Democratizing Game Distribution: The Next Step

Gamasutra have a 7 page article describing just how the new game distribution system will work in the beta of XNA 3 coming this Spring.

The article can be found here.

Something to note... the beta only supports the American region :(

Community XNA Games on XBox Live

Major Nelson also anounces 7 Community Games coming to XBox Live today for free.

Here is the post.

Latest news from GDC

Microsofts GDC Keynote !

This is the bit I like most about the Keynote:

"It's changing today. For the first time, community games will be distributed through Xbox Live."

'Xbox Live Community Games' will give creators a huge audience to share their creativity with. Game distribution will be democritized, allowing the community to control the content. Create, Submit, Peer Review, Play are the four key steps." "We want creativity to flow through this pipeline,"

"Your creator identity is not too different from a gamertag -- it has a history of your developed games. You'll inform users what's in your game, using descriptive sliders. On a scale, how violent is it? What sort of game is it? There's prohibited content, of course, but ti's up to peer reviewers to evaluate the game. "now, 10 million people on Xbox Live get to play your game."

The 2008 Dream-Build-Play Warmup Challenge finalists

The 2008 Dream Build and Play Warmup Challenge finalists are here, the links will take you to the site with a download for each game:

Conquerator 1.0 Released



Hive





iSheep



Orblast



Specimen

XNA and NVidia PerfHUD 5.2

To get NVidia's PerfHUD to work with XNA you will need to create the event in your game constructor:

this.graphics.PreparingDeviceSettings += new EventHandler(graphics_PreparingDeviceSettings);

and add the following:

void graphics_PreparingDeviceSettings(object sender, PreparingDeviceSettingsEventArgs e)
{
foreach (GraphicsAdapter curAdapter in GraphicsAdapter.Adapters)
{
if (curAdapter.Description.Contains("NVIDIA PerfHUD"))
{
e.GraphicsDeviceInformation.Adapter = curAdapter;
e.GraphicsDeviceInformation.DeviceType = DeviceType.Reference;
break;
}
}
}

Then build the game, and drag and drop the exe onto the NVIDIA PerfHUD 5 Launcher icon.

To see more about what NVidia PerfHud is all about watch this video:

More Video Tutorials

Today I stumbled upon some great quality free video tutorials for XSI, here are some of the tutorials that may interest you for creating games in XNA:

Intro
- Assigning Glows to objects in XSI
- Selection Properties in XSI
- Selection Explorer
- Palettes
- Creating a Custom Toolbar
- Render Regions
- Using Glows
- Using the Texture Layer Editor
- Get Started with the Jetbike
- Modifying the Engine on the Jetbike

Animation
- How To: "Tag a Rig" in XSI in order to apply Motion capture data to it.
- Using the Animation Editor and the Keying Panel
- Project overview for XSI Character Enveloping training kit
- Project overview for XSI Character Rigging training kit
- Using GATOR
- Quick Stretch Deformer
- Devices
- Pose Constraints
- Shapes 101
- Cycling Curves
- Ghosting
- Context and Construction Modes
- Basics of Enveloping
- Basics of Keyframing
- Setting Keyframes

Modeling
- Extracting and repurposing geometry
- Project Overview for the Polygon and Sub-D Modeling in XSI training kit
- Adjusting Pivot of Components
- Trimming Surfaces
- Merging Polygons
- Lofting
- Extruding Faces without Merging
- Converting NURBS Surfaces to Polygons
- Proportional Modeling
- Deforming with Weight Maps
- Using the Text Tool to make 3D Text
- Range and Loop Selections
- Revolution Tool
- Merging NURBS curves
- Extruding with Curves
- Extruding and Beveling Vertices
- Splitting Polygons
- Extruding Polygons
- Extruding Along a Curve with Polygons
- Displaying the Triangle Count
- Using Booleans
- Components in XSI
- Moving Around in XSI

Here is the link.

Building a 3D Game in XNA From Scratch - Free Video Tutorial Series Now Available!

Here is the link to a blog by former C# dev and Microsoft Academic Developer Evangelist, Dan Waters, he takes you through creating a 3D game called GuitarMatey and it uses a regular Guitar Hero style controller. (Free Video Tutorials)