot of the my creature — he (she? it?) is named Greenbell — and even uploaded a video of him dancing to YouTube, which you can do straight through the editor itself.

See what I recorded by reading on.

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If you’re an international reader of MTV Multiplayer, you might have been a little confused about my complaints directed at “SingStar” yesterday.

I criticized “SingStar”’s lack of an online video portal for community videos. There didn’t appear to be any way to view these valuable contributions without owning “SingStar.”

It turns out you can watch people’s videos outside the game, just not in the United States. Not yet.

“We are working on some localization issues to integrate globally and it should be ready to roll out in the US shortly,” a Sony spokesperson told me yesterday.

You can get a preview of what to expect already by heading to the official site and choosing any country that isn’t the US. You just can’t upload your performance yet.