XNA Notes 018

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It’s not often I let my personal life creep into affecting the things I’m involved in and doing. I usually let my hobbies kind of get me through the tough parts. And while I’ve been having fun distracting myself with playing games and coding this week, I’ll admit my eye wasn’t on the community like it normally is. I apologize for the late posting of the notes and for how light and sparse they are. I’m sure there was more going on in the XNA community (and if you were missed in this weeks notes, shoot me an email and I’ll either add you or get you into next weeks!).

Even still, with just a glance here and there, I was still impressed with the size of the list of items that was collected. The XNA Community is fully of busy bees and here’s what I noticed.

Time Critical XNA News:

• Dream.Build.Play Developer Twitter Chat on May 11th
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xna/archive/2011/04/28/dream-build-play-developer-twitter-chat-on-may-11.aspx

XNA Team:

• Shawn Hargreaves keeps his steady pass of churning out amazingly useful posts week after week. This week he covered…
• Texture Aliasing
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/04/29/texture-aliasing.aspx
• Antialiasing Source Textures
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/05/03/antialiased-source-textures.aspx
• Antialiasing Alpha Cutouts
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/05/06/antialiasing-alpha-cutouts.aspx
  

XNA MVPs:

• Michael McLaughlin writes about
• Fake Anti Virus Software PSA: Win 7 Internet Security 2011 – Unregistred Version
• http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/05/01/fake-anti-virus-software-psa-win-7-internet-security-2011.aspx
• XNA and VB: The Preparations Continue
• http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/05/04/xna-and-vb-the-preparations-continue.aspx
• Ever wonder what it takes to become an XNA MVP? The question was asked and answered on the XNA forums (I didn’t even have to chime in!)
• http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/82154.aspx
  

XNA Developers:

• Aaron Foley (@slyprid) shares a DrawableGameComponent that handles all the light/shadows with baking for your use!
• http://twitter.com/#!/slyprid/status/65844149085155328
• Marcin Najder shares Simplifying XNA game development using Async CTP or F# asynchronous workflow
• http://mnajder.blogspot.com/2011/05/simplifying-xna-game-development-using.html
• Philippe Da Silva shares How to Structure your Game with IGF
• http://indiefreaks.com/2011/05/06/how-to-structure-your-game-with-igf/
• Eric Cosky writes up some notes on using PIX to figure out graphic glitches in your game
• http://blog.boundingboxgames.com/2011/05/using-pix-to-help-figure-out-graphics.html
  

Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG):

• Kotaku shares it’s favorites and talks up Xbox LIVE Indie Games (it was good to see the positivity in the comments too!)
• http://kotaku.com/#!5798174/play-lacrosse-dig-deep-or-defend-a-swamp-for-5-or-less-on-the-xbox-360/gallery/1
• Justin Johnson of Syndicate X posts Whirlygig: Getting Close!
• http://syndicatex.com/projects/whirlygig-getting-close/
• Red Button Games announces All Your Creeps
• http://www.redbuttongames.co/news/2011/5/5/red-button-games-announces-all-your-creeps-video-game.html
• Armless Octopus
• http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/05/05/xblig-new-release-roundup-for-april-27-may-3/
• http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/05/05/armless-octocast-episode-50-app-packed-octocast/
• http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/05/03/xna-game-studio-team-to-host-dream-build-play-developer-chat-on-may-11/
• http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/05/03/saturnine-games-ceiling-crawling-antipole-to-be-released-for-dsiware-pc-to-follow/
• http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/05/02/play-monday-night-combat-tonight-with-the-armless-octopus-community/
• http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/04/30/decay-part-4-review-going-out-with-a-bang/
• http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/04/29/set-your-eyes-on-the-take-arms-development-video/
• GameMarx
• http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/04/22/the-future-of-gamemarx-and-xboxindies.aspx
• http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/05/01/jonathan-blow-by-blow-on-braid.aspx
• Writings of Mass Deduction
• http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/05/05/day-177-monsters-probably-stole-my-princess/
• http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/05/04/day-176-ultratron/
• http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/05/03/day-175-break-limit/
• http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/05/02/day-174-zombie-estate/
• http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/05/01/day-173-soulcaster-ii/
• http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/04/30/day-172-chris-unarmed/
• http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/04/29/day-171-antipole/
  

XNA Development:

• In the UK and interested in meeting up with XNA developers? Checkout the newly re-designed XNA UK website and find out what it’s all about.
• http://xna-uk.net/meetings/
• Editor Development - Content Pipeline Options
• http://www.synapsegaming.com/blogs/fivesidedbarrel/archive/2011/04/29/editor-development-content-pipeline-options.aspx
  

Game Development:

• Interview with Arrowhead Game Studios (creator of Magicka, an XNA Game on Steam)
• http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/arrowhead-game-studios-magicka-vietnam-dlc,2914.html