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. ...

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. ...

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. ...

**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!

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. ...

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: ...

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!

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. ...

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. ...

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. ...