XNA Notes 005
- by George Clingerman
Another week and another crazy amount of activity going on in the XNA community. I’m fairly certain I missed over half of it. In fact, if I am missing things, make sure to email me and I’ll try and make sure I catch it next week! ([email protected]). Also, if you’ve got any advice, things you like/don’t like about the way these XNA Notes are going let me know. I always appreciate feedback (currently spammers are leaving me the nicest comments so you guys have work to do!)
Without further ado, here’s this week’s notes!
Time Critical XNA News
    The XNA Team Blob reminds us that February 7th is the last day to submit XNA 3.1 games to peer review!
    
        http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xna/archive/2011/01/31/7-days-left-to-submit-xna-gs-3-1-games-on-app-hub.aspx
    
    
XNA MVPS
    Chris Williams kicks off the marketing campaign for our book
    
        http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams/archive/2011/01/28/143680.aspx
    
    
    Catalin Zima posts the comparison cheat sheet for why Angry Birds is different than Chickens Can’t Fly
    
        http://www.amusedsloth.com/2011/02/comparison-cheat-sheet-for-chickens-cant-fly-and-angry-birds/
    
    
    Jim Perry congratulates the developers selected by Game Developer Magazine for Best Xbox LIVE Indie Games of 2010
    
        http://machxgames.com/blog/?p=24
    
    
    @NemoKrad posts his XNAKUUG talks for all to enjoy
    
        http://twitter.com/NemoKrad/statuses/33142362502864896
        http://xna-uk.net/blogs/randomchaos/archive/2011/02/03/xblig-uk-2011-january-amp-february-talk.aspx
    
    
    George  (that’s me!) preps for his XNA talk coming up on the 8th
    
        http://twitter.com/clingermangw/statuses/32669550554124288
        http://www.portlandsilverlight.net/Meetings/Details/15
    
    
XNA Developers
    FireFly posts the last tutorial in his XNA Tower Defense tutorial series
    
        http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/26442/451460.aspx#451460
        http://xnatd.blogspot.com/2011/01/tutorial-14-polishing-game.html
    
    
    @fredericmy posts the main difference when porting a game from Windows Phone 7 to Xbox 360
    
        http://fairyengine.blogspot.com/2011/01/main-differences-when-porting-game-from.html
    
    
    @ElementCy creates a pretty rad video of a MineCraft type terrain created using XNA
    
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Waw1f7wnl9I
    
    
    Andrew Russel gets the first XNA badge on gamedev.stackexchange
    
        http://twitter.com/_AndrewRussell/statuses/32322877004972032
        http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/badges?tab=tags
        And his funding for ExEn has passed $7000 only $3000 to go
        
            http://twitter.com/_AndrewRussell/statuses/33042412804771840
        
        
    
    
    Subodh Pushpak blogs about his Windows Phone 7 XNA talk
    
        http://geekswithblogs.net/subodhnpushpak/archive/2011/02/01/windows-phone-7-silverlight--xna-development-talk.aspx
    
    
    Slyprid releases the latest version of Transmute and needs more people to test
    
        http://twitter.com/slyprid/statuses/32452488418299904
        http://forgottenstarstudios.com/
    
    
    SpynDoctorGames celebrates the 1 year anniversary of Your Doodles Are Bugged! Congrats!
    
        http://twitter.com/SpynDoctorGames/statuses/32511689068908544
    
    
    Noogy (creator of Dust the Elysian Tail) prepares his conversion to XNA 4.0
    
        http://twitter.com/NoogyTweet/statuses/32522008449253376
    
    
    @philippedasilva posts about the Indiefreaks Game Framework v0.2.0.0 Input management system
    
        http://twitter.com/philippedasilva/statuses/32763393957957632
        http://indiefreaks.com/2011/02/02/behind-smart-input-system-feature/
    
    
    Mommy’s Best Games debates what to do about High Scores with their new update
    
        http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2011/02/high-score-shake-up.html
    
    
    @BinaryTweedDeej want to know if there’s anything the community needs to make XNA games for the PC. Give him some feedback!
    
        http://twitter.com/BinaryTweedDeej/status/32895453863354368
    
    
    @mikebmcl promises to write us all a book (I can’t wait to read it!)
    
        http://twitter.com/mikebmcl/statuses/33206499102687233
    
    
    @werezompire is going to live, LIVE, thanks to all the generosity and support from the community!
    
        http://twitter.com/werezompire/statuses/32840147644977153
    
    
Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG)
    Making money in Xbox 360 indie game development. Is it possible?
    
        http://www.bitmob.com/articles/making-money-in-xbox-360-indie-game-development-is-it-possible
        @AlejandroDaJ posts some thoughts abut the bitmob article
        
            http://twitter.com/AlejandroDaJ/statuses/31068552165330944
            http://www.apathyworks.com/blog/view.php?id=00215
        
        
    
    
    Kobun gets my respect as an XBLIG champion. I’m not sure who Kobun is, but if you’ve every read through the comment sections any time Kotaku writes about XBLIGs you’ll see a lot of confusion, disinformation in there. Kobun has been waging a secret war battling that lack of knowledge and he does it well. Also he’s running a pretty kick ass site for Xbox LIVE Indie Game reviews
    
        http://xboxindies.teamkobun.com/
    
    
    @radiangames releases his last Xbox LIVE Indie Game...for now
    
        http://bit.ly/gMK6lE
    
    
    Playing Avaglide with the Kinect controller
    
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqAYbHww53o
        http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/30/kinect-hacks-take-to-the-skies-with-avaglide/
    
    
    Luke Schneider of Radiangames interviewed in Edge magazine
    
        http://www.next-gen.biz/features/radiangames-venture
    
    
    Digital Quarters posts thoughts on why XBLIG’s online requirement kills certain genres
    
        http://digitalquarters.blogspot.com/2011/02/thoughts-why-xbligs-online-requirement.html
    
    
    Mommy’s Best Games shares the news that several XBLIGs were featured in the March 2011 issue of Famitsu 360
    
        http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/33455/451487.aspx#451487
    
    
    NaviFairy continues with his Indie-Game-A-Day
    
        http://gaygamer.net/2011/02/indie_game_a_day_epic_dungeon.html
        http://gaygamer.net/2011/02/indie_game_a_day_break_limit_r.html
        and more every day...that’s kind of the point! Keep your eye on this series!
    
    
    VVGTV continues with it’s awesome reviews/promotions for XBLIGs
    
        http://vvgtv.com/
        http://vvgtv.com/2011/02/03/iredia-atrams-secret-xblig-review-2/
        http://vvgtv.com/2011/02/02/poopocalypse-coming-soon-to-xblig/
        ….and even more, you get the point.
    
    
    Magicka is an Indie Game doing really well on Steam AND it’s made using XNA
    
        http://www.magickagame.com/
        http://twitter.com/Magickagame/statuses/32712762580799488
    
    
    GameMarx reviews Antipole
    
        http://www.gamemarx.com/reviews/73/antipole-is-vvvvvvery-good.aspx
    
    
    Armless Octopus review Alpha Squad
    
        http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/01/28/xbox-indie-review-alpha-squad/
    
    
    An interesting article about Kodu that Jim Perry found
    
        http://twitter.com/MachXGames/statuses/32848044105924608
        http://www.develop-online.net/news/36915/10-year-old-Jordan-makes-games-The-UK-needs-more-like-her
    
    
XNA Game Development
    Sgt. Conker posts about the Natur beta, a new book and whether you can make money with XBLIG
    
        http://www.sgtconker.com/
        http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/01/a-new-book-on-the-block-and-a-new-natur-beta/
        http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/01/making-money-in-xbox-360-indie-game-development-is-it-possible/
    
    
    Tips for setting up SVN
    
        http://bit.ly/fKxgFh
    
    
    @bsimser found tons of royalty free music and soundfx for your XNA Games
    
        http://twitter.com/bsimser/statuses/31426632933711872
    
    
    Post on the new features in the next Sunburn Editor
    
        http://www.synapsegaming.com/blogs/fivesidedbarrel/archive/2011/01/28/new-editor-features-prefabs-components-and-more.aspx
    
    
    @jasons_novaleaf posts source code for light pre-pass optimizations for #xna
    
        http://twitter.com/jasons_novaleaf/statuses/33348855403642880
        http://jcoluna.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/xna-4-0-light-pre-pass-optimization-round-one/
    
    
    I’ve been learning about doing an A.I. for turn based games and this article was a great resource.
    
        http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1535/designing_ai_algorithms_for_.php?print=1