Visual Studio Express Team WebLog : Announcements

XNA Game Studio Express opens game development to everyone

VSExpress — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:57:00 GMT

Today, Microsoft announced XNA Game Studio Express, a revolutionary set of tools based on the XNA platform and built on top of Visual C# 2005 Express Edition that enables anyone to easily create games for both Windows and the Xbox 360 console.

12 Finalists Announced in $10,000 Made in Express Contest!

VSExpress — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 20:03:00 GMT

What do an all terrain self-maneuverable robot, an instant IM translator, and a curmudgeon chat bot all have in common? Answer – they are all being built by finalists in the Made In Express Contest. These lucky twelve from seven countries are hard at work building their projects and competing for the $10,000 grand prize!

The real fun of the contest is that you get to actively participate. Follow along as the finalists blog their plans, post their code, and discuss the trials and tribulations of building their projects. And at the end, you get to vote on the $1,000 Community Choice award!

Check out the projects and subscribe to the RSS feed to start tracking the fun at www.MadeInExpressContest.com.

Upgrade Your Game!

VSExpress — Wed, 17 May 2006 22:34:00 GMT

"wcha-wcha-wcha"

I know you recognize that sound - that's right, Ms. Pac-Man and all your favorite arcade games are back! If you register your copy of Visual Studio Express, you could win your own Namco arcade game machine.

Unleash the arcade in your PC and learn how to write your own arcade games using the Visual Studio Express Editions. The Game Resource Center includes tutorials and videos to walk you through creating games like Tiny Tennis, Space Blitz, and Crusader.

Check it out at UpgradeYourGame.com

Drumroll please.... Visual Studio Exress is Free Forever!

VSExpress — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 19:31:00 GMT

They say if you love something, set it Free. And we've done just that. With over 5 million downloads, we were definitely feeling the love for the Visual Studio Express Editions!

Some of the most innovative technology ideas are created at 3am in someone's living/office space in their home - not in corporate cubicles. We want to make sure we're supporting these grassroots, hobbyist developers by lowering the barrier to entry. By keeping Visual Studio Express free to download, we hope to encourage the democratization of development, and make sure everyone (yes, even your Mom) has access to the tools needed to create some really cool software applications & websites.

Tools for your imagination

Seize the $10,000!

VSExpress — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 02:57:00 GMT

So, we all have one. You know, that "stroke-of-genius" idea that hits you while slathering shampoo in your hair on a Monday morning. Well, here's the moment to do something about it - Carpe Diem and all that!

Made In Express Contest

Just write up a short paragraph of your idea, and you're in the running - only rule is that it has to be something you created using Visual Studio or SQL Express. If your idea is selected among the top 12, you'll get an opportunity to build it and win $10,000! Some nice pocket change, plus you'll be famous!

Imagine the possibilities....

The secret's out!

VSExpress — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 15:36:00 GMT

Hi! I'm Paul Yuknewicz, Program Manager for the team that designed and brought you Visual Basic Express and the general Express Edition line. I'm super excited to be onsite at the TechEd Europe keynote watching the crowd see Express and MSDN Product Feedback Center for the first time. I'm also proud to kick off the Express blog so that we can chat about all things Express. It's a great feeling to finally be able to talk about it with you!

Express Editions of Visual Studio are all about enabling communities of learning developers, hobbyists, and enthusiast to get started quickly creating cool .NET applications. This is done by providing a totally light weight product: from a 35-80 mb download, to a 5 minute install time, to a simplified and nimble IDE (developer environment). It's easy to get started using resources on the start page that help you build applications, learn how to program (if you're not a maven already), and connect to the community. You can see for yourself right now by downloading Express from here (http://msdn.microsoft.com/Express/).

My personal favorite part of the products are starter kits. Think of starter kits as sample projects on steroids - you get an application sample that works out of the box, a walk through tutorial, and best, the source code. This way you can have tons of fun customizing the application and adding features to your app. VB Express for example comes with the My Movie Collection starter kit (AKA the DVD starter kit). This is a rich client application that stores information about your movie collection in a local database. Everybody knows it's a pain to type in all this collection info at once, so I'm glad to tell you that I was able to partner with Amazon.com and bring you the ability to search Amazon's full movie collection, and "borrow" the data 'n images for your own collection. Think of the possibilities now that you have Amazon's entire database at your fingertips. The UI itself is pretty neat - you have gel buttons and gradient blend panels ala the VBPowerPack, another free shared source download. I suggest you play with the look n feel and see what kind of wild screens or “bling bling UI” you can come up with. I'd love some tips from you about how we should make this look even sweeter. ;) I hope you enjoy the kit, and have as much fun coding it as I did. If you're pretty fired up about your version, you should post it! Also be sure to check out the Visual C# screen saver and Visual Web Developer personal photo app; very cool stuff.

Here are some topics I want to have ongoing discussions about:

-How easy was it to get started with Express?

-What features were most helpful or cool?

-What features weren't so helpful or were lame?

-What inspired you to check out Express? What is your programming background?

-Did you find the content to be too advanced, too easy, or just about right for your level?

-What other starter kits or content would you love to see?

Enjoy!

Paul & the Express Team

paulyuk@microsoft.com