A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the HTML5 Game Camps going on this month and December. (NYC is 12/9 & Penn State is 12/14.) There’s a lot going on when it comes to gaming… not just playing them, but also developing them. If you’ve got the bug and want to try you hand at developing a game, Microsoft has some great options for you, including the XNA Framework.
The XNA Framework lets you build games targeting the XBox, Windows PC, and of course, Windows Phone. If you’re building a multi-player game with online components, then using the cloud with a Windows Azure backend is a great way to go.
I wanted to share with you some a couple of updated resources to help get you on your way to developing your own game.
First, it is a lot easier than you think to build a game for Windows Phone and get it into the Marketplace. (Especially if you’re a student!) My teammate Andrew Parsons recently wrote a LONG, but thorough, step-by-step blog post on how.
Andrew has detailed walkthroughs on how to get started with an AppHub (Marketplace) account, the tools, a sample game that you can build on top of, and how to complete the market publication process.
As an added bonus, if you are a student, Andrew covers how you can register for DreamSpark and get FREE access to the AppHub for Windows Phone (normally a $99/yr cost)!
Read Andrew Parson’s post here:
Second, back in July, I shared news that there was a tech preview for a new Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games (WATSG). It was just announced yesterday on the Windows Azure blog that WATSG 1.1 was released. The toolkit makes it easier for developers to quickly build social and casual games using Windows Azure.
The preview of the toolkit was built around a sample game called Tankster. In the latest version of the toolkit, the team separated the toolkit code from the Tankster game. This was done in order to make it easier to learn the toolkit and understand the basics of building a social game. There are two new simpler samples included, “Tic-tac-toe” and “Four-in-a-row”. These sample games are much easier to dive into than the full-featured Tankster game.
The core features of the toolkit include:
Nathan Totten, a technical evangelist on the Windows Azure team, has put a post together walking through the latest version of the WATSG. Be sure to check that out here:
You can find the project website and actual bits on Codeplex here:
Thirdly, I wanted to remind you about the upcoming “Winter XNA Games – RIT GameCamp” coming up the weekend of December 2nd-4th in Rochester, NY. This will be a mega-game camp at the Rochester Institute of Technology. If you’re into gaming, this might be worth the 5-6 hour trip to upstate NY from the NYC metro area! It is four events rolled into one (details lifted from Andrew Parson’s blog):
For details and registration visit here:
What are you waiting for? Time to get the bits and build some fun stuff!