XNA Tutorials, Samples and Thoughts
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Zune update avaiable. Prepacked with games
Sep 16th
I just found out about the new Zune update going online from Mykre and went ahead and installed it. An interesting thing after updating is the presence of two prepacked games in this update. These are Hexic and Texas Hold’Em.
Have fun playing!
Note: neither of the games have an Exit option in the main menu. While in the main menu, click Back to exit.
DBP 2008 begins
Sep 1st
The submission process for the Dream Build Play 2008 competition has begun.
You still have until September 23rd to finish your games and submit them. Meanwhile, the DBP site has a nice new feature, the Gallery, where you can see games entered into the competition. Let’s see who’s first.
No August Sample :(
Sep 1st
I’m sorry to say this, but due to time restrictions, I won’t be able to provide a sample for the month of August. The whole August has been really busy for me, and it looks like the first half of September will mostly be the same.
Again, I’m sorry for this, but I’ll make up for it in the following months.
Source to XNA shaders
Aug 16th
Microsoft has just released the source code for the two most popular shaders used in the XNA Framework. Go to the Education Catalog on the Creator’s Club site, and see them for yourself: the SpriteBatch shader and the BasicEffect shader.
This is awesome, as it provides lots of insight on how things work in the background, and also offer a good place to learn from. Beware that these are complex shaders, and you should only delve into them after you have a good understanding of HLSL. Until then, you should use the XNA classes, as they are 
Community Games reviews
Jul 30th
Michael Morton (Ziggy) has just put up the first version of the Ziggyware Community Games Review system. Obviously, this will be a place to find out about new community games, read reviews, and rate them, so good games get noticed, and come on top.
Remember that this is just the first look, and Ziggy would love your support with suggestions, bug reports, and any help you can give.
Congratulation to Ziggy for his initiative!
Chris Satchell Interview on Gamasutra
Mar 8th
The march sample is coming soon. This month you’ll have a lightning / energy bolts effect in 2D (which can also be used in 3D).
But until I’m done with the sample, and put it online, check out this great interview with Chris Satchell, hosted by Gamasutra:
Connecting Communities, Redefining Xbox Live: Chris Satchell On XNA
Have a great read.
Welcome!
Feb 9th
I just moved my blog from its previous location to this one. And because no change comes alone, I’ve decided to set a theme for my site:
12 month, 12 samples
What this means is that my goal is to release at least one sample or tutorial each month. And if time and inspiration allows it, there will be more than one. As a beginning, I’ve just added a new sample, for February: Drawing Wireframes without Z-Fighting. This, together with my last sample, in January (Pie2D Sample) hopefully sets me on the right track.
If you have any requests for tutorials or samples, please let me know, and I’ll try to make them.
