"Orcas" is the codename for the next release of Visual Studio, which will allow you to develop applications using .NET versions 2.0, 3.0 and the up-and-coming .NET 3.5. The .NET Framework 3.5 introduces no breaking changes, but it does include some exciting new functionality. You can explore the new features in "Orcas" using its March Community Tech Preview (CTP) . The CTP is conveniently distributed as a Virtual PC (VPC) image that contains a full install of Visual Studio codename "Orcas," as well

An imminent update to the XNA Framework will allow for sharing of packaged XNA Game Studio Express Games. Developers will be able to package their binary games into a single file to share with other users of XNA Game Studio Express. These files can be emailed or hosted on websites like any other files. To run a game, you just double click a file and it will unpack to your Windows-based PC or Xbox 360 console. Now XNA can really enable the "YouTube of Games." Check out the other announced features

If there's one thing that the XBox teams seem to nail, it's the community orientation of sites like the new XNA Creators Club . It's the shiny new hub for all things XNA, including samples, downloadable games, video tutorials, developer forums, and more. I authenticated at the site in a few seconds using my Passport and XBox Live ID, and created a game-dev-oriented profile there. As always , I am YumYumMoose at the Club, and look forward to creating with you there. Game Developers Conference 2007

I've mentioned the XNA Animation Component Library in passing in my last two posts on XNA, so I wanted to take a moment to direct you toward the XNA Animation Component Library. I will confess: there is a reason it took me a while to launch myself into XNA. The original challenge I'd set myself was to re-create my old brain-controlled game, Mind Balance . But Mind Balance uses a type of animation for its creatures called skinned mesh deformation, during which the character is deformed by using weights

You probably don't read the Official XBox Magazine , which is billed as "The UK's Number One XBox360 Magazine." All you need to know is that it's a magazine written by fanboys, for fanboys. Impartiality doesn't seem to be on tap there, but admiration for all things XBox certainly is. So imagine my surprise a few weeks back, when I read the Official Magazine's first article in a series called "XNA Masterclass." In a nutshell, it chronicled the misadventures of non-developers who were trying to get

I sank my teeth into XNA last week and have both the rings under my eyes to prove it, as well as a complete game running on my XBox360! I've heard the XNA vision articulated as "enabling the YouTube of Games." XNA has opened up the XBox360 game console to enthusiast developers and designers, who can build games using .NET code that works not only on the PC, but also on the 360 console. To step beyond toy tutorials (but not quite take on Halo), I needed to set a "big bold goal," so I tried to re-implement