This week has been a rough one. I’ve been sick and then in some kind of slump for my afternoon coding sessions. It could be from the cold, could be I’m still tired from writing that Windows Phone 7 game development book (which is out now!) or it could just be I’m tired of winter and want some sunshine. All I know is that even while I’m stick, the XNA world keeps going along at it’s whirlwind pace. Below are the things I caught in between my coughing fits..

Time Critical XNA News:

• The 2011 MVP summit is almost here so pass along your feelings and thoughts so the MVPs can take them and share them with the team in person
• http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/76317/464136.aspx#464136
• Dream Build Play - there’s no new announcement yet, but you can’t get much more to the end of February than this!
• http://www.dreambuildplay.com/Main/Home.aspx

XNA Team:

• Dean Johnson from the XNA team shares an excellent way of handling Guide.IsTrialMode on WP7
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dejohn/archive/2011/02/21/calling-guide-istrialmode-on-windows-phone-7.aspx
• Nick Gravelyn tries a new tactic in deciding if there’s enough interest to develop a sequel or not. Don’t YOU want Pixel Man 2 to come out?
• http://nickgravelyn.com/pixelman2/
  

XNA MVPs:

• Andy “The ZMan” Dunn finally shares what he’s been secretly working on these past 4 months http://twitter.com/#!/The_Zman/status/40590269392887808
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg8Z0ZdYbvg&feature=youtu.be
• Joel Martinez lets developers around NYC know they should by signing up for Game Hack Day
• http://twitter.com/joelmartinez/statuses/41118590862102528
• http://gamehackday.org/71fdk

XNA Developers:

• Michael McLaughlin shares an XNA RenderTarget2D Sample
• http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/02/18/xna-rendertarget2d-sample.aspx
• Martin Caine starts a new series on Deferred Rendering in XNA 4.0
• http://twitter.com/#!/MartinCaine/status/39735221339291648
• http://martincaine.com/xna/deferred_rendering_in_xna_4_introduction
• ElemenyCy posts about his fun time with the IntermediateSerializer
• http://www.ubergamermonkey.com/xna/holy-bloated-xml-batman/
• Ben Kane releases a narrated dev diary video for Project Splice. Let him know if you’d like to see more! (I know I do!)
• http://twitter.com/#!/benkane/status/39846959498002432
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EmziXZUo08&feature=youtu.be
• Jason Swearingen (of Novaleaf) posts his part 1 of Spatial Partitioning solutions
• http://altdevblogaday.org/2011/02/21/spatial-partitioning-part-1-survey-of-spatial-partitioning-solutions/
• Brian Lawson of Dark Flow Studios shares what his been up to lately with lots of pretty screenshots and hints of announcements from Microsoft...
• http://www.darkflowstudios.com/entry/short-and-sweet-part-1
• Luke Avery starts a new blog where he plans on making XNA tutorials for beginners (and he’s got a few started already!)
• http://programmingwithovery.wordpress.com/
  

Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG):

• GameMarx Episode 10
• http://www.gamemarx.com/video/the-show/24/ep-10-february-18-2010.aspx
• Minecraft clone FortressCraft coming to XBLIG
• http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-23-minecraft-clone-fortresscraft-hits-xblig
• ezMuze+ starts an IndieGoGo fundraiser campaign to help fund their second game and get it onto even more devices!
• http://www.indiegogo.com/ezmuze
• Gamergeddon XBLIG round up
• http://www.gamergeddon.com/2011/02/20/xbox-indie-game-round-up-february-20th/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
• JForce Games loses their Ego
• http://jforcegames.com/blog/index.php?itemid=121&catid=4
  

XNA Game Development:

• @BallerIndustry reminds all XNA developers that the Maths are important ;)
• http://twitter.com/#!/BallerIndustry/status/39317618280243200
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjV3XDFsjP4&feature=player_embedded#at=106
• @suhinini stumbles on an older but extremely useful post on XNA Content Pipeline debugging
• http://twitter.com/#!/suhinini/status/39270189476352000
• http://badcorporatelogo.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/xna-content-pipeline-debugging-4-0/
• XNA Game Development Workshops at Singapore Universities
• http://innovativesingapore.com/2011/02/xna-game-development-workshops-at-singapore-universities/
• Indiefreaks announces that IGF v0.3 is out with Xbox 360 support, SunBurn 2.0.12 and it’s now Open Source!
• http://twitter.com/#!/indiefreaks/status/39391953971982336
• @liotral announces a new series on properly designing a game
• http://twitter.com/#!/liortal53/status/39466905081217024
• http://liortalblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/hello-cosmos/
• Indies and XNA at CodeStock 2011
• http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/02/20/indies-and-xna-at-codestock-2011.aspx
• Train Frontier Express posts about XNA Content Hotloading
• http://trainfrontierexpress.blogspot.com/2011/02/xna-content-hotloading-overview.html
• Slyprid announces a new character editor in Transmute
• http://twitter.com/#!/slyprid/status/40146992818696192
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKhFAc78LDs&feature=youtu.be
• The XNA 2D from the ground up tutorial series
• http://xna-uk.net/blogs/darkgenesis/archive/2011/02/23/recap-the-xna-2d-from-the-ground-up-tutorial-series.aspx
• Sgt.Conker posts a “Clingerman” (hey that’s me!) to stay relevant
• http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/02/posting-a-clingerman-to-stay-relevant/