Enter The Ziggyware Fall Article Contest
Monday, November 03 2008 - 0 comments
With XNA Game Studio 3.0 now available you might want to consider writing a tutorial or two to help get other developers up to speed, or even expand your own understanding of XNA Game Studio. Nothing helps increase your own knowledge like teaching others, but if you still need some other incentives Ziggyware has some for ya. If you haven’t checked out Ziggyware it’s a great source of information for XNA Game Studio news, tutorials, and other articles. They are also currently running a contest for contributing a tutorial targeted at XNA Game Studio developers, where you can win some awesome prizes, including an Xbox 360 Elite. You’ll find all the information you need right here, so head on over to the site. The deadline for submissions is November 30th so you’ll want to get started soon!
XNA Game Studio PDC Talk Now Available!
Thursday, October 30 2008 - 2 comments
Were you not able to make it to PDC 2008 this year? You missed a great show, but luckily you don't have to miss out on a great talk about XNA Game Studio too. The video from our PDC talk (XNA Game Studio: An Overview) is online and you can watch it now by clicking this link. Frank did a great job presenting, and if you’d like to get more information on XNA Game Studio this is a great place to start. Check it out, and leave us some feedback for the next time we have a session.
XNA Game Studio at PDC 2008!
Monday, October 13 2008 - 2 comments
While it may not be the place you expect to see us given that it’s not traditionally associated with video games, we will be in Los Angeles October 27th - 30th for PDC 2008. We’ll have a booth set up in the Microsoft Product Pavilion which you can stop by any day of the week. Mitch Walker will also be giving an an overview and look into XNA Game Studio 3.0.
So who says that the professional developers conference has to be all work and no play? After you’ve gotten all the tips and tricks to help you at work, learn about developing games for the Xbox 360, Windows, and Zune using XNA Game Studio! If you already know all about it feel free to stop by and quiz or heckle me! Hope to see you there!
The Lost Art of The Attract Mode
Monday, October 06 2008 - 6 comments
One of the (many) fun aspects of my job on the team is getting to to go to conferences to show off XNA Game Studio and Xbox LIVE Community Games like we recently did at PAX 08. Usually we have a lot of consoles hooked up to Xbox LIVE where we let attendees come up and play any of the community games that happen to be on the console already, or go up to Xbox LIVE and download any of the ones in the catalog. This allows people to get an idea of the wide offering that Xbox LIVE Community Games will bring to the Xbox 360. Another part of having a booth at the show is just being patient, there will be times when nobody is around and it usually relies on me to put up games that will help draw people into the booth and give an idea about the types of games we expect to end up on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. A great game will draw in lots of people, and help pick things up when things are slower. The problem that I noticed is that when games are just sitting there paused, nobody wants to take that step to give the game a try. To get someone to try the game, I usually have to start playing the game myself.
This led me to think about something I’ve noticed missing from Community Games in relation to their retail counterparts, the all important “Attract Mode”. For those of you who may not be familiar with the term you can get a pretty good definition from Wikipedia, At it’s simplest form it where the game starts to play itself to attract new players into trying out the games. It of course was used extensively in the arcade area of gaming but is still pretty common practice today. The attract mode is cool because it allows people to see your game in action, not sitting still or at a menu screen, whether it be at a friends house, games convention or even a retail kiosk.
It’s not about just making my life easier (I promise!) but it’s always important to think how your game might be featured when it goes up on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Who knows where it might end up getting showcased one day. So don’t forget about all the finishing touches when putting together your game, it’s more likely to get it to show up in more places that way which is always cool to see, like these guys enjoying a game of Little Gamers at PAX 2008:
The New XNA Game Studio Connect
Thursday, October 02 2008 - 8 comments
While we haven’t done too much to the functionality of XNA Game Studio Connect this release, we’ve given it a bit of a facelift to match up with the new Xbox 360 experience. Take a look at the neat-o screenshot below!
The new version of XNA Game Studio Connect can run both XNA Framework 2.0 games and XNA Framework 3.0 games. This means you don’t have to switch between launchers according to which product you’re using--as you did with v1.1 and 2.0. If you’re still using XNA Game Studio 1.0 Refresh (XNA Game Launcher on the Xbox 360) you may continue to do so as you do today. However, the release of XNA Game Studio 3.0 provides a perfect time to upgrade your projects to take advantage of all the features we’ve since introduced!
Now that I have you mesmerized with the new look of XNA Game Studio Connect, let’s talk about upgrading when we release later this year. The caveat is that, on the day of release, you’ll need to manually upgrade—that is, you’ll need to re-download XNA Game Studio Connect. We’ll be issuing a Title Update to the old version of XNA Game Studio Connect, which will disable it and tell you that you need to upgrade, with some information on what to do. We’ll also provide a URL that takes you to instructions on how to download the new version so you can walk through it on your computer.
Upgrading isn’t difficult, just a manual process. Here are some instructions that walk you through it; you won’t need these until we release. Keep in mind that these instructions are for the existing Xbox Dashboard and not the New Xbox Experience, so the instructions will change slightly after its release.
Delete the Old XNA Game Studio Connect
First, you’ll want to remove the old XNA Game Studio Connect from your Xbox 360 console. If you don’t, it may try to start when running a game, which would then tell you that you need to upgrade—even if you already have the new version on your console.
- On your Xbox 360 console, navigate to the Games blade, select Games Library, and then select My Games.
- Select XNA Game Studio Connect from the list of games. From there, select Delete. You do not need to delete any of your games.
Important: Please make sure that you have deleted the previous version of XNA Game Studio Connect before downloading the new version. Trying to delete the old version with the new version already downloaded can cause your console to lock up and require you to power off and then power on your console.
Re-download the New XNA Game Studio Connect
Now it’s time to get the new XNA Game Studio Connect. To do this, follow the process you used to download it the first time, described below.
- On your Xbox 360 console, navigate to Xbox LIVE Marketplace, select Game Store, and then select All Games.
- Select XNA Creators Club, and then select XNA Game Studio Connect. You should see the option to Download Again. Select it, and wait for the download to complete.
That’s it. You’ll know that you have the new XNA Game Studio Connect if it has the new icon in the Games Library (pictured below)
Old Icon
New Icon
Help spread the word, so that when we release XNA Game Studio 3.0, everyone is aware of the upgrade experience and what needs to be done.
Hello Graffiti CMS!
Saturday, September 20 2008 - 1 comments
You may have seen some funniness with your RSS feed today or noticed that the site went offline for a little bit. This weekend I finally took some time to do what I’ve been meaning to do for several months, which is move my blog over to Graffiti CMS.
I’ve done a quick pass over everything and it seems to be all okay. There are a few things that I’m currently missing and a couple of things I’ll slowly migrate back over the next few days. If you see any problems or notice that things are completely broken for you please leave a comment here and I’ll work on getting it fixed as soon as possible.
Another quick note is that the theme is just something to get me by for right now. I hope to have a more permanent theme up soon.
Upgrades Galore Today!
Saturday, September 20 2008 - 2 comments
Just a quick reminder today, if you haven’t yet, go out and grab the new Zune 3.0 software as well as the XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta. You’ll find a lot of new features, including the much requested support for Zune deployment on Windows Vista x64.
Get your games updated and don't forget you can always get help by visiting the XNA Game Studio Forums or the Zune Forums for general questions. Have fun, and get your projects converted over. Hope you enjoy the new beta!
New XNA Game Studio Feature: Screen Capture
Saturday, September 20 2008 - 3 comments
In continuing with highlighting some of the new features in the XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta, I wanted to highlight one of my personal favorites. The ability to take screen captures from the Xbox 360 and Zune when running an XNA Framework game. Many of you have requested this functionality, with Shawn even adding an excellent blog post on the best way to accomplish this in code. Thankfully, we’ve made it much easier!
Screen captures can be taken using the XNA Game Studio Device Center. It’s important to understand that screen captures can only be made by starting the game from your computer using Visual Studio. You cannot play a game stand alone (i.e. Running from the Games menu on Zune or the Games Library on the Xbox 360. You have the option of either:
- Starting the game with debugging (usually “F5” in Visual Studio)
- Starting the game without debugging, and hence better performance (usually Ctrl+F5 in Visual Studio)
Once you’ve done that you simply navigate to the XNA Game Studio Device Center, right-click on the device currently running the game and select “Take Screen Capture”. Once that’s done a PNG will be placed in your Pictures folder, and opened up automatically so you can take a look.
Hopefully this will make it much easier to get screens for your Xbox LIVE Community Game submissions, as well as debugging issues and giving you the ability to show off your great game to friends and family!
New XNA Game Studio Feature: Zune System Media Control
Saturday, September 20 2008 - 6 comments
When we released the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP, we got a lot of great feedback from customers on the release with regards to things users wanted to be able to do while playing a game on their Zune. Users wanted to be able to interact with their music around playing a game but more specifically some of these feature requests included:
- Ability to Adjust Zune Volume (Thanks to Embassy Online for adding this suggestion to Connect!)
- Select different songs on the device
- Change to a different playlist.
- Get information about their battery status.
We wanted to provide this functionality to game developers without having to build all this functionality themselves. I’m excited to say that we’ve addressed these issues with the upcoming XNA Game Studio 3.0 beta and Zune 3.0 firmware by giving you access to a new feature, the Games System Media Control on the Zune device. Check it out:
This allows you to adjust the volume on the device, shuffle your songs and select playlists to start listening to while playing the games that provide access to the Zune Games System Media Control. Once you have some songs queued up, you can switch between them using the “now playing” list. The Zune Games System Media Control also gives quick reference to the battery status and allows you to determine if WiFi is enabled or not. You can also use the Play/Pause button to start and pause your music while the control is active. Simply hit the back button and you’ll be returned to the game! Adding this functionality to your game couldn’t be easier, in fact it’s a simple call:
Guide.Show();
We think that this is a great start to adding some universal functionality while in games, note that you don’t have to use it but I would recommend adding it as an advanced menu option in another menu system like the zuneBlade. You’ll be allowing users of your game quick and easy access to their music and volume controls, give it a try with the upcoming beta let me know what you think!
XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP and Zune 3.0
Saturday, September 20 2008 - 9 comments
With the Zune 3.0 Firmware right around the corner, there are a couple of things related to the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP that you’ll want to keep in mind.
Most importantly, the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP is not compatible with the Zune 3.0 Firmware. While the software will let you deploy your game to the Zune it will not start. This was one of the bugs we didn’t know existed in the CTP and could not go back and change to make the experience better. Ideally we would have blocked on deployment, but the game simply will not run. We’ve learned from this, so we should have better experiences moving forward with future releases of XNA Game Studio!
Additionally any games that you have on your Zune that you deployed or were built with the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP will not run on a Zune that has been upgraded to the Zune 3.0 firmware. These games will need to be uninstalled off your Zune. This is an easy process:
- Go to the games menu on the Zune device, select any games that were deployed with the CTP and select “uninstall” instead of “play”. This will remove the game and all the associated content (save data, etc) from the Zune.
You’ll also want to keep in mind that your Visual Studio project will need to be upgraded going from the CTP to Beta, the project wizard will not accomplish this for you but we’ll have clear guidance in the readme on how to make this work.
Don’t worry, we haven’t left you without options for those of you working on Zune games. The upcoming XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta is fully compatible with Zune 3.0! We’ve added a lot of new features and improved stability making this a release you’ll want to try. If you have trouble, head over to the XNA Creator Club Forums so we can help you out!
