XNA Programming

DreamSpark may not be a dud for high school cs students after all!

Brian Scarbeau — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:18:13 GMT

I have been pursuing when high school students will be getting the free software that Microsoft promised with the DreamSpark announcement back in February. I finally have been communicating with the team that is in charge of this and I've been told not to announce the release date but only to tell you that it will be soon. Real soon!

The distribution will be different from what college students have been doing. The high school computer science teacher must register. The high school administrators/faculty will need to accept a EULA that they will provide codes only to their students and that the software will be used for academic or research purposes. Microsoft will then verify the institution is a valid high school and provide them with the number of access codes the administrators need. The codes provided can be used once and only once so if students access the site and then try to distribute code around the web it will not work.

This is worth waiting for and your students will benefit from working with the products they will be getting for FREE!

I'll be teaching XNA to my programming students again this year and I'm interested in the XNA creators club membership for them.

Thanks to Andy Dunn and Clint Ruckas for helping me find the contact person at Microsoft to get this information.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, XNA, computer science eduction

DreamSpark= DreamDud for High School Students

Brian Scarbeau — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:03:20 GMT

Last February, Bill Gates announced a free software giveaway to college university students and high school students as well. Here is what was offered to them:

Microsoft developer tools. Visual Studio is the Swiss Army knife of computer programming. These professional-grade products provide a security-enhanced and reliable environment, enabling students to program everything from a cell phone to a robot or to create their own Web page. Students will also be able to invent compelling new gaming content and make their dream game a reality by porting their creations to their Xbox 360 console.

Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition

Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition

XNA Game Studio 2.0

12-month free Academic membership in the XNA Creators Club

Microsoft designer tools. This ultra-versatile suite of tools will enable students to vividly bring their creative visions to life in vibrant new Web site designs and more effective digital content, including animation, imagery and photography.

Expression Studio, including

Expression Web

Expression Blend

Expression Design

Expression Media

Microsoft platform resources. The foundation for development and design platforms, these products deliver a security-enhanced, reliable and manageable environment for students to more quickly turn ideas into reality.

SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition

Windows Server, Standard Edition

To date, no high school students has received this because of the lack of planning Microsoft had to distribute this software to high school students. Last spring, when I went to the Microsoft MVP Summit, I tried asking as many softies as I could as to when this would be made available. No one knew.

This is a wonderful give away to students and I wish that high school students will be part of the give away as well. In a couple of months it will be a year for the announcement.

Can anyone help?

Technorati Tags: XNA, Microsoft, Visual Studio, Expression Web, Windows Server, SQL Server

One month later.... Still nothing on the XNA Creators Club Site for Academics

Brian Scarbeau — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:35:58 GMT

So back in August, I blogged about this site because of my excitement for XNA and Academics. I was hoping to use whatever came on the site with my programming students. I was hoping that by now Microsoft either put content on the site or take it off and stop teasing us educators. To date nothing!

Everyone is waiting patiently for content and I know one person who isn't waiting so patiently.....

What gives?

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, XNA, Academics, Creators Club

XNA Curriculum Update

Brian Scarbeau — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:56:53 GMT

Microsoft MVP, Rob Miles has emailed all who are interested in reviewing his new XNA curriculum. I had a chance to look at Part 1 today and it looks good to use for any high school programming course that wants to introduce XNA into the curriculum.

The curriculum will have a total of 8 parts:

Part 1: An Introduction to Programming
Part 2: Controlling Games
Part 3: Displaying Messages
Part 4: Pictures and Sounds
Part 5: A Complete Game
Part 6: Creating Gameplay
Part 7: Complex Games
Part 8: Multi Player Games

Rob wrote the XNA book Learn Programming Now with Microsoft XNA Game Studio 2.0. He's a professor at the University of Hull and his curriculum is geared to anyone who has a programming background who wants to learn how to program C# using the XNA framework.

His curriculum for Part 1 comes with over 200 slides with notes on most slides to help the instructor. (nice touch) Part 1 is very basic and covers the following topics:

Introduction to Programming Concepts
What Makes a Program
What Makes a Game
Coping with Colours
Building a Program
Making a MoodLight

All topics covered comes with sample code for instructors to demonstrate the concepts covered in the topic.

You'll need to have an XBOX controller connected to your pc to run the code.

The first lab will walk you through how to create a program that changes the colors on the screen. Students get to use different data types like byte and bool in their code for this. They also get a chance to see how the XNA methods work in code.

All in all, I liked what I reviewed and look forward to seeing the other parts when they come available. Hopefully soon!

Technorati Tags: XNA, curriculum, Microsoft

XNA Creators Club has a spot for Academics on it

Brian Scarbeau — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:59:51 GMT

Not sure what's going to be on it because there's no content on it yet.

Technorati Tags: xna Creators Club, xna

XBOX 360 beats the competition

Brian Scarbeau — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:30:47 GMT

Microsoft has released sales figures on the XBOX 360 and they have reached the 10 million sold mark. The Wii is close behind with 8.8 million sold.
Great opportunity for game developers!

L.T.'s 1945 Game

Brian Scarbeau — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:04:15 GMT

Video: LT's 1945 XNA Game

Bailey's Shooter Game

Brian Scarbeau — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:35:59 GMT

Video: Bailey's Shooter Game

Nick's Crazy Bird Shot Game

Brian Scarbeau — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:39:02 GMT

Video: Nick's Bird Shot XNA Game

Salman's Sonic Game

Brian Scarbeau — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:00:22 GMT

Video: Salman's Sonic Game