Michael Klucher's Blog

Looking to beef up on your game development skills or interested in developing for Windows Phone 7 Series? We’ve got a couple of shows that you might be interested in right around the corner. Block off your calendar now, it’s time to get educated!

GDC 2010 (3/9 – 3/13)

As with earlier years we’ll have the well-received Microsoft Game Developer Days Tuesday March 9^th and Wednesday March 10^th. It’s a great opportunity to learn about game development on Microsoft’s platforms. Here’s an overview of the sessions:

Tuesday, March 9th

• Visual C++ 2010: A Turbo Boost in Productivity
• System-wide Game Profiling with the Windows Performance Toolkit
• Building an Uber-Fast Crowd Renderer for Your Next Xbox 360 Engine
• Block Compression Smorgasbord
• The Dark Art of ShadowMapping
• DirectX 11 Technology Update

Wednesday, March 10th

• DirectX 11 DirectCompute–A Teraflop for Everyone
• Think DirectX 11 Tessellation! – Lots of options
• Developing Games for Windows Phone 7 Series*
• High Performance 3D Games on Windows Phone 7 Series*
• Development and Debugging Tools for Windows Phone 7 Series*
• Bringing the Best of Xbox LIVE to Windows Phone 7 Series*

  * These sessions are repeated during the main conference Thursday March 11^th through Saturday March 13^th.

MIX ’10 (3/15 – 3/17)

Las Vegas more your style? Looking to learn more everything there is to know about the developer platform for Windows Phone 7 Series? MIX ’10 March 15^th through March 17^th is the show for you!

MIX ’10 has twelve (yes, 12!) sessions that cover developing applications and games for the Windows Phone 7 Series. If you’re interested in the platform and how to developer for this great new device MIX ’10 is the place to be.

Hope to see you at the shows!

Wow, Monday Microsoft announced the Windows Phone 7 Series at Mobile World Congress. After digging through all this great info it really has me excited about the future of our platform. One of the things that has always been very personal to me is gaming on mobile devices, in fact it’s one of the things that led me to work at Microsoft. With the announcement that Windows Phone 7 Series phones will support Xbox LIVE features, consumers will have a first class gaming experience on their phones! It’s another great step showing Microsoft is taking gaming very seriously!

Traditionally Windows Mobile has had some great games, but not a really strong investment around game development and game design when it comes to a mobile platform. You’ve had technologies like GAPI and Managed Direct3D Mobile, but I feel more investment could be made to make partners successful and profitable as a game developer.

For myself, the introduction of Windows Phone 7 Series showing that Microsoft has taken a new approach to providing consumers a truly personal experience on a mobile device. As time goes on everyone on the Windows Phone and Xbox LIVE teams are working to make sure that you can leverage a powerful, productive and portable platform for your games.

I’m hoping that we’ll have some great conversations around game development and game design in a mobile form factor. So let’s start a dialog, whether it be on this blog or twitter (@mklucher). Pardon the pun, but this is a whole new game!