XNA Team Blog

XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune Extensions

Are you as excited as we are at today’s arrival of the Zune HD? If you've already picked yours up from your local retailer or are eagerly awaiting your delivery from Zune Originals, we are pleased to announce the immediate availability of XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune Extensions to support Zune HD. This add-on for XNA Game Studio 3.1 adds the following functionality to the product:

• The ability to target and develop for the Zune HD media player.
• The addition of new Touch APIs to the XNA Framework for use on the Zune HD.
• The addition of new Accelerometer APIs to the XNA Framework for use on the Zune HD.

You'll also find new documentation and examples integrated into Visual Studio help that will show you how to leverage the new APIs, as well as a tutorial on how to update the Platformer Game Starter Kit to use the new Touch API's.

Barring the new input models available, your game should port over relatively easily.

Beyond the changes outlined here, all of the other XNA Game Studio functionality with the Zune HD remains the same as it did with earlier versions of the device.

You'll find the download for the XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune Extensions by following this link. If you have questions or need help getting started using XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune Extensions, please visit this thread on the XNA Creators Club forums!

Enjoy your Zune HD!

PAX 2009… full report coming soon!

We survived and hopefully if you were there you did, too! There is news that at least one reported case of Swine Flu has been reported, though. So, if you were there and are feeling less-than-healthy see a doctor right away.

Team XNA had a great time and we can’t wait to share all the stories, pictures and even videos from the Xbox LIVE Indie Games booth at PAX! We’re currently furiously putting it all together for you and doing our best to stay healthy. We hope all of you do as well!

Look for updates in the next few days!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

Creators Club Communiqué 33

Greetings and glad tidings to everyone! We’re fast approaching the close of one hot summer here with the Seattle area. The end of summer brings with it many things; two of the biggest being the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) and our annual Dream.Build.Play Competition!

If you haven’t already, be sure to add yourself to the XNA Creators Club Online Facebook group, and sign up for all the fun we have planned for this year’s PAX!

Dream.Build.Play 2009 Finalists and PAX Peoples’ Choice Award 

Top agents have been working hard playing the more than 350 games, made with XNA Game Studio 3.1, entered for this year’s Dream.Build.Play Competition. We’ll maturely and professionally debate over them until we decide on the top six titles. The top six games will join us at PAX, where those attending will be given a chance to play them. Everyone at our booth will be able to vote on their favorite game, and that game will receive an additional award and the honor of being PAX Peoples Choice! Be sure to stop by the booth to see these games before anyone else and vote for your favorite!

Xbox LIVE Indie Games Texas Hold ‘Em Charity Event

When: Saturday, September 5th at 12:00 (noon) PST
Where: Xbox LIVE Indie Games booth
Who: Players will be randomly selected from those who are marked as “attending” on this Facebook event.

Do you know when to hold 'em? Do you know when to fold 'em? Do you know when to walk away? Do you know when to run? Well, if you do, enter the Texas Hold 'em Charity Tournament, hosted by Xbox LIVE Indie Games and benefiting Child’s Play! Those selected will participate in a round-robin style tournament, playing a never-before-seen Texas Hold 'em Indie Game created by TikGames! Everyone that competes in the tournament will receive a prize, with the winner receiving an awesome prize package!

Panels

Of the many, many amazing panels held this during this year’s PAX, these three are some we think would be of particular interest to indie game developers like you!

Breaking into the Game Industry the Educated Way

Friday, 1:00pm-2:00pm, Raven Theatre

Computer and video gaming industries have grown from niche markets to mainstream. Top studios seek top talent to make their multi-million dollar games. Colleges are picking up on this trend – even major universities have begun offering game design programs and degrees. What should you expect to get from this education? How can any curriculum keep up with the breakneck pace gaming technology is advancing? Educators and professionals discuss the real world value of a game degree.

Panelists Include: Denise Novosel [Moderator] - (Staffing Manager IEB and E&D, Microsoft), Kim Swift (Game Designer, Valve Software), Kelvin Sung (Associate Professor Computing and Software Systems, University of Washington Bothell), Ron Jenkins (The Guildhall at SMU, Deputy Director), Joshua Hernandez (Producer, Metamoorephosis)

 

What is an 'Indie Game'?

Saturday, 3:00pm - 4:00pm, Wolfman Theatre

The rise in game platforms and distribution mechanisms has elevated the cultural profile of indie games. But along with this increased attention is an increasing debate about how to break through in the market. What really makes an indie title? Is it the game’s budget, art style, community outreach, or their distribution mechanism that really makes indies soar? This panel will examine the success stories within the indie gaming community to begin to expand and educate developers and gamers about this in-demand space.

Panelists include: N'Gai Croal [Moderator] - (Consultant, Writer, Columnist, Hit Detection LLC), Boyd Multerer (XNA General Manager, Microsoft), Simon Carless (Chairman, Independent Games Festival), Derek Yu (Editor-In-Chief, The Independent Gaming Source) James Silva (President, Ska Studios)

 

Harmonix Rock Band Network Panel

Saturday, 5:30pm – 6:30pm, Serpent Theatre

Rock Band Network is a groundbreaking initiative to empower musicians to put their songs into Rock Band themselves. But here’s the thing – it’s also pretty hard if you don’t know what you’re doing. Come see members of the Harmonix RBN team give a demonstration of the process from charting songs to playing them. With Special Guest – Jonathan Coulton.

 

Xbox LIVE Indie Games Booth

All weekend long we’ll be rocking out in Booth 141 on the expo floor. We’re bringing plenty of stuff to share, play, and give away! Be sure to drop by and say hello; we want to meet our Indie fans! We took a picture to show off our rad Xbox LIVE Indie Games PAX 09 shirts so you know who to look for!

Follow us on Twitter and here on the Team XNA blog to stay up to date on everything happening all weekend long!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

 

(Left to Right: Tracy, Kathleen, Minnie, Stephanie)

The New Dashboard, PAX 2009, and Xbox LIVE Indie Games!

It is a big week here for Team XNA! With the new Xbox 360 dashboard let’s welcome all the games that have been updated to XNA Game Studio 3.1. Indie Game Developers in Japan can now share their games on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, too!

Servicing has also been enabled. This means when you update your Xbox LIVE Indie Game anyone who has purchased it will be prompted to download the most current version when they go to play your title. This doesn’t mean you should ignore your consumers, though! Remember to use your game’s thread on the Xbox.com Forums to communicate with them!

Perhaps best of all – User Ratings is available for all content on Xbox LIVE Marketplace! You’ll see the new tab when browsing Xbox LIVE Indie games that lists the current top rated games.

 

Penny Arcade Expo 2009

Team XNA is currently working overtime to make this the best PAX ever for XBLIG! We’re going to be there with prizes, contests, games… and more! If you haven’t already joined our XNA Creators Club Facebook Group – you should! We’ve got all the info on the Texas Hold ‘Um Charity Event that you can enter. We’re also involved with a few panels throughout the weekend. You can read more about it here.

If you’re an Xbox LIVE Indie Game creator who is planning to be at PAX this year be sure to let me know! Email me at XNAKat@microsoft.com – we want to be sure to meet you!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

Creators Club Communiqué 32

Greetings! We’ve been radio silent for a few weeks, working hard on some new features you’ll see at XNA Creators Club Online starting later this week. In the meantime, you guys have been busy!

• MVP Nick Gravelyn, of XboxIndies.com, wrote a very helpful article on using interpolation to help put the final polish on your Xbox LIVE Indie Game.
• The Mind of Conkerjo hosts a good deal of helpful XNA framework-related content. Recently, he wrote two articles about using AI with XNA Game Studio and even shared an AI Library he’s developing.
• Another amazing MVP, Pete has already written some great stuff on using Avatars with XNA Game Studio 3.1. Recently he expanded on this with two more articles featuring Avatar Transitions and Avatar Shadows.

There are always so many fantastic articles and helpful Creators it is really difficult to pick just a few to share in the CCC. For example, Shawn Hargreaves’ ever-prolific blog has been as fruitful as ever. I could take the time to list all the helpful articles, but really if you use XNA Game Studio and like things that are awesome you should have his blog bookmarked. Wouldn’t it be great if there were some way that we could show on CCO who’s an experienced “Creator” and those that are …well…not? Or what if we could give credit when people offer good stuff and answer questions? That could be rad.

In totally, completely unrelated news, we’re going to have a brief bit of downtime this Thursday, July 23, 2009. When we come back online, we hope to have a few treats to share with you. If you’re a Premium member of XNA Creators Club Online, that wants to keep busy during our absence, you should check out all our new Avatar-related Dev-Ed content!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

Creators Club Communiqué 31

The XNA Creators CLub has had a number of big announcements and changes in the past few weeks! We understand you’ve endured a few bumps and problems while we get things back up and running. Your understanding and support has been incredible. Hopefully by tomorrow, this battlestation should be quite operational. If you’re still having problems feel free to contact us at creators@microsoft.com. We’ll do what we can to straighten it out!

Now, onward to learnings! With the release of XNA Game Studio 3.1 comes the ability to put Avatars into your Xbox LIVE Indie Games! This week’s CCC will touch on a few posts from around the internets that could provide helpful insights into using Avatars.

XNA MVP Pete offered a quick post he calls Avatars 101 on his blog. He not only explains what Avatars are, but also includes links to other helpful information. It’s worth checking out!

On the XNA Community Codeplex, several space geniuses offered an Avatar Animations sample using 3D Studio Max and Collada.

Team XNA’s own Dean “Avatar: The Last Airbender” Johnson has generated several posts on Avatars over the past few months on his blog.

• Avatar API Preview for XNA Game Studio 3.1
• What to do while an Avatar loads?
• Avatar Animation Update

Dean also contributed several Avatar samples to Creators Club Online:

• Avatar Animation Blending Sample
• Avatar Multiple Animations Sample
• Object Placement on Avatar Sample

Hopefully, these can help you get started using this exciting new feature with your own Xbox LIVE Indie Game. Remember, projects created or converted to XNA Game Studio 3.1 cannot be submitted to XNA Creators Club, yet. However, it is required for projects that want to enter this year’s Dream.Build.Play competition!

Finally, be sure to check out all the rules on the use of Avatars so you don’t get you or your Avatars into trouble!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

Please Pardon our Dust!

We are aware of an issue affecting a small amount of content on Xbox LIVE Marketplace since the service came back online- including Xbox LIVE Community Games. We appreciate your patience and hope to resolve the issue soon. Until then, new Xbox LIVE Community Games will not be pushed to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, but Playtest and Peer Review are still available to Premium Creators on Creators Club Online. Thanks so much for your understanding!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

CCO and Xbox LIVE are Down

Today, June 16 from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. PDT (2009-06-16 0701 to 2009-06-17 0659 GMT) Creators Club Online, Xbox LIVE, and parts of Xbox.com are offline for scheduled maintenance. 

As a result, Creators Club Online is down. Xbox 360 Consoles will not be able to connect to any Xbox LIVE Services so any Xbox LIVE Community Games you have downloaded will not be playable. Additionally, the “My Xbox” section of Xbox.com is not available, and the Xbox forums are in read-only mode and you will be unable to post.  The rest of Xbox.com is functional and available.

When services are restored, up to 24 hours later, there will be many new exciting changes to be found on Creators Club Online including:

• Cross-creator purchasing made easier with a “Buy Game on Marketplace” link on the Approved Game Details page!
• Gamercard linking returns – repaired!
• Additional localization of pages and help for our supported regions
• 30 new creator tiles now available!
• Time period in forums not read, active discussions and my discussions will be fixed!
• Download history updates! Will contain totals for purchases, trial, and purchase/trial ratio per time period selected. Also added "All data" in the period dropdown. CSV export now takes into consideration locale for determining separator. We fixed first day of the month issue, too!
• CMS RSS feeds will now show the images outside of a browser reader
• Layout of RSS feeds have changed slightly to be more consistent across different types of browsers
• Trial memberships now clearly displayed on the profile page
• IE8 Compatibility
• Single letter domain email addresses will be supported

We have many more changes coming soon, too. This is just a taste of a few of the smaller changes we’ve made in response to your feedback. We’re constantly listening to you and will have even more news soon!

XNA Game Studio 3.1 is GO!

That’s right! The latest, greatest version of our kick-butt free game creation tool XNA Game Studio 3.1 is available to download now! You can read all about awesome new features like Avatars, Xbox LIVE Party Systems, and Video over at Creators Club Online.

If you’re interested in submitting or upgrading your existing Xbox LIVE Community Game using XNA Game Studio 3.1, be sure to read up on the details surrounding converting and submitting 3.1 projects!

As ever, it is your feedback and support that make all of this possible so thank you so much! I can’t wait to play what you create!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

Creators Club Communiqué 30

I’m often told that 30 is the new 20, but I assure you that when it comes to the CCC, 30 is actually 30. Tons has happened over the past few weeks – there were announcements a-go-go from E3! There wasn’t much specifically about Xbox LIVE Community Games, but plenty of things were mentioned that will have a direct impact on all of our amazing Creators – like User Ratings!

Meanwhile, the learning continues! One of the “Must Bookmark” websites for anyone who uses the XNA Framework is Ziggyware. Through his website, Michael “Ziggy” Morton offers epic amounts of help and a platform for others to share their knowledge. He recently announced the winners of his Spring 2009 Article contest! First place went to Patrick McCarthy’s article on Perlin Noise on the GPU. Martin Actor’s thoughts on Grid Based Isometric Rendering earned him second place and Sergey Akopkokhyants’ article regarding GPU Terrain Rendering with LOD came in third. Thanks to a sponsorship from Synapse Gaming all the winners got licenses to the Sunburn XNA Lighting and Rendering Engine and thanks to Ziggy they also got a few other goodies. You can read all about it here!

In our own forums on Creators Club Online ht shared an incredible tutorial on how to turn the XSI Mod Tool into a Level Editor for your XNA Games.

In other CCO news – we’re going to have some downtime on June 16, but when we come back online we’re going to have some new features for all of our wonderful creators!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

Creators Club Communiqué 29

Team XNA isn’t just here in Redmond. It also includes many incredible Direct X/XNA MVPs from all around the world. We couldn’t do what we do without their input and assistance everyday!

Recently, inspired by Mr. Michael Klucher’s post about a PSD Plugin for Paint.NET, our own Shawn Hargreaves put out a call to action to turn that into an XNA Framework texture importer. This could let you add multi-layer .psd files directly to Visual Studio without having to flatten and export to other formats. MVP Matt Pettineo responded within three days with this Photoshop .psd importer for the XNA Framework Content Pipeline! But that’s not all! During that time Matt also shared a menu/UI system he wrote! How cool is that?

Finally, lots of questions surround Microsoft revealing the Zune HD and what it could mean for those who want to program applications and games for it using XNA Framework. All we can say is stay tuned next week during E3 for more news about Zune HD from Microsoft!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

Creators Club Communiqué 28

Last week we had a minor malfunction in a lesser part of the server quadrant that is housed in the Omega Satari nebula on the edge of the Blogipeligo. We on Team XNA apologize for this unexpected outage, but assure you that we have resolved the issue and have returned to full functionality!

Now on to learnings!

One of the things I love most about being the XNA Community Manager, even more than  banning jerks and spammers, is that the vast majority of our community are mature, amazing space geniuses. This week there were a few forum posts from our incredible Creators that really impressed the team!

After downloading our 3D Particle Sample mtnPhil went ahead and improved on it by adding support for soft particles that work on the Xbox 360. This could help improve the look of a particle engine by smoothing the hard edges where particles intersect solid geometry in the scene.

While working on his own title creasso figured out how to attach a weapon to a skinned character hand. He lists some things you’ll need to have accomplished before his pro-tips will help, but if you’re working on a gunslinger or swordfighter (or other assorted hand and weapon combos) he might be able to save you some time!

Finally, THE LEXX combined our own Chase Camera Tutorial and a bit of code from a Riemer’s XNA tutorial on Quarternions with his own ideas to upgrade the chase camera with rotation!

As always many thanks to all the incredible Creators and MVPs that contribute to our ever growing community. You’re what we’re here for and why we’re doing it!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

Creators Club Communiqué 27

This past week there has been much to do on the XNA Creators Club forums. I’m excited to see lots of new faces helping out with Playtest and Peer Review, but some people need some pointers on what is a failing issue and what isn’t. Remember, Peer Review only works if we all respect the rules and the #1 rule is that Peer Review is NOT a subjective process. This means your opinion of the game has no place there. Playtest is the forum where that sort of feedback goes a long way. If you are a Premium Creator submitting a game – be sure to take it through Playtest first. You can avoid a ton of headaches in Peer Review by being open and receptive to the feedback you get during Playtest. The MVPs have two threads that you should certainly bookmark if you’re going to Peer Review: The “Evil” Checklist and the Not so “Evil” Checklist. They answer a ton of questions and provide a great jumping off point for Creators new to Peer Review! As always – if you have questions search the forums for the answer if you cannot find the answer you are looking for then ask! We’re here to help!

Speaking of help – these posts from around the web should be helpful to anyone who uses the XNA Framework! Luminance offered a very helpful post about changing constants at runtime while making your game. Similarly, Shawn Hargraves shared insights into Tweakables in XNA Game Studio on his blog.

Petri Wilhelmsen has an extensive XNA Shader series that is worth checking out!

Bittermanandy shared his thoughts on the rather sticky problem of camera in 3D games. Perhaps you can learn something from what he picked up while working on Kameo.

Finally, we’re approaching the busy and exciting summer season and for us that means events like E3 and PAX! Happily, this year’s PAX 10 Competition is accepting CC.game files! Find out more info on this from this XNA Creators Club Forum thread.

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

Creators Club Communiqué 26

This week we have some new things to share about the Xbox LIVE Community Games channel! We’re working with gaming enthusiast site IGN.com so that starting today they will offer their own picks as a channel within Xbox LIVE Community Games on the Xbox 360 console. The channel is available in the United States and Canada (don’t worry! We’re working hard to make this available in other regions, too!) and any Community Game is eligible! IGN editors will select games for their picks that they are loving – it is as simple as that!

This week they picked:

• Aria
• Battle Havoc
• BeatBlox
• Bullet Trap
• A Fading Melody
• Halfbrick Blast Off
• Hexement
• Pwned
• Rabid Gophers

We’re excited about this additional exposure that Creators of really great Xbox LIVE Community Games can look forward to!

Next week, we’ll return to our usual space brain learning links, of course.

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager

Creators Club Communiqué 25

Here we are at CCC number 25! Hopefully, you’ve gained a great deal of knowledge from these (mostly) weekly grabblings of learning from around the internets. I am constantly amazed at the stuff all of you space brains come up with using the XNA framework!

On XNA Creators Club we have so many dedicated Creators who are doing an incredible job helping games in Playtest and Peer Review. These are key steps in what makes Xbox LIVE Community Games work for everyone. Some people have had pretty passionate debates over what is and what is not a game. This is a great debate (although one I don’t see anyone ever “winning”) for Playtest, but it does not have a place in Peer Review. Peer Review is designed as a purely objective process. It is important to keep your own personal opinions about the game out of Peer Review. If you have questions the Creators Club Forums and the savvy superstar MVPs are there to help.

Over the past couple weeks I’ve offered links that will help Creators at different stages in their own personal journey to totally kick-butt Xbox LIVE Community Game Creator of Excellence. This week I offer links to a few things that will help you add a bit of spice, flavor, and panache to your game!

• Did you know that the Xbox 360 controller has TWO different motors to provide force feedback? Learn how to take advantage of this in your game with Kris Steele’s class on Force Feedback.
• Need to give your players a sense of progress? What could be more helpful than a Progress Bar? On his blog, Luke Rymarz shares a simple Progress Bar sample for you to drop into your own game.
• Does your game have a story to tell? Do you dream of making a deep dialogue system similar to Bioware’s Mass Effect? MVP Catalin Zima shares a sample on his blog where he implements: dialogue wheels with branched responses that have a class effect. It is pretty darn impressive and you should really check it out!

If you’ve already finished your Community Game you’re probably looking for good ways to get the word out about it. Our own Michael Klucher posted a fantastic guide on his blog on Leveraging the Power of the Xbox.com Marketplace for your game. In addition to his pro-tips MVP Nick Gravelyn with help from his comrade Scott Wendt created http://xblcg.info/. This site offers a sortable and searchable index of available Xbox LIVE Community Games as well as friendly URLs for each title! They offer all sorts of information and advice for developers on using their site. Be sure to take a look!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager