XNA Notes 015

Comments (3) | Share

MIX 11 happened this past week and I’m still trying to find and catch up on all the announcements changes that came from that. It looks like we can now use XNA on the web via Silverlight (and am I reading that we can do 3d?). We can now use Silverlight in our XNA projects with Windows Phone 7 (yay for having an easy way to make UI’s in XNA now!). And I’m still searching around to see if there were any other big news. The Silverlight + XNA news is pretty big because that opens up a lot of new game development avenues that weren’t available to XNA developers before. Social networking in our game? Yeah, I’ll take some of that.

Despite all the excitement coming out of MIX 11 it really didn’t grab center stage in the community because there we so many other exciting things happening. Here’s what I noticed…

Time Critical XNA News:

• The XNA Team announces Gamefest 2011: Save the Dates!
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xna/archive/2011/04/13/gamefest-2011-save-the-dates.aspx
  

XNA Team:

• Shawn Hargreaves post about code being a 4 letter word
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/04/14/quot-code-quot-is-a-four-letter-word.aspx
  

XNA MVPs:

• Chris Williams will be speaking at DEVLINK 2011 giving a talk on building a game for Windows Phone 7 with XNA 4.0
• http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams/archive/2011/04/12/144828.aspx
• John Defenbaugh uploads some more awesome videos from his game Kilflame, this time with improved particles and animations
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYKf8uo6h_g&feature=youtu.be
• Michael McLaughlin (@mikebmcl) posts on WP7 Games: Recommendations on Resuming
• http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/04/14/wp7-games-recommendations-on-resuming.aspx
  

XNA Developers:

• Sgt. Conker gives a wonderful welcome to the new XNA MVPs (pictures included! although the one picture is probably too much awesome for anyone to handle...)
• http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/04/posing-a-clingerman-to-welcome-our-new-overlords/
• Jwatte shares with us the state of COLLADA, FBX and open source
• http://www.enchantedage.com/collada-2.3-still-doesnt-work
• DrMistry of MStarGames has found another way to procrastinate, get your thyroid to act up and help out! Hopefully he’ll have a full recovery after treatment and be back to his usual active and productive self. Get well soon!
• http://www.mstargames.co.uk/mistryblogmain/35-genblog/188-aaaah-now-i-understand.html
• @TehGrumpyDude reminds us all (by tweeting about it!) that he’s got a port of AGG Lite for XNA called Agg.XNA, a 2D vector SW rasterizer library
• http://twitter.com/#!/TehGrumpyDude/status/57357503981305857
• http://bnoerj.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Bnoerj.Labs&referringTitle=Home
• Martin Caine shares about his first XNA UK User Group meeting
• http://martincaine.com/xna/my_first_xna_uk_usergroup_meeting
• Aaron Foley (@slyprid) continue work on Transmute which now fully supports full tile swatch rotations
• http://twitter.com/#!/slyprid/status/57503173501386752
• Duckocide shares Copernicus One progress video #25
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgcmtyuSBQ0&feature=share
• JForceGame shares a time-lapse drawing of the Unstoppable Hookshot Gun
• http://jforcegames.com/blog/index.php?itemid=122
• Matthew Doucette of Xona Games puts us all in a trance with a Score Rush run
• http://twitter.com/#!/mdoucette/status/58197212487892992
• Richard Williams (@DVMGames) reminds all multi-language peer reviewers to check out the multi-language games currently in peer review and help out where you can!
• http://twitter.com/#!/DVMGames/status/58220394880040960
• http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/26091/486822.aspx#486822
• Philippe Da Silva announces that IGF v.0.4 was released and is available for download now!
• http://indiefreaks.com/
• John Kabus (@bobthecbuilder) announces the latest SunBurn release
• http://www.synapsegaming.com/blogs/johnk/archive/2011/04/14/sunburn-2-0-14-update-available.aspx
• Simon (Darkside) J (@DDReaper) shares a Mix11 Online Cheat sheet for all the Mix11 sessions (great way to see what was announced!)
• http://xna-uk.net/blogs/darkgenesis/archive/2011/04/14/mix11-online-cheat-sheet.aspx
• UberGeekGames shares his find for all XNA performance nuts
• http://twitter.com/#!/UberGeekGames/status/58519654179672065
• Is XBLIG worthy of your time and effort? Dustin Tigner shares why for him, that answer is YES!
• http://dustintigner.com/is-xblig-worthy-of-your-time-and-effort/
• Scott Drew (@JustSuds) shares a video of his Dungeons3D game he’s working on for Dream Build Play
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2URB50oJly8&feature=youtu.be
• Mike Ooliphant (@NostaticSoft) posts about  Randomization in Games - Managing Player Expectations
• http://blog.nostatic.org/2011/04/randomization-in-games-managing-player.html
• Andy Mount blog, “So when do you see the light at the end of the tunnel again?”
• http://www.xnajunkie.com/2011/04/12/light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-again/
• @x35mm shares an interesting article he found on Content vs. Gameplay in games
• http://twitter.com/#!/x35mm/status/58238304780435456
• http://www.paradeofrain.com/2010/12/the-tug-of-war-in-content-vs-gameplay/
• Ben Kane asks “Do Indies Crunch?”
• http://benkane.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/do-indies-crunch/

Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG):

• Ska Studios coming of the release of Dishwasher: Vampire Smile decides to do what every indie studio does after working hard for years and releasing a hit. Never take a break.
• Good Morning Gato  #56
• http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/04/08/good-morning-gato-56/
• High Quality  Ska Studios Music now available for download. Pay what you want!
• http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/04/12/high-quality-ska-studios-music/
• Drew Viggo Bermark reviews Retro-cade: Data Stream Y2K600
• http://controllerspike.com/viggo-plays-indie-games-retro-cade-data-stream-y2k600/
• GameMarx
• Cell - GameMarx Game of the Week
• http://www.gamemarx.com/video/trials/47/cell.aspx?
• Insane Bash
• http://www.gamemarx.com/video/trials/50/insane-bash.aspx
• Shield the Beat
• http://www.gamemarx.com/video/trials/53/shield-the-beat.aspx
• PewPewPewPewPewPewPewPewPew
• http://www.gamemarx.com/video/trials/48/pewpewpewpewpewpewpewpewpew.aspx
• Shifters
• http://www.gamemarx.com/video/trials/49/shifters.aspx
• Congrats to FortressCraft on a successful release. At one point it was the third game in the (US) xbox.com best selling list according to fairly reliable sources. Always good to see XBLIG being successful.
• http://twitter.com/#!/nickgravelyn/status/57490530313048064
• http://twitter.com/#!/mikebmcl/status/57491737723154432
• Indie Lair reviews Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
• http://indielair.blogspot.com/2011/04/review-monsters-probably-stole-my.html
• Kevin Prier (@TheOnlyProphet) reviews TriLinea ReAct
• http://theonlyprophet.blogspot.com/2011/04/explode-this.html
• The VideoGamerRob Blog reviews Infinity Danger
• http://videogamerrob.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/xblig-review-infinity-danger/
• Armless Octopus
• Duodecad
• http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/04/13/duodecad-review-kick-ass-with-cards/
• Shield the Beat
• http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/04/12/shield-the-beat-review-set-lasers-to-rock/
• Armless Octocast Episode 47
• http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/04/13/armless-octocast-episode-47-8-bit-fanfic-octocast/
• Writings of Mass Deduction (@massdeduction )
• Day 152: Treasure Treasure
• http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/04/10/day-152-treasure-treasure-ffee/
• Day 153: Castle Pain
• http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/04/11/day-153-platformance-castle-pain/
• Day 154:  Olu
• http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/04/12/day-154-olu/
• Day 155: Moe Mekuri
• http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/04/13/day-155-%E8%90%8C%E3%82%81%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8A-moe-mekuri/
• DIY Games posts the Weekly Xbox Indies
• http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/games/best-of-the-indies-13th-april-2011
  

XNA Development:

• The XNA Tower Defense series continues to chug along with Tutorial 15: Adding Health Bars
• http://xnatd.blogspot.com/2011/04/tutorial-15-adding-health-bars.html
• Rob Miles posts about MIX 11 XNA Madness
• http://www.robmiles.com/journal/2011/4/12/mix-11-xna-madness.html
• XNA for Silverlight Developers: Part 9 - Navigation and Structure
• http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-9-Navigation-and-structure.aspx
• This went up on Channel 9 March 30th, but it was new to me. XNA Game Development: Designing the Game
• http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/The-XNA-Show/XNA-Game-Development-Designing-the-Game
• Digital Rune posts Car Physics for 3D Games
• http://www.digitalrune.com/Support/Blog/tabid/719/EntryId/91/Car-Physics-for-3D-Games.aspx
• XNA Game Development Diary - how hard is it to make money?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juy8aD6rfIs&feature=share
• 2011 US Imagine Cup finals- Final day presentations
• http://www.ximplosionx.com/2011/04/11/2011-us-imagine-cup-finalsfinal-day-presentations/
• XNA for the Web - Silverlight 5 announced at MIX 11 with some pretty cool XNA features!
• http://kodierer.blogspot.com/2011/04/xna-for-web-silverlight-5.html
• Silverlight + XNA working together on WP7 announced at MIX11. This makes all sorts of interesting game ideas come to mind...
• http://www.wpcentral.com/silverlight-xna-working-together-wp7-mix11
• Kinect for Windows SDK beta announced from Microsoft Research
• http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/
  

Windows Phone 7:

• Meet Bandon Watson, the Man behind Microsoft’s Windows Phone Developer Push
• http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Brandon-Watson-The-Man-Behind-Microsofts-Windows-Phone-Developer-Push-214739/
• ElementCy let’s us know that Manic...IT’S COMING and soon for WP7
• http://www.ubergamermonkey.com/personal-projects/manic-it-s-coming/
• Windows Team Blog, “Be what’s next with Mango Developer Tools and Platform”
• http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2011/04/13/be-what-s-next-with-mango-developer-tools-and-platform.aspx
• One of the coolest WP7 Ads I’ve seen
• http://www.youtube.com/windowsphone
• until  James Johnston (@MadNinjaSkillz) shared what may be an even cooler one!
• http://twitter.com/#!/MadNinjaSkillz/status/58709658336100352