Dave Voyles

Hello World

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Welcome to my blog! This is the first post on my newly rebuilt Hugo site.

I’m excited to share my thoughts, projects, and insights here. This site is powered by Hugo and deployed to GitHub Pages, making it fast, static, and easy to maintain.

Tutorials: Creating your first website with Azure

Mon, 14 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

My Tech Evangelist colleagues, Joe Raio and Brian Sherwin, have create a great set of video tutorials on how to create your own website using Azure. This is part of Microsoft’s Choose to Code campaign, which guides your middle and high school students through a series of online tutorials walking them through the process of creating and publishing their own website.

If you are using Azure Passes, watch this video

If you are using DreamSpark, start with this video

Still need Azure? Reach out to me to inquire about BizSpark

My 10th weekly newsletter is out!

Fri, 17 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

If you find some links that you think would be useful, feel free to share! You can always subscribe (or unsubscribe) by clicking on the MailChimp widget on the right-hand side of this page. Here’s a link to the original file.

Gaming

Game Dev

Reverse engineering Yoda Stories

VC / Startups

Nerdy / Tech

100 Technical Things Non-Technical People Can Learn To Make Their Lives Easier

HTML5

prime[31] Azure plugin for Win8 Unity games (Part 3)

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

RESOURCES:

You can find the source for this project on my GitHub.
Power point slides
Video Walkthrough
Get this working on Windows Phone

In part 2 of my tutorial, I showed you how you how to set up the initial project with prime[31]. Now that we have it built, I’m going to walk you through the code, as well as how it all works.

Insert

Let’s test this out by running the project from Visual Studi and inserting a new object into our leaderboard. Deploy the sample, connect to the Azure service, then insert a new username and score.

TIL: Unity has way cheaper pricing for students / faculty

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I was at Unity’s Unite conference in Seattle this week, and I learned from their education team that Unity has far cheaper licensing for students, faculty, and schools.

In partnership with Studica, Unity has discounted costs. Here’s a link to the page.

Also, Autodesk, creators of Maya, 3DS Max, etc., also have FREE versions of their tools for students. Where was this when I was in school, learning Blender? I’m turning back the clock a few years and headed back to my SUNY Oneonta days, so that I can grab some of this stuff.

Unite 2014 keynote recap

Fri, 22 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I’m still at Unite 2014 this week, so I thought I’d deliver a quick recap of the Unite 2014 keynote, courtesy of Jaime Rodriguez, of Microsoft.

Here was my favorite talk of Unite as well:

[Unite 2014 – IL2CPP: The next generation of scripting in Unity](Unite%202014 - IL2CPP: The next generation of scripting in Unity)
Unite 2014 – WebGL Deployment in Unity 5

Opening stats:

[David Helgason, CEO]

600k active montly game developers .. [compared to 120k users, 3 years ago]
54% of games use middleware [compared to 10% 4 years ago]
47% mobile developers use Unity [17% in 2009]
8.7B Unity mobile app installs [not all inclusive, that is people who opt-in to analytics]
PC has strength [mobile devs targeting PCs as they get better]

Industry:

[David Helgason, CEO]

BizSpark: Free software and cloud services for your startup

Sun, 17 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Jennifer Marsman wrote a great post on her MSDN blog about the benefits of BizSpark and how to get started with the program. This step-by-step tutorial can help get you enrolled as well.

Perks of the program:

http://wootstudio.ca/startups/bizspark.aspx
Windows 10 developer accounts (Xbox, Windows)
Visual Studio Ultimate licenses
Windows licenses (multiple versions)
Office 365 developer account
$150 / month Azure credits (for each dev on your team, up to 5 total, $750 value)
Website hosting, virtual machines, databases, & mobile services
Visual Studio Online (Formerly TFS)
90 Days of pluralsight + DigitalTutors training
Free marketing support with Microsoft

Who qualifies?

Actively engaged in development of a software-based app, product, or service that will form a core piece of your current or intended business. (NOTE: you must be building a product! Startups providing consulting services are not eligible.)
Your company is privately held, and in business for less than 5 years.
Makes less than US $1 million in annual revenue

Whether you are a student, startup, or an indie game developer, Microsoft views you as a welcome addition to our startup program.

My third weekly newsletter is out

Sat, 16 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

HTML5

Gaming / Game Dev

Tech

prime[31] Azure plugin for Win8 Unity games (Part 2)

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

RESOURCES: You can find the source for this project on my GitHub.

In part 1 of my tutorial, I showed you how you how to set up the initial project with prime[31]. Now that we have it built, I’m going to walk you through the code, as well as how it all works.

Now that we have the project built, let’s open it up the metro folder, and launch the Prime31 Visual Studio solution.

Boost productivity: Convert YouTube videos to MP3

Sun, 10 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I’m an avid runner and cyclist, but I can’t stand exercising in silence. Sure, I have tons of nerdy video game music (woohoo, Yuzo Koshiro), but sometimes I also want to learn.

I peruse YouTube for different things to learn every day, and generally listen in the background as I work. I find that tech talks from user groups are the best. (Check out this video from David Catuhe, on how to write WebGL games with Babylon.js)

Microsoft BizSpark Orientation WorkShop at City Coho Philly Nexus

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Time: Wednesday August 13 2014 | 4:00pm to 6:00pm

Location: City Coho Philly Nexus http://www.citycoho.com/

CityCoHo | Philly Nexus
2401 Walnut St.

Suite 102

Philadelphia, PA 19103

Microsoft’s BizSpark is an innovative global program that unites Startups with global entrepreneurial and technology resources in one community, with a common goal of supporting and accelerating the success of a new generation of high-potential Startups.

BizSpark is uniquely designed to help Startups engaged in software development to jump-start their business, by:

Stacey Mulcahy writes: Internet of Things with Unity3d, Arduino and Spacebrew

Wed, 30 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

My co-worker, and web dev ninja, Stacey Mulcahy (@bitchwhocodes) put together a great series of blog posts on how to use Spacebrew ( a web sockets solution built on Node that enables you to create interactive spaces with several clients ) with Unity3d and Arduino & Processing. This is the beginning / start of next week’s bit where she shows how to build your own DDR mat and hook it into Unity3d, Arduino, and Processing.

Join my newsletter for gaming, HTML5, and tech

Fri, 25 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

it was only a matter of time before I created my own weekly newsletter. Rather than constantly spam folks on twitter with my links, I’d much prefer to just bunch them up into a weekly letter, and share them with you. Here’s a peek of what is in the first one:

Gaming Dev

HTML5

How does Microsoft compare in the Fortune 500?

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Before I joined Microsoft, I was an engineer at Comcast, on their COAM (Consumer Owned and Maintained Devices) team, where I worked on their Xbox 360, Xbox One, and SmartGlass apps. Now that I’m at Microsoft, another Fortune 50 company, I’ve kept a close eye on all of the large tech companies, to see how they weigh against one another. Here are some results from the recent Fortune magazine analysis:

Philadelphia Unity Game Dev Meetup

Sat, 19 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I recently put together a new meetup for Unity game developers in Philadelphia.

This will likely be held at City CoHo Philly Nexus, 2401 Walnut St., Suite 102, Philadelphia, PA (map), and on Monday evenings. The location is ideal, as Drexel University and UPenn are right down the block, and public transit is close by. You can either get off at Suburban Station (Comcast Center) or 30th Street (Amtrak) and Coho is right between the two.

Examples of apps published with the Web App Template

Fri, 18 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

A few months back, I wrote a piece on a high level overview of Microsoft’s Web App Template. I’ve recently learned that it not only works on Windows 8, but is also applicable to Win Phone 8, with Universal support coming soon.

So why would anyone ever wrap their site and turn it into an app? Well for one thing, it can quickly and easily net you 300+ 4+ star reviews on the store, and takes no more than an hour to create.

Switching from the iPhone 5 to the Lumia 1520

Fri, 11 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Today I made the switch from the iPhone 5 on Verizon, to a Lumia 1520 on AT&T. I’ve been in the Apple ecosystem for the last 3 years, so making the change was nerve-wracking, to say the least.

Calculating the cost

I have a number of AT&T devices through work, but I could never use them outside of locations where I had Wifi, because I was locked to Verizon. To weigh out the cost of switching over, I looked at what my early termination fee through Verizon would be, as well as what I could fetch if I sold my 64GB Verizon iPhone 5 in the wild.

$100k worldwide Unity contest

Thu, 22 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Today, Unity and Microsoft announced a new world-wide contest with $100K in prizes to bring Unity games to Windows and Windows Phone. The rules are pretty straight forward, and he contest site is hosted at http://unity3d.com/contest/windows, so feel free to head over and submit your games!

Windows 8 app development for beginners

Thu, 22 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

[iframe src=”http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/34969684″ width=”676″ height=”600″ frameborder=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no”]

Finishing the Web App template

Fri, 16 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

You can download the app from the Windows 8 Store, for free.

In my last post, I mentioned that I began using Microsoft’s new Web App Template, to quickly and easily create an app out of my website, while using very little code. Now that my app is finished, I wanted to walk you through the steps, so that you can do the same. In total, it only took me about 2 hours to have my app created from scratch, and in the store!

Apache Cordova integrated in Visual Studio for Multi-Device Hybrid App development

Mon, 12 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been pushing HTML5 cross platform applications for some time now. I frequently give talks on how to use tools like Telerik’s App Builder, Adobe’s PhoneGap Cloud, and my personal favorite, Intel’s XDK. You can find my open sourced Cordova app here.

Previously, Cordova was a cumbersome command line tool for building cross platform HTML5 mobile apps. it was not fun, and was incredibly painful to use, due to the constantly outdated documentation. Even worse, even if you did get an HTML5 app running on Windows Phone, you didn’t have a debugger!

Intro to the Web App Template

Wed, 07 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

You can find Part 2 of this tutorial, here. I’ve also compiled a list of great apps published with the WAT.

On Venture Capitalist Chris Dixon’s blog, he recently highlighted the decline of the mobile web.

“People are spending more time on mobile vs desktop, and more of their mobile time using apps, not the web This is a worrisome trend for the web. Mobile is the future. What wins mobile, wins the Internet. Right now, apps are winning and the web is losing.

Professional Game Development Tools

Fri, 21 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post is part of 3 week series giving current and aspiring game devs the tools, resources, and advice they need to get started building for Windows. We also have a great video course on [game production basics](http://Game Production Basics) at Microsoft Virtual Academy.


Visual Studio Community Edition	visual-studio-logo

You need an IDE, or Integrated Development Environment, to write code for your games. Visual Studio Community edition is FREE from Microsoft, and allows you to use a multitude of languages.

Unity shmup template (JS and C#)

Sat, 15 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been a huge fan of shmups for as long as I can remember. If it’s good, I’ve played it (and it’s probably Japanese). I wrote my last one in JavaScript using the Impact.js framework, but this time around I wanted to do it in Unity and really test the performance of the engine.

When looking for Unity shmup templates, I came across this great set of posts on the Shmup-dev website. One post includes an excellent talk on unity shmup development, with slides and source code to go along with it. It really touches on some of the basics and key points for creating a shmup, including performance considerations. Object pooling is absolutely necessary when creating a high performance game, and the author monoRAIL explains it very neatly for readers.

Super Rawr-Type is released for Windows 8

Tue, 25 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Play Super Rawr-Type for FREE in the Windows 8 Store

Super Rawr-Type, my 2D sidescrolling JavaScript shooter, is finally available for Windows 8. I actually finished working on it in August, but needed to change a few lines of code to have it pass certification, and completely forgot to resubmit. On Friday I made the final necessary changes, submitted, and it’s up in the store today.

The project is open source, and you can find my GitHub here.

How do I get my game on Xbox One?

Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Update 3/29/16

With today’s announcements at //BUILD, some of this information will be out of date. I will make changes in the very near future.
Updated, 9/24/15
TLDR: Middleware engines work great and support for Xbox one is continuing to grow within new tools each day. I have a more recent post with more information following Microsoft’s presence at GDC 2015. Here is the latest.

For developers to focus on building for the UWP. Building UWP apps today is the best way to make sure apps will work on the Xbox when UWP is available on the Xbox. Similarly how different device families have specific APIs (GPIO, Hardware buttons, etc), Xbox will have a set of APIs that developer can use to extend experience to match the Xbox One, and those APIs will be used on top of the core UWP functionality that developers are building today.

How to write engaging second screen experiences, using SmartGlass or Win8

Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This ties into my previous post, where I spoke about how to get your game or app on Xbox One.

Microsoft unveiled quiet a bit of information regarding SmartGlass during BUILD 2012, and much of it is available **via this Power Point presentation.**Ignore most of the C++ in there; I never had to touch any of that. All of my work was done via JavaScript and it worked fine.

I also spoke about SmartGlass development on this week’s Hanselminutes podcast.

Start making games, even if you don't know how to program

Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

“I want to get started with making games, but I don’t know how. Where should I start?”

It can be overwhelming when you are starting off, because there are so many options available to you. I mean just look at plethora of game making tools at Pixel Prospetor, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. If you have zero programming experience, then I’d suggest starting with Construct2.

Construct 2 allows you to create HTML5 games without ever having to write code. Everything is handled in the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) which has a GUI (Graphical User Interface) that anyone could use. You simply drag-and-drop objects into your scene, and can make changes to the objects properties by right clicking.
Even better, it’s free! There are premium versions available, but if you’re just starting off, then the free version offers more than enough to get you going.

Welcome, students of Philadelphia!

Sun, 26 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

My goal right now is to build a network for students around Philadelphia to work on projects together, ask questions, and share their work.

Feel free to ask me questions. I’m here to help! Want to know how to get started with an HTML5 project, mobile apps, or how to get started in the games industry? Ask me!

I met some of you this weekend at the Global Game Jam, and others at the**Tri-Co Hackathon.** If you were interested to see what was happening at either event, click on the links above.

Some books at the top of my list

Sun, 19 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve taken a bit of a break from playing games lately, and instead have been cranking through books. A lot of this seems like “self help” or “empowerment” books, but I’ve chose to keep those silly things off of this list. Instead, I wanted to focus on books that actually offer some sort of practical and useful knowledge. Here’s a few of them, and why I think they would be worth your time:

2013 year in gaming

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t write much about gaming anymore, which is disappointing, but I instead fill my time with development, and an indie development podcast. So this is my one chance to round up my brief, if not disjointed, thoughts on gaming this year.

Here’s a quick list of things I’ve played recently, and most of which in the last week. I had 12 days off from work after Christmas, so I cranked through as many games as I could, considering I didn’t play much earlier in the year. Hell, many of these games weren’t even released this year.

My next game will be made with Unreal Engine 4

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

So now that November 15th has finally arrived, I can say what I’ve been working on lately; a new game with the Unreal Engine 4.

I’m still under NDA, and I can’t post any screens just yet, but rest assured that the engine is vastly improved from what UDK was, in terms of both usability and performance. Epic has a number of videos available online, so you can see what the workflow is like.

I started a new show – Indie Dev Podcast

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Twice each month, I interview independent developers in the gaming industry. I felt that there was a niche not being served, in that I wanted the inside scoop behind many of the developers I interact without over the years.

This 30 minute show is a casual conversation between a developer and myself, where he or she illustrates how they got their start, what their current and previous projects are, and some of their favorite tools, languages, and frameworks are.

Former 2d shooter sample, now working as a C++ / DirectX 11 sample

Tue, 12 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Charles Humprey (@NemoKrad) was kind enough to help me get his 2D side scrolling shooter sample working in C++ / DX 11 this morning. You can find the source code to the project here. He’s a fellow MVP who has been extremely active in the XNA community, and provided numerous samples in the past. You can find more of his work here.

Requirements:

Windows 7 or 8 should work fine. I use Win 8.0 and he uses Windows 7, and the project works fine on both of our machines. I’m not sure if it is compatible with Visual Studio 2012, but I do not believe so. Regardless, the express version of 2013 is free.

Super Rawr-Type Redux is released for the browser

Sun, 03 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Click here to play Super Rawr-Type Redux

Source Code: https://github.com/DaveVoyles/Super-Rawr-Type-Redux

I’ve spent the last 3 months working on the follow up to my previous game, Super Rawr-Type. It was a simple side scrolling 2D shmup, which I wrote in JavaScript and also ported to Windows 8. One bug prevents me from getting it into the store, and I’m not able to replicate it, so who knows if it will ever be released there.

Hacking jQuery to work in Windows 8

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

For some time now I’ve been building HTML5 apps for Windows 8. I had previously done work in C# and XAML (Spell and Speak, Pizong, and two Unity games), but prefer HTML5 and JavaScript for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it allows me to build apps for multiple platforms while only having to make marginal tweaks for each one. Naturally, each platform comes with its own ups and downs, but I haven’t really had any issues with Windows 8 until I started integrating jQuery.

After 10 months, I've finished Persona 4 — A game you should all experience.

Mon, 26 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

10 months. 80 hours. That’s how long it took me to play through Persona 4, and with my severe video game ADHD, if I play anything for more than a night, then that’s an accomplishment. Well, it really took a bit more than that, because I earned all 3 endings and died a few times, but we’ll go with the official game time of 8o hours. The last time I put this much time into a game was Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2, and Final Fantasy VII on the PS1.

Console wars of 2013: Who will win big?

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday’s E3 conference was perhaps the most interesting one I’ve seen since 1995’s Sega debacle, where they thrusted the Saturn out of the gate, 6 months ahead of schedule and unbeknownst to developers.

Microsoft came out of the gate with a strong lineup, a solid piece of hardware, and certainly some clarification on their policies which people were understandably curious about. Yesterday evening however, Sony came out swinging, pulling the ole’ rope-a-dope: A tactic where a fighter sits back and takes punches until it’s finally their turn to shine. And that’s exactly what they did.

Adding touch controls for Windows 8

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Loading Super Rawr-Type within the Win8 touch simulator

For the last two weeks or so I’ve been working out bugs in Super Rawr-Type and integrating touch controls for the Windows 8 port. This is the first time I’ve ever created touch controls, so it took a bit to understand how they work, specifically with toggling the joystick for movement and stationary buttons for shooting, switching weapons, and activating powerups.

What proved most difficult for me really was not having a machine to test my controls on. I’ve had to rely on the simulator thus far, which basically runs a virtual machine on your desktop, wrapped a shell that appears like a Win8 tablet. The buttons on the right hand side emulate figure gestures, so you can view and understand how your own touches will affect the game.

Creating the random enemy spawner, improving performance

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

When building my Win8 port of Super Rawr-Type, I ran into all sorts of performance issues, due to lack of optimization. This was to be expected, as I on gave myself 1 month to complete the base game, then I would take the second and final month to port it to different platforms and worry about optimization.

The design of my levels is where most of my issues came from. I explain it pretty well in this post here. The gist of it is this: When the map loads, it is filled with ~150 enemies, which are constantly being updated. Obviously this comes with quite a bit of overhead. The browser version played well, but on a dedicated OS it chugs.

Object pooling optimizations – not so much [yet]

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

[UPDATE] Clarified that I have two classes for my bullet. One which uses pooling, and another that does not use pooling.

So my object pooling optimizations don’t seem to be working.

I thought I would have seen some improvements in terms of my performance, but I’m just not seeing it. I think one issue is due to the fact that with more objects lying around, the garbage collector takes longer to run. Essentially, the pooling reduces how often the collector runs, but makes those runs more noticeable.

Video update of my 2D shmup using the JavaScript framework Impact.js

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

So I’m quickly progressing in my newest game, Super Rawr-Typeand am just about to put the finishing touches on it. I’ve given myself one month (30 days) to work on this bad boy. GDC and PAX took up quite a bit of time recently, so I’ve got a few days left to go. It’s far from perfect, but it’ll do.

Next month, I’ll focus on publishing to The Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 Stores, as well as wrapping the code in the iOS wrapper.

My book, UnrealScript Game Programming Cookbook has been published!

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

My first book, UnrealScript Game Programming Cookbook has been published by Pakt Publishing today. It covers a variety of topics, from creating your own modular camera system, crafting AI, creating intelligent pathfinding for bots, and manipulating weapons.

A free sample chapter is available as well, which covers creating a modular camera system, from beginning to end.

It’s available in a number of formats, including a physical copy, as well as Kindle and .pdf formats. You can find the book here, or also at Amazon.com here.

[Tutorial] Design Time Data + Passing Data Across Pages (WP8)

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The most difficult part of this project thus far has been understanding the idea behind MVVM, or Model-View-View Model. Wikipedia defines it as:

“MVVM facilitates a clear separation of the development of the graphical user interface (either as markup language or GUI code) from the development of the business logic or back end logic known as the model (also known as the data model to distinguish it from the view model). The view model of MVVM is a value converter, meaning that the view model is responsible for exposing the data objects from the model in such a way that those objects are easily managed and consumed”

The final chapter of my book on UnrealScript Programming was completed today

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier today I completed the final chapter of my book The Advancaed UnealScript Programming Cookbook. The book covers a number of topics ranging from creating custom weapons, advanced AI for navigating tight paths and following pawns, drawing a HUD without the use of ScaleForm, and adjusting crosshairs based on the actor your pawn’s eyes are tracing.

It was an interesting experience, to say the least. Initially I wasn’t completely confident that I could complete the book within the restrictions of such a tight deadline (less than 3 months), especially when I hadn’t used the language or Unreal Development kit in almost a year. I had previously been focusing my efforts on C#, XNA, and Unity.

My first XBLIG, Piz-ong, is on the Xbox Live Marketplace this morning!

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

So it’s been a long time coming, but my first Xbox Live Indie Game, *Piz-ong,*finally appeared on Xbox Live this morning.

It took me a few attempts to get it through peer review, and it was always for something silly, like forgetting an “if”statement for the trial mode (which I later found out from James Silva that you don’t even need, as the game automatically prompts for the trial to tend after 7 minutes).

I’ve decided to finally release my game

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve decided to finally release my game.

And by release, I mean submit it to playtesting, take some brief feedback, and then finally place it into peer review. Once it passes that it can be released on XBLIG. I’m doing this for a few reasons:

1) Learning

It’s nice to have feedback from other developers in terms of how the game plays and how to make corrections. It’s essentially a pong clone, so I wanted to start simple, as it serves as a way for me to learn both C# and XNA. In that regard it has done its job. I feel as though it’s run its course at the moment and that I can learn more from others developers and players than to continue on as I am.

Dream.Build.Play dev diary 2

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Just placeholder art for now

Update: I’ve found the thread where in the App Hub where I got the original idea for the powerups. It is now linked.

This is part 2 of my Dream.Build.Play journal, where I outline what it’s like to learn the technical side of XNA and C#. You can find my first part here.

As I mentioned in my previous posting, a few members of the XNA community have been key in helping me learn the ins and outs along the way. I was looking for a framework to build my game on top of, and in doing so I came across a few which caught my attention, but Oneksoft’s Basic Starter Kit really had a lot of features that I was looking for. He frequently updates it, which gives you an added incentive to check out the page often as well. Essentially it is a combination of items from developers within the community, all of which are designed to make the experience of a novice developer easier.

Dream.Build.Play dev diary 1

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I want to chronicle what it’s like to learn how to program. It has always been something that has interested me, and I’m impressed by people who can program. In the game development world programmers are the ones who hold the key to success. A game may be aesthetically pleasing or engross players in a beautiful soundtrack, but those who control how the game actually feels and how it all comes together are the programmers.

The Molyjam title I worked on is out now!

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This weekend I had the pleasure of working with a great bunch of guys to put together a fun party style game for the first “What Would Molydeux?” game jam. It was my first game jam, but a great one nonetheless. I wasn’t sure of what to expect, but in the end I things turned out great. I had a chance to meet up with some great people, collaborate on a new project, and learn quite a bit along the way.

Microsoft to host XBLIG / XNA meetup at DBP booth, Thursday March 8th, 5-7pm

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A Microsoft representative informed me today that they will be hosting a brief party for all XNA / XBLIG members and fans of the community, similar to last year’s outing. It will occur on Thursday, March 8, from 5-7 pm at the Microsoft Lobby Bar. It’s on the first floor of the North Hall, so you can’t miss it when you walk into GDC. Additionally, the Dream.Build.Play booth will be there too, so it looks like we’ll be able to get our hands on some of those titles and finally speak with the developers in person.

Mega Man Prototype Video 2 Is Out

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

You can find the first video here. How I put this together is illustrated in the second development diary as well. The noticeable changes I’ve made in this version include:

A post processing volume with:

Depth of Field – I have it focused on the pawn, and it gradually decreases as the distance extends radially. It’s subtle, but I didn’t want it to be distracting. It offers the sense that everything is slightly dulled with the water in your eyes.

First Bubble Man prototype video is up!

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Wow, I’ve been writing like a mad man on here for the past two weeks! Anyway, here’s the first video I’ve posted for my Mega Man prototype. It’s half way through Bubble Man’s stage, and begins just after you drop into the water. The physics are way off, and I haven’t altered the values for gravity or friction just yet, so that certainly could use some work.

In Mega Man 2, Rock can jump 75% of the screen when beneath water, so I’ll add a physics volume just for that area. I also plan on updating the dev diary later this week too.

My GDC Speech Is On Friday, At 2:30pm, Room 2002

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

**Update:**If you have GDC Vault access you can now watch the video.

GDC has just released the schedules for this year’s show, which is set to go exactly one month from now. My speech for the Indie Games Summer Uprising will be on Friday, at 2:30pm in Room 2002.

Are you headed to GDC this year? Drop me a line and let me know, I’d love to catch up!

Mega Man 2 Dev Diary: Vol 1

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Some of the environment art for Bubble Man’s stage

Inspired by Ben Kane’s excellent The Great Porting Adventure series where he illustrates the life of a full time independent developer porting an XBLIG title to other platforms, I’ve decided to keep a development diary of my own. Oh what’s that, you haven’t taken a gander at his? Well if you’re looking for the inside scoops from someone who actually knows what he’s doing, and has released games before, then it’s probably the place to be. If you’d rather see the comically sad experience of a first time developer as he makes every mistake though, then this is probably the place to be.

My Summer Uprising speech at GDC 2012 will be part of the Business, Marketing, & Management track

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re headed to GDC in March I’d love to catch up with you. I’m hoping that Microsoft has some sort of XNA meetup again, but if they don’t then I’m sure we can come up with our own. Last year it was at the Microsoft booth at the entrance of the main hall.

The time or location for the speech hasn’t been announced yet, but it will be 60 minutes, and discuss the ins-and-outs of the Uprising. Anyway, here’s the blurb from Gamasutra:

New UDK vehicle camera tests posted

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I haven’t updated my blog in a while, so I figured it was time I put some work up here. I’m still working on the Mega Man 2 project, more specifically, creating the models for the enemies on the stage. It’s all blocked out at this point, and much of the environment art is in place.

Until I have more to post on that, enjoy the vehicle camera test I created when working on a project similar to Soviet Strike during the PSX era. I found out the hard way that vehicles and pawns adhere to two completely different camera systems in the engine. Vehicles it seems, require a camera per seat, whereas pawns use one camera, and one camera only. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Indie Games Summer Uprising has a 5 page spread in Nov. 2011 issue of Game Developer Magazine

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

If you missed this summer Xbox Live Indie Games Summer Uprising, it’s not too late to catch up on everything that happened. It’s cool, I wrote a 5 page article which can be found in the November issue of Game Developer Magazine, so you can see everything you missed. I’m sure you’ve seen it because you already subscribe, right? If you don’t that’s alright too, because you can buy individual issues as well.

Indie Game Summer Uprising Post-Mortem

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

This article reflects my thoughts, and not necessarily those of the other team members for the Indie Games Summer Uprising.

EDIT: I’ve added the section “6. The Dashboard”, an intro, as well as numerous grammatical corrections throughout.

Since its inception, the Xbox Live Indie Games have been considered the red-deaded stepchild of Microsoft’s internet based LIVE platform. Hidden beneath layers of menus and triple-A titles, sales and promotions have never been outstanding for developers, unless you manage to earn a spot on the highly coveted “Top Downloads” section.

A hurricane came through my house and all I got were these cool photos

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

UPDATE: My neighbor was nice enough to send me a video take from next door. His house is directly to the left of mine, and you can see my backyard as the camera pans to the right toward the end of the video.

Apparently a hurricane came through the east coast while I was in Seattle for PAX Prime. Fellow Armless Octopus editor Taylor Bliss and I left Thursday morning, just before the storm was set to arrive, and returned late Monday evening, just as the storm had run its toll. I arrived home this evening to find the area around my home…..slightly displaced.

I'll be a guest speaker on the Indie's Got PR Talent – A Press Panel at GDC Europe

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

UPDATE: Thanks @BigBossBenGilbert for the photo!

Headed to GDC Europe? Why not come take a gander at the panel I’ve been invited to attend by Deejay of Indie City.

Taken straight from his page:

I’ll be hosting the Indies’ Got PR Talent panel at GDC Europe on Monday 15th August, 12:40pm. I’ll be joined by games press veterans Mike Rose, Christian Nutt and Keith Stuarterr, someone else who’s yet to be officially confirmed (That’s me!).

We’ll be going through various indie press releases, screenshots and videos, highlighting the best and worse examples. All in the format of the [INSERT COUNTRY HERE]’s Got Talent gameshow, which should add extra mirth into the mix. After dissecting each, the panel will be giving their expert opinion on how indie developers can make a better impact with their PR activities.

Off to GDC Europe, and GamesCom

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I’m off to my first GDC Europe and GamescCom event, . I’ll be there from Sunday 8/14 – Sunday 8/21 and staying on the north side of town. If you’re there and would like to say hello, get in touch with me! If you’re an Indie developer, come by this event hosted by GDC at Club Diamonds in Koln on Tuesday evening. I’ll be there to support the Indie Games Summer Uprising.

Interview I did with Ars Technica last week is up now

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Last week I head the pleasure of being interviewed by Andrew Webster of Ars Technica for his piece “We Band of Brothers: Developer-led Xbox Live Indies promotion returns.” In it he describes how the uprising came to be, our future plans, and lessons learned from the previous uprising.

Indie Games Summer Uprising candidates narrowed down to 25 – developers choose 8 next week

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

EDIT: To see a clearer list of the 26 (read below) entries, click here.

The Indie Games Summer Uprising list has been narrowed down from 70+ to just 25 this week. Starting Monday July 11th, developers will have the opportunity to select 8 picks to represent the platform in the Uprising. Voting closes on Sunday July 17th. Developers are to vote on a variety of factors including: Marketability, originality, appearance, entertainment, music, and gameplay. A 5 star rating system will be used, just as XBLIG tittles are rated on Live, and the 8 titles with the highest average score are selected in the promotion. A poll will be e-mailed to all XBLIG developers who have submitted candidates. Winners will be announced the following day, Monday July 18th on the IGSU home page.

The Indie Games Summer Uprising site is up!

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve finally launched the Indie Games Summer Uprising site! Josh Addison, Nathan Smith, and Chris Brousseau have all done an outstanding job with the web design, art work, and initial launch trailer. You can find more of their work at Blazing Forge Games and Game Production Studios.

In addition to the site, we’ve released the initial launch trailer and press release to a number of outlets.

Be sure to “Like” us on Facebook as well, where you will have the opportunity to vote for two additional titles that you would like to see as part of the uprising. Click through for the press release.

Programming pickups for vehicles in UDK tutorial is up

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve just finished creating a tutorial on programming pickups for vehicles in UDK. This covers both ammo and health. I noticed that it was something that I felt wasn’t covered in depth when I needed to learn how to do it for Death Sentence, so I figured I would save others the time. At the end of the tutorial you’ll find the .uc code for both items, and instructions on how to implement it into your game. What are you waiting for? Check it out! And be sure to let me know what you think of it as well.

Death Sentence website is live!