Tom Miller's Blog

This blog is now retired, please follow my new site instead.

2011-03-26T04:39:44Z

I've migrated to my new site now at http://millermansworld.com

Hope to see you there!

It occurs to me that I forgot to announce a few things on my blog..

2010-08-09T00:16:57Z

For starters, I never mentioned that I had left the XNA team here. After spending approximately a decade working on XNA and it's predecessors, I had finally decided it was time to move on. An opportunity came up within MGS (Microsoft Game Studios) that gave me the opportunity to make games rather than enabling others to do so. Since I had accomplished virtually everything I had hoped to with the XNA product, and the available opportunity was too good to pass up, I moved to the new group in June. I did announce that move on my twitter account, completley forgot to announce it here!

Along side that, Dean and I have been hard at work with our book, which you can find out more information about here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/XNA-Game-Studio-40-Programming-Developing-for-Windows-Phone-and-Xbox-Live/148023561880764

You should expect the book to come out around the same time GS4 does.

I would say that my new role probably doesn't afford me a bunch of time to be blogging here, but since I didn't even remember to blog about my move, I'm not sure that it matters anyway. I don't even know if people still read this!

Artists wanted!

2010-05-03T04:05:33Z

Oh yeah, are you a game artist and you want to see your art in an upcoming book? Then you should contact me and we should chat!

A new book on Game Studio 4.0

2010-05-02T22:30:17Z

It has been about five years since my last book came out. During that time, a lot has happened. Heck, that book was about Managed DirectX, and at the time it came out XNA Game Studio didn’t even exist as an idea, much less a product. Since then, it’s not only been released, but we’ve announced the *fourth* version of the product! We’ve added support for Windows, Xbox, Zune, and soon, Windows Phone 7.

So much has changed, so much time has passed, it was time to do a new book. This new book will cover Game Studio 4.0 in its entirety, including Windows Phone 7, the new features, Xbox, everything. While we haven’t announced any release dates for Game Studio, I’m spending my spare time (what little I have) to make sure the book will come out as close as possible to the release of the product.

I’m also having some help with this one, and will have a co-author, so that is a bit exciting too! Writing has begun so if you have suggestions, now is the time!

Oh yeah, I should have posted this before

2010-02-09T04:26:08Z

Much like Shawn mentioned recently, I too got a twitter account after all this time. Although I guess I can say that I *still* do not have a cell phone in 2010, so I guess I’m a bit of a luddite myself.

You can follow me @Mill3rman and welcome both of us to the future..

XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune HD Extensions

2009-09-16T01:31:36Z

If you were already developing games for your Zune using XNA Game Studio, you’ll be happy to know that moving that game over to the new Zune HD will be remarkably easy. Today we’ve released the XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune HD Extensions that will allow you to deploy to your new device and includes a few new API’s as well.

There is also a thread on the XNA Creators Club forums for any questions or discussions.

2009 Dream.Build.Play winners announced

2009-09-08T22:57:05Z

At PAX this year, we announced the winners of the 2009 Dream.Build.Play contest with Dust: An Elysian Tail taking home the grand prize.

Big congratulations go out to all of the entries, and to the winners, keep up the amazing work.

Dream Build Play 2009 finalists…

2009-09-04T03:00:26Z

Once again, the Dream-Build-Play 2009 competition has provided a ton of great games. The finalist this years have been announced here, and the winner will be picked at PAX in just a few short days.

The talent and ability the people making these games and the quality of the entries we get never ceases to amaze me.

My blog is a constant source of new and exciting information…

2009-09-03T09:33:13Z

It’s been over a year since my last post, and despite my many promises to myself (and anyone who still reads this thing), I never seem to find time to post here. Well, other than right now, since I obviously am doing it now.

A lot has happened since my last post. We shipped Game Studio 3.0 and opened up the Indie Games on Xbox Live, although it was so long ago, it wasn’t even *called* Indie Games back then, it was called Community Games. I’m sure everyone has heard about it by now, and I still think it’s awesome that you can sell games you’ve created. Then again, we also shipped a completely new version since then as well in Game Studio 3.1! Wow, I really am behind aren’t I? We added cool new stuff like Avatar support in that version.

I even completely forgot about my annual Aprils Fools post! Of course, I didn’t really come up with a cool topic for that anyway. I’d make up something outlandish now, but that wouldn’t be nearly as effective since it’s September.

Speaking of Indie Games though, I think I’ve finally decided the game I’m going to write to ship there. Of course, my idea is way too ambitious for my artistic talent (read; zero), and I have no idea where I’m going to find the time to actually write it, but no matter. I will finish it and ship it and suffer the ridicule of the masses!

Maybe that will even give me the impetus for writing more here. We can hope… If not, lets hope I’ll remember to write something sooner than the next two versions of Game Studio.

Make money from your amazing game creations!

2008-07-22T21:56:00Z

Today we announced the Xbox LIVE Community Games. You can read more information about it (including a FAQ) here.

What is the big thing in the announcements that could be considered exciting? You'll be able to make money from your creations.

As an XNA Creator Club premium member you'll be able to submit your games to the service, set a price point for your games (between 200 and 800 Microsoft Points), and after a peer review your game will be available to download by millions of game players on Xbox LIVE. Every quarter, you'll receive a payment for up to 70% of all money your game has earned. People will be able to play a trial of your game before they buy it as well.

I remember what seems like forever ago now. I was sitting in my office trying to convince people that you could use managed code to make games. That it was feasible to run managed code and make a good game on a console as well as Windows. I remember the reluctance people had in believing that. Now look today. Have you seen Schizoid? A game that has been released and making money. Now we have this announcement today. Almost anyone has the potential to make money by writing a game and getting it on the service. It couldn't be simpler.

As for me, I'm celebrating this announcement by taking a trip to Vegas. (Ok, that's just coincidence, but still).