Search Results

Search found 970 results on 39 pages for 'george bowman'.

Page 3/39 | < Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  | Next Page >

  • Is there a way put a timestamp in the file header automatically when saving in Eclipse?

    - by George
    I am a PHP developer using Eclipse PDT. I would like a timestamp put automatically in my file headers whenever I save the file. Maybe as a replacement of a variable. Let's say I use this header in a file: /** * ${filename} * ${timestamp} */ When I save the file I would this to be replaced with: /** * Myfile.php * 4/20/2010 19:04 */ It would also be ok if there is a macro that would add a line at the very beginning of the file just containing a timestamp. Anybody with an idea? Regards, George

    Read the article

  • Upload File to Database in ColdFusion

    - by George Johnston
    I simply would like to upload a file to my database using ColdFusion. I understand how to upload an image to a directory, but I would like to place it directly in the database. I have set a database field to varbinary(MAX) to accept the image and have the stored procedure to insert it. Currently my code for uploading the image to my file system is: <cfif isdefined("form.FileUploadImage")> <cffile action="upload" filefield="FileUploadImage" destination="#uploadfolder#" nameconflict="overwrite" accept="image/*" > </cfif> I've obviously left some of the supporting code out, but really all I need to do is get a binary representation of the file stored in memory, instead of the file system. Any experts out there that can help? Thanks, George

    Read the article

  • Microphone input

    - by George
    I'm trying to build a gadget that detects pistol shots using Android. It's a part of a training aid for pistol shooters that tells how the shots are distributed in time and I use a HTC Tattoo for testing. I use the MediaRecorder and its getMaxAmplitude method to get the highest amplitude during the last 1/100 s but it does not work as expected; speech gives me values from getMaxAmplitude in the range from 0 to about 25000 while the pistol shots (or shouting!) only reaches about 15000. With a sampling frequency of 8kHz there should be some samples with considerably high level. Anyone who knows how these things work? Are there filters that are applied before registering the max amplitude. If so, is it hardware or software? Thanks, /George

    Read the article

  • Microphone input

    - by George
    I'm trying to build a gadget that detects pistol shots using Android. It's a part of a training aid for pistol shooters that tells how the shots are distributed in time and I use a HTC Tattoo for testing. I use the MediaRecorder and its getMaxAmplitude method to get the highest amplitude during the last 1/100 s but it does not work as expected; speech gives me values from getMaxAmplitude in the range from 0 to about 25000 while the pistol shots (or shouting!) only reaches about 15000. With a sampling frequency of 8kHz there should be some samples with considerably high level. Anyone who knows how these things work? Are there filters that are applied before registering the max amplitude. If so, is it hardware or software? Thanks, /George

    Read the article

  • ensime scala errors (class scala.Array not found, object scala not found)

    - by Jeff Bowman
    I've installed ensime according to the README.md file, however, I get errors in the inferior-ensime-server buffer with the following: INFO: Fatal Error: scala.tools.nsc.MissingRequirementError: object scala not found. scala.tools.nsc.MissingRequirementError: object scala not found. at scala.tools.nsc.symtab.Definitions$definitions$.getModuleOrClass(Definitions.scala:516) at scala.tools.nsc.symtab.Definitions$definitions$.ScalaPackage(Definitions.scala:43) at scala.tools.nsc.symtab.Definitions$definitions$.ScalaPackageClass(Definitions.scala:44) at scala.tools.nsc.symtab.Definitions$definitions$.UnitClass(Definitions.scala:89) at scala.tools.nsc.symtab.Definitions$definitions$.init(Definitions.scala:786) at scala.tools.nsc.Global$Run.(Global.scala:593) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global$TyperRun.(Global.scala:473) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global.newTyperRun(Global.scala:535) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global.reloadSources(Global.scala:289) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global$$anonfun$reload$1.apply(Global.scala:300) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global$$anonfun$reload$1.apply(Global.scala:300) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global.respond(Global.scala:276) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global.reload(Global.scala:300) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.CompilerControl$$anon$1.apply$mcV$sp(CompilerControl.scala:81) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global.pollForWork(Global.scala:132) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global$$anon$2.run(Global.scala:192) also: INFO: Fatal Error: scala.tools.nsc.MissingRequirementError: class scala.Array not found. scala.tools.nsc.MissingRequirementError: class scala.Array not found. at scala.tools.nsc.symtab.Definitions$definitions$.getModuleOrClass(Definitions.scala:516) at scala.tools.nsc.symtab.Definitions$definitions$.getClass(Definitions.scala:474) at scala.tools.nsc.symtab.Definitions$definitions$.ArrayClass(Definitions.scala:217) at scala.tools.nsc.backend.icode.TypeKinds$REFERENCE.(TypeKinds.scala:258) at scala.tools.nsc.backend.icode.GenICode$ICodePhase.(GenICode.scala:55) at scala.tools.nsc.backend.icode.GenICode.newPhase(GenICode.scala:43) at scala.tools.nsc.backend.icode.GenICode.newPhase(GenICode.scala:25) at scala.tools.nsc.Global$Run$$anonfun$4.apply(Global.scala:606) at scala.tools.nsc.Global$Run$$anonfun$4.apply(Global.scala:605) at scala.collection.LinearSeqOptimized$class.foreach(LinearSeqOptimized.scala:62) at scala.collection.immutable.List.foreach(List.scala:46) at scala.tools.nsc.Global$Run.(Global.scala:605) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global$TyperRun.(Global.scala:473) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global.newTyperRun(Global.scala:535) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global.reloadSources(Global.scala:289) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global.typedTreeAt(Global.scala:309) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global$$anonfun$getTypedTreeAt$1.apply(Global.scala:326) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global$$anonfun$getTypedTreeAt$1.apply(Global.scala:326) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global.respond(Global.scala:276) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global.getTypedTreeAt(Global.scala:326) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.CompilerControl$$anon$2.apply$mcV$sp(CompilerControl.scala:89) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global.pollForWork(Global.scala:132) at scala.tools.nsc.interactive.Global$$anon$2.run(Global.scala:192) Also none of the type identification works for me, I get 'NA' if I get anything at all. C-c t causes emacs to lock up. I'm running: Ubuntu 10.04 (64bit version) emacs 23.1.50.1 ensime from git (as of 3 May 2010) scala is version 2.8.0.RC1 java is 1.6.0_20 (from sun) here is a copy of the log: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5309017/ensime.log Thanks! Jeff

    Read the article

  • infinite loop shutting down ensime

    - by Jeff Bowman
    When I run M-X ensime-disconnect I get the following forever: string matching regex `\"((?:[^\"\\]|\\.)*)\"' expected but `^@' found and I see this exception when I use C-c C-c Uncaught exception in com.ensime.server.SocketHandler@769aba32 java.net.SocketException: Broken pipe at java.net.SocketOutputStream.socketWrite0(Native Method) at java.net.SocketOutputStream.socketWrite(SocketOutputStream.java:109) at java.net.SocketOutputStream.write(SocketOutputStream.java:153) at sun.nio.cs.StreamEncoder.writeBytes(StreamEncoder.java:220) at sun.nio.cs.StreamEncoder.implFlushBuffer(StreamEncoder.java:290) at sun.nio.cs.StreamEncoder.implFlush(StreamEncoder.java:294) at sun.nio.cs.StreamEncoder.flush(StreamEncoder.java:140) at java.io.OutputStreamWriter.flush(OutputStreamWriter.java:229) at java.io.BufferedWriter.flush(BufferedWriter.java:253) at com.ensime.server.SocketHandler.write(server.scala:118) at com.ensime.server.SocketHandler$$anonfun$act$1$$anonfun$apply$mcV$sp$1.apply(server.scala:132) at com.ensime.server.SocketHandler$$anonfun$act$1$$anonfun$apply$mcV$sp$1.apply(server.scala:127) at scala.actors.Actor$class.receive(Actor.scala:456) at com.ensime.server.SocketHandler.receive(server.scala:67) at com.ensime.server.SocketHandler$$anonfun$act$1.apply$mcV$sp(server.scala:127) at com.ensime.server.SocketHandler$$anonfun$act$1.apply(server.scala:127) at com.ensime.server.SocketHandler$$anonfun$act$1.apply(server.scala:127) at scala.actors.Reactor$class.seq(Reactor.scala:262) at com.ensime.server.SocketHandler.seq(server.scala:67) at scala.actors.Reactor$$anon$3.andThen(Reactor.scala:240) at scala.actors.Combinators$class.loop(Combinators.scala:26) at com.ensime.server.SocketHandler.loop(server.scala:67) at scala.actors.Combinators$$anonfun$loop$1.apply(Combinators.scala:26) at scala.actors.Combinators$$anonfun$loop$1.apply(Combinators.scala:26) at scala.actors.Reactor$$anonfun$seq$1$$anonfun$apply$1.apply(Reactor.scala:259) at scala.actors.ReactorTask.run(ReactorTask.scala:36) at scala.actors.ReactorTask.compute(ReactorTask.scala:74) at scala.concurrent.forkjoin.RecursiveAction.exec(RecursiveAction.java:147) at scala.concurrent.forkjoin.ForkJoinTask.quietlyExec(ForkJoinTask.java:422) at scala.concurrent.forkjoin.ForkJoinWorkerThread.mainLoop(ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:340) at scala.concurrent.forkjoin.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run(ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:325) Is there something else I'm missing in my config or I should check on? Thanks, Jeff

    Read the article

  • BizTalk FTP - File Rename

    - by Rob Bowman
    Hi I need to send files using the BizTalk 2006 (non wcf) FTP adapter. After successful transmission of each file it needs to be renamed from an "A" prefix to a "U" prefix. I don't want to issue a command using wildcards because I can't be sure of other files in the destination folder. Any ideas? Thanks Rob.

    Read the article

  • SSRS 2008 Installation Guidelines/Best Practices?

    - by Brad Bowman
    I know I have seen recommendations for installing SSRS 2005 and it stated that you should separate SSRS from the DB Engine that hosts the data sources for your reports, that you should not install them on the same server. Is there any documentation for SSRS 2008 that provides guidelines/best practices for installation? I am assuming that the same holds true for SSRS 2008 as it did for SSRS 2005 but have not seen it specifically stated anywhere. We have a project that will utilize SSRS 2008 and there is a difference of opinion on where to install it, on it's own dedicated server or on the same SQL Server as the report data sources. If there is a link to any documentation that could be provided it would be gratefully appreciated, all I am finding besides what is in BOL refers to 2005. Thanks in advance!

    Read the article

  • using REST webservices as a datasource for Lift ?

    - by Jeff Bowman
    Is there a way to use a webservice (REST in this case) as the data source for a Lift application? I can find a number of tutorials/examples of using Lift to provide the REST API, but in my case the data is hosted elsewhere and exported as a REST webservice. Pointers to doc are greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jeff

    Read the article

  • Derived Column Editor

    - by Rob Bowman
    Hi I need to assign a formatted date to a column in a data flow. I have added a Derived Column editor and entered the following expression: "BBD" + SUBSTRING((DT_WSTR,4)DATEADD("Day",30,GETDATE()),1,4) + SUBSTRING((DT_WSTR,2)DATEADD("Day",30,GETDATE()),6,2) + SUBSTRING((DT_WSTR,2)DATEADD("Day",30,GETDATE()),9,2) The problem is that the "Derived Column Transformation Editor" automatically assigns a Data Type of "Unicode string[DT_WSTR]" and a length of "7". Howver, the length of a string is 11, therefore the following exception is thrown each time: [Best Before Date [112]] Error: The "component "Best Before Date" (112)" failed because truncation occurred, and the truncation row disposition on "output column "Comments" (132)" specifies failure on truncation. A truncation error occurred on the specified object of the specified component. Does anyone know why the edit is insisting on a length of 7? I don't seem to be able to change this. Many thanks, Rob.

    Read the article

  • SSIS - Update flag of selected rows from more than one table

    - by Rob Bowman
    Hi I have a SSIS package that copies data from table A to table B and sets a flag in table A so that the same data is not copied subsequently. This works great by using the following as the SQL command text on the ADO Net Source object: update transfer set ProcessDateTimeStamp = GetDate(), LastUpdatedBy = 'legacy processed' output inserted.* where LastUpdatedBy = 'legacy' and ProcessDateTimeStamp is not null The problem I have is that I need to run a similar data copy but from two sources table, joined on a primary / foreign key - select from table A join table B update flag in table A. I don't think I can use the technique above because I don't know where I'd put the join! Is there another way around this problem? Thanks Rob.

    Read the article

  • Consuming WCF from BizTalk 2006r1

    - by Rob Bowman
    Hi I need to create an Orchestration in BizTalk 2006r1 that will consume a WCF basicHTTP web service. Does anyone have a pointers on how to do this please? The WCF service has been created by another team but I am able to request that they create an additional endpoint with binding configuration set to make calling from BizTalk SOAP adapter possible. I just created a simple test basicHTTP service that runs fine when tested from a command line client. When I got to BizTalk add web reference I am able to browse to the service but then get a message "Failed to add web reference" and it bombs out! Any help gratefully received. Thanks Rob.

    Read the article

  • MySQL date query only returns one year, when multiple exist

    - by Bowman
    I'm a part-time designer/developer with a part-time photography business. I've got a database of photos with various bits of metadata attached. I want to query the database and return a list of the years that photos were taken, and the quantity of photos that were taken in that year. In short, I want a list that looks like this: 2010 (35 photos) 2009 (67 photos) 2008 (48 photos) Here's the query I'm using: SELECT YEAR(date) AS year, COUNT(filename) as quantity FROM photos WHERE visible='1' GROUP BY 'year' ORDER BY 'year' DESC Instead of churning out all the possible years (the database includes photos from 2010-2008), this is the sole result: 2010 (35 photos) I've tried a lot of different syntax but at this point I'm giving in and asking for help!

    Read the article

  • automatic xml conversion in scala

    - by Jeff Bowman
    Let's say I have the following class: class Person(val firstName:String, val lastName:String) Is there an automatic way to generate xml from this class without having to hand create a toXml() method? Ideally the output would be something like: <Person <firstNameJohn</firstName <lastNameSmith</lastName </Person It seems like there should be a way to do this without having to write all that out manually. Perhaps there is a trait I haven't found yet?

    Read the article

  • SSIS - Connection Management Within a Loop

    - by Rob Bowman
    Hi I have the following SSIS package: The problem is that within the Foreach loop a connection is opened and closed for each iteration. On running SQL Profiler I see a series of: Audit Login RPC:Completed Audit Lout The duration for the login and the RPC that actually does the work is minimal. However, the duration for the logout is significant, running into several seconds each. This causes the JOB to run very slowly - taking many hours. I get the same problem when running either on a test server or stand-alone laptop. Could anyone please suggest how I may change the package to improve performance? Also, I have noticed that when running the package from Visual Studio, it looks as though it continues to run with the component blocks going amber then green but actually all the processing has been completed and SQL profiler has dropped silent? Thanks, Rob.

    Read the article

  • MaximumErrorCount has now effect

    - by Rob Bowman
    Hi I'm quite new to SSIS - using 2008 version. I have a job that uses a few data flow tasks. On the third one I'm getting a primary key violation on the last row that it needs to insert, but only sometimes! I'd like to ignore this problem for now and let the job continue. I have set the MaximumErrorCount property to 10 for the DataFlowTaks, the SequenceContainer and for the Package but still taks fails and this causes the package to stop. Could anyone please advise how I can get the package to ignore the error? Thanks Rob.

    Read the article

  • SQL: Add counters in select

    - by etarvt
    Hi, I have a table which contains names: Name ---- John Smith John Smith Sam Wood George Wright John Smith Sam Wood I want to create a select statement which shows this: Name 'John Smith 1' 'John Smith 2' 'Sam Wood 1' 'George Wright 1' 'John Smith 3' 'Sam Wood 2' In other words, I want to add separate counters to each name. Is there a way to do it without using cursors?

    Read the article

  • Connecting git to github on windows 7 without bash

    - by George Mauer
    I'm setting up git on my new Windows 7 machine and I'm hitting a roadblock when it comes to getting github to acknowledge my ssh key. I am doing things a little different from the standard script in that I would rather not use cygwin and prefer to use my powershell prompt. The following is what I did: I installed msysgit (portable). I went to C:\program files\git\bin and used ssh-keygen to generate a public/private ssh keypair which I put in c:\Temp I then created a directory named .ssh\ in c:\Users\myusername\ (on windows 7) I moved both the files generated by the ssh-keygen (id_rsa and id_rsa.pub) into the .ssh directory I went to my account on github, created a new public key, copy-pasted the contents of id_rsa.pub into it and saved I now go to my powershell prompt, set-alias git 'C:\program files\git\bin\git.exe' I try to now do a clone [email protected]:togakangaroo/ps-profile.git which rejects my authentication: Permission denied (publickey). fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly Past experience says that this means git is not recognizing my key. What steps am I missing? I have a feeling that I need to somehow configure git so that it knows where my ssh keys are (though it would seem it should look there automatically) but I don't know how to do that. Another possible clue is that when I try to run git config --global user.name "George Mauer" I get an error fatal: $HOME not set I did however set up a HOME environment user variable with the value %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%

    Read the article

  • How to change the view angle and label value of a chart .NET C#

    - by George
    Short Description I am using charts for a specific application where i need to change the view angle of the rendered 3D Pie chart and value of automatic labels from pie label names to corresponding pie values. This how the chart looks: Initialization This is how i initialize it: Dictionary<string, decimal> secondPersonsWithValues = HistoryModel.getSecondPersonWithValues(); decimal[] yValues = new decimal[secondPersonsWithValues.Values.Count]; //VALUES string[] xValues = new string[secondPersonsWithValues.Keys.Count]; //LABELS secondPersonsWithValues.Keys.CopyTo(xValues, 0); secondPersonsWithValues.Values.CopyTo(yValues, 0); incomeExpenseChart.Series["Default"].ChartType = System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.SeriesChartType.Pie; incomeExpenseChart.Series["Default"].Points.DataBindXY(xValues, yValues); incomeExpenseChart.ChartAreas["Default"].Area3DStyle.Enable3D = true; incomeExpenseChart.Series["Default"].CustomProperties = "PieLabelStyle=Outside"; incomeExpenseChart.Legends["Default"].Enabled = true; incomeExpenseChart.ChartAreas["Default"].Area3DStyle.LightStyle = System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.LightStyle.Realistic; incomeExpenseChart.Series["Default"]["PieDrawingStyle"] = "SoftEdge"; Basically i am querying data from database using the HistoryModel.getSecondPersonWithValues(); to get pairs as Dictionary<string, decimal> where key is the person and value is ammount. Problem #1 What i need is to be able to change the marked labels from person names to the ammounts or add another label of ammounts with the same colors (See Image). Problem #2 Another problem is that i need to change the view angle of 3D Pie chart. Maybe it's very simple and I just don't know the needed property or maybe i need to override some paint event. Either ways any kind of ways would be appriciated. Thanks in advance George.

    Read the article

  • XNA Notes 009

    - by George Clingerman
    This past week the MVPs (myself included) were on Microsoft campus for the MVP summit. So I apologize in advance if you did something cool or heard of something cool happening with XNA and XBLIGs and it’s not in my notes. I did my best to stay on top of things, but honestly this community is fast and furious with what it’s doing and creating. I really can’t keep up and that’s fantastic! But here’s what I *did* notice while I was there on Microsoft Campus (and I did make sure to point out to the XNA team several of these very cool happenings while I had their ears). Time Critical XNA News: The XNA team wants you to know that Dream Build Play registration is now open! http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xna/archive/2011/02/28/registration-now-open-for-dream-build-play-2011-challenge.aspx Join the XNA-UK create on March 24, 2011 at the Microsoft Tech Days Conference http://xna-uk.net/blogs/darkgenesis/archive/2011/02/27/join-the-xna-uk-crew-at-the-microsoft-tech-days-conference-on-24th-march-2011.aspx XNA Team: Shawn Hargreaves shares one of the coolest things that’s happened in the XNA community http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/03/02/xbox-indies-pivot-view.aspx Nick Gravelyn continues his unique marketing/work prioritization strategy as he tries to get to 5,000 Pixel Man users before he makes Pixel Man 2 (and he’s almost there!) http://nickgravelyn.com/pixelman2/ XNA MVPs: A lot of the XNA MVPs were at the Microsoft MVP Summit 2011. Due to NDAs, most things can’t be shared, but I’m sure if you’re curious you could ask them about the general vibe and feeling they got from the team and the future of XNA/XBLIG and more. Catalin Zima and team release the free WP7 game Chickens Can Dream http://twitter.com/CatalinZima/statuses/41174062923390976 http://www.amusedsloth.com/2011/02/chickens-can-dream-is-live/ Charles Humphrey (NemoKrad) posts his March talk source and PowerPoint http://xna-uk.net/blogs/randomchaos/archive/2011/03/04/march-2011-talk-post-processing-framework.aspx XNA Developers: Michael B. McLaughlin posts about ANTS Memory Profile and creates a CheckMemoryAllocationGame sample (extremely useful if you’re looking to see how much memory some operation allocates!) http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/02/28/ants-memory-profiler-7.0-review.aspx http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/03/01/checkmemoryallocationgame-sample.aspx Andy Schatz (2009 IGF winner for Monaco) talking XNA at GDC 2011 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33313/GDC_2011_Andy_Schatz_Ill_Make_My_Last_Game_When_I_Die.php Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): Clover: A Curious Tale by BinaryTweed is coming as a Deal of the Week during St. Patricks Day http://majornelson.com/archive/2011/03/03/comingsoontothexboxlivemarketplacemarchthird.aspx Ska Studios away at GDC but still very post happy as always http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/02/swamped-picture-pack/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/28/the-february-showcase/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/25/good-morning-gato-51-smelling-the-roses/ Just Press Start interviews Matthew Mikuszewski of Darkwind Media about Blocks Indie http://justpressstart.net/?p=516 Gamergeddon Xbox Indie Game Round Up - February 27th http://www.gamergeddon.com/2011/02/27/xbox-indie-game-round-up-february-27th/ http://www.gamergeddon.com/category/xbox-360/indie-games/ GameMarx does a round up of all the Xbox Live Indie Game podcasts that are currently available http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/02/27/xbox-live-indie-game-podcasts.aspx GameMarx episode 11 http://www.gamemarx.com/video/the-show/26/ep-11-february-25-2011.aspx In perhaps what I feel is the most exciting news I’ve heard all week, Michael C. Neel (ViNull of GameMarx fame) re-launch XboxIndies.com! http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/03/01/the-relaunch-of-xboxindies-com.aspx http://xboxindies.com/ Armless Octopus shares a little of what they heard from Luke Schneider of Radiangames during his GDC 2011 talk http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/02/gdc-2011-luke-schneider-offers-insight-into-radiangames-success/ VVGindiecast Episode 1 with guests Derek Strickland(Mr_Deeke), Kris Steele(Kriswd40 from FunInfused Games) and Dave Voyles(From armlessoctopus.com) http://vvgtv.com/2011/02/25/vvgindiecast-xblig-podcast/ If you’re doing Xbox LIVE Indie Game Reviews get in touch with XboxIndies.com to get into their aggregated feed http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/76931/467189.aspx#467189 B.U.T.T.O.N and Flotilla represented XNA very well at the Independent Games Festival (are there any more games entered that were created using XNA? Stand up and be heard!) http://www.igf.com/php-bin/entry2011.php?id=374 Armless Ocotopus interview at GDC 2011 with Soulcaster creator Ian Stocker http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/04/gdc-2011-interview-with-soulcaster-creator-ian-stocker/ MommysBestGames gets a nod in the DarkBasic newsletter where it features the Explosionade Editor (just do a search for Explosionade to get to the interesting bits!) http://www.thegamecreators.com/pages/newsletters/newsletter_issue_98.html You may be hearing the cries of FortressCraft (coming soon to XBLIG) being so wrong for stealing the idea from MineCraft. But did you know the the game MineCraft started from was an XNA game called Infiniminer? XNA is getting it’s fingers into EVERYTHING! http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Infiniminer XNA Development: TorqueX is NOT dead thanks to the tremendous efforts of the XNA Community working on the CEV (special thanks to @PinoEire for all his hard work on making that happen!) http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/20878 http://torquecev.com/ Dave Henry has posted XNA 3.x adding platformer start kit to the network game state management on his new site http://twitter.com/#!/mort8088/status/43407715908853760 http://mort8088.com/2011/03/03/xna-3-x-adding-platformer-starter-kit-to-network-game-state-management/ Mark Bamford releases XNAViewer 4.0, great for running XNA games inside of a Windows Form (for building level editors, etc.) http://twitter.com/#!/xzodia04/status/43466830412660736 http://xnaviewer.codeplex.com/ Unit testing an XNA game with Resharper and NUnit http://smnbss.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/planetx-unit-testing-an-xna-game-with-resharper-and-nunit-wp7-xbox-xna/ XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 5 - Input (touch + gestures) http://ht.ly/1bxwUE Mike McLaughlin shares a link he stumbled across for those looking to understand vector and matrix math http://twitter.com/#!/mikebmcl/status/42587074725036032 http://chortle.ccsu.edu/VectorLessons/vectorIndex.html DigitalRune Resources Pooling in XNA (Part 1) http://www.digitalrune.com/Support/Blog/tabid/719/EntryId/84/DigitalRune-Helper-Library-Resource-Pooling-in-XNA-Part-1.aspx JohnK “bobthecbuilder” released a new SunBurn Update that lowers the requirements for Windows Games http://twitter.com/#!/bobthecbuilder/status/43457306578522112 http://www.synapsegaming.com/blogs/johnk/archive/2011/03/03/sunburn-update-windows-redistributable.aspx Quick update on the Indiefreaks Game Framework v0.4 development status http://indiefreaks.com/2011/03/04/quick-update-on-igf-v0-4-development/

    Read the article

  • XNA Notes 007

    - by George Clingerman
    Every week I keep wondering if there’s going to be enough activity in the community to keep doing these notes on a weekly basis and every week I’m reminded of just how awesome and active the XNA community is. There’s engines being made, tutorials being created, games being crafted. There’s information being shared, questions being answered and then there’s another whole community around the Xbox LIVE Indie Games themselves. It’s really incredibly to just watch all that’s going on and I’m glad I’m playing a small part in all of this. So here’s what I noticed happening in the XNA community last week. If there’s things I’m missing, always feel free to let me know. I love learning about new corners of the XNA community that I wasn’t aware of or just have been missing! XNA Developers: Uditha Bandara held an XNA Game Development Workshops at Singapore Universities http://uditha.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/xna-game-development-workshops-at-singapore-universities-event-update/ Binary Tweed gives his talks about Indie City and gives his opinion on the false promise of digital distribution http://www.develop-online.net/news/37053/OPINION-The-false-promise-of-digital-distribution Kris Steele posts his Trivia or Die postmortem http://www.krissteele.net/blogdetails.aspx?id=246 @MadNinjaSkills (James Johnston) posts his feelings on testing for XBLIG http://www.ezmuze.co.uk/101 Simon (@DDReaper) posts hints and tips for XNA developers to help get the size of their projects down http://twitter.com/#!/DDReaper/status/38279440924545024 http://xna-uk.net/blogs/darkgenesis/archive/2011/02/17/look-at-the-size-of-that-thing.aspx Michael B. McLaughlin proving why he should be an XNA MVP posts the list of commonly used value types in XNA games http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/02/17/list-of-commonly-used-value-types-in-xna-games.aspx http://twitter.com/#!/mikebmcl/status/38166541354811392 Paul Powell (@ITSligoPaul) posts about a common sprite batch as a game service http://itspaulsblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/xna-common-sprite-batch-as-game-service.html @SigilXNA (John Defenbaugh) posts his new level editor video for the sequel to Opac’s Journey http://twitter.com/SigilXNA/statuses/36548174373982209 http://twitter.com/#!/SigilXNA/status/36548174373982209 http://youtu.be/QHbmxB_2AW8 @jwatte updates kW Animation for XNA 4.0 http://www.enchantedage.com/xna-animation @DSebJ posts Blender to SunBurn http://twitter.com/#!/DSebJ/status/36564920224976896 http://dsebj.evolvingsoftware.com/?p=187 Ads and WP7 Games - @mechaghost shares his revenue data for his ad based games http://www.occasionalgamer.com/2011/02/09/ads-and-wp7-games/ Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): Steven Hurdle posts day 100 of his quest to find a fantastic XBLIG purchase every day http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/02/17/day-100-radiangames-ballistic/ Xbox 360 Indie Game Buying Guide - 12 games for $60 including several Xbox LIVE Indie games! (although if the XNA community was asked we could have recommended 60 games for $60...) http://www.indiegamemag.com/xbox360-indie-games-buying-guide/ The best selling Xbox LIVE Indie games of 2010 http://www.1up.com/news/xbox-live-most-popular-games I’d buy that for a dollar! - the California Literary Review points out a few gems on the XBLIG marketplace (and other places) where you can game on the cheap. http://calitreview.com/14125 Armless Octopus Episode 39 - The Indie Gem Octocast http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/02/17/armless-octocast-episode-39-the-indie-gem-octocast/ Ska Studios posts a plethora of updates http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/11/good-morning-gato-49/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/14/vampire-smile-valentines/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/16/the-dishwasher-vs-finds-a-home/ Kotaku posts about the Xbox LIVE Indie Game that makes you go Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew http://kotaku.com/#!5760632/the-game-that-makes-you-go-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew GameMarx continues to be active and doing a ton for the XBLIG community reviews and Top 5 indie games of the week 2/4-2/10 http://www.gamemarx.com/video/the-show/22/ep-9-february-11-2010.aspx a new podcast Xbox Indie New Releases http://twitter.com/#!/gamemarx/status/36888849107910656 http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/02/13/a-new-podcast-xbox-indie-new-releases.aspx @MasterBlud uploads Indocalypse XBLIG Collections #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzCZSv075mc&feature=youtu.be&a http://twitter.com/#!/MasterBlud/status/37100029697064960 Just Press Start interviews Michael Hicks from MichaelArts, 18 year old creator of Honor in Vengeance http://justpressstart.net/?p=465 Achievement Locked interviews Kris Steele of FunInfused Games http://xboxindies.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/interview-fun-infused-games/ XNA Game Development: XNA -UK launches their XAP test service to help the XNA community http://xna-uk.net/blogs/news/archive/2011/02/18/xna-uk-xap-test-service-now-live.aspx Transmute shows off a video of the standard character editor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqH6gErG948&feature=youtu.be Microsoft Tech Student introduces their first tech student of the month.  Meet Daniel Van Tassel from the University of Utah and learn how he created an Xbox LIVE Indie Game using XNA Studio http://blogs.msdn.com/b/techstudent/archive/2010/12/22/introducing-our-first-tech-student-of-the-month-daniel-van-tassel.aspx XNA for Silverlight Developers Part 3 - Animation (transforms) http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-3-Animation-transforms.aspx XNA for Silverlight Developers Part 4 - Animation (frame based) http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-4-Animation-frame-based.aspx @suhinini tweets about an XNA Sprite Font generation tool http://twitter.com/#!/suhinini/status/36841370131890176 http://www.nubik.com/SpriteFont/ XNATouch 1.5 is out and in it’s words is faster, simpler, more reliable and has the XNA 4.0 API http://monogame.codeplex.com/releases/view/60815 IndieCity is hosting marketing workshops for Indie Developers (UK and US) http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/75197/457654.aspx#457654 New York Students - Learn XNA and Silverlight for Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7 http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/72753/456964.aspx#456964 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/andrewparsons/archive/2011/01/13/learn-to-build-your-own-games-for-xbox-360-and-windows-phone-7.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/andrewparsons/archive/2011/01/13/build-a-game-in-48-hours-win-a-kinect-or-windows-phone-7.aspx Extra Credits: Videogame Music http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2019-Videogame-Music Steve Pavlina posts an article with useful information for all XNA/XBLIG developers http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2011/02/completion-vs-perfection/

    Read the article

  • I&rsquo;m sorry RPGs, it&rsquo;s not you, it&rsquo;s me: The birth of my game idea

    - by George Clingerman
    One of the things I’ve had to give up in order to have some development time at night is gaming. It’s something I refused to admit for years but I’ve just had to face the facts. I’m no longer a gamer. I just don’t have hours and hours of free time to pour into gaming and when I do have hours and hours of free time I want to pour them into game development. That doesn’t mean I don’t game at all! I play games pretty much every day. It just means I’ve moved more into the casual game realm. It’s all I have time for when juggling priorities in my life. That means that games like Gears of War 2 sit shrink wrapped on my shelf and although I popped Dragon Age into my Xbox 360 one time, I barely made it through the opening sequence and haven’t had time to sit down and play again. Instead I’m playing short games like Jamestown, Atom Zombie Smasher, Fortix or if I have time to jump in and play a few rounds maybe some Monday Night Combat or Team Fortress 2. These are games I can instantly get into and play for just a short period of time and then walk away. Breath of Death VII saved my life: Back in the day (way, way back in the day) I used to be a pretty big RPG fan. Not big by a lot of RPG gamers' standards (most of the RPGs RPG fans about I’ve never heard of) but I used to LOVE to play them on the NES, SNES and Genesis and considered that my genre. Final Fantasy, Shining in the Darkness, Bard’s Tale, Faxanadu, Shadowrun, Ultima, Dragon Warrior, Chrono Trigger, Phantasy Star, Shining Force and well the list could go on but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. I loved playing RPGs and they were my games of choice. After my first son was born (this was just about 12 years ago), I tried to continue playing RPGs and purchased games like Baldur’s Gate I & II, Neverwinter Nights, Fable, then a few of the Final Fantasy’s then Kingdom Hearts. I kept buying these games and then only playing for about fifteen minutes and never getting back to them. I still loved RPGs but they just no longer fit into my life (I still haven’t accepted that since I still purchased Dragon Age II for some reason and convinced myself I’d find the time). Adding three more sons to the mix (that’s 4 total) didn’t help much to finding more RPG time (except for Breath of Death VII and other XBLIG RPG titles, thanks guys!) All work and no RPG: A few months ago as I was sitting thinking about the lack of RPGs in my life and talking to my wife about why I wish RPGs were different and easier for a dad like me to get into. She seemed like she was listening, so I started listing all the things that made them impossible for me to play. Here’s a short list I came up with. They take 15 billion hours to complete I have a few minutes at a time I can grab to play them if I want to have time to code. At that rate it would take me 9 trillion years to beat just one RPG. There’s such long spans of times between when I can play them I forget what I was even doing so I have to spend most of the playtime I have just figuring that out and then my play time is over. Repeat. I’ll never finish one and since it takes so long to get to the fun part in an RPG, I’m never having fun. RPGs aren’t fun if you don’t have hours to play them at a time. As you can see based on my science and math, RPGs aren’t fun for me any more. From there my brain started toying around with ideas of RPGs that would work for me. They would have to be a short RPG, you know one you could beat in a single play session. A dad sized play session. I started thinking, wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a fifteen minute RPG? That got me laughing and I took that as a good sign that it sounded fun and so I thought about it a little more. I immediately discarded the idea of doing a real RPG. I’m sure a short RPG like that could be done but it wasn’t the vibe that I had in my head. No this was going to be something that just had the core essence of an RPG. In reality what I’d be making would be more of an arcade style game. One with high scores and lots of crazy action on the screen. And that’s when it hit me. It would be a speed run RPG. That’s the basics of the game I’m working on.   The Elevator Pitch: It’s a 2D top down RPG themed arcade game focused on speed. It sounds like an RPG, smells like an RPG but it’s merely emulating an RPG. The game is focused on fun and mayhem in RPG form with players leveling up in seconds instead of hours and rushing to finish quests as quickly as possible because they’ve only got fifteen minutes before EVIL overtakes the world. If the player takes longer than fifteen minutes, it’s game over man. One to four player co-operative play to really see just how fast players can level up and beat the game. Gamers will compete on leaderboards for bragging rights for fastest 1, 2, 3, and 4 player speed runs, lowest leveled characters to beat the game, highest leveled characters to beat the game and so on. Times will be tracked for everything from how long a player sat distributing stats, equipping items, talking to NPCs to running around the level. These stats will be shown at the end of each quest/level so the players can work on improving their speed run for that part of the game next time around. It’s the perfect RPG for those of us who only have fifteen minutes of game time! Where I’m at: I’m still at the prototyping stage attempting to but all the basic framework pieces in place that will at minimum give me one level to rush through. I’ve been working on this prototype for about a month now though so I’m going to have to step it up a bit or I’m not going to get finished in time (remember I’ve only got 85 days left!) Lots of the game code is in place (although pretty sloppy) but I still can’t play through that first quest/level just yet. That’s my goal to finish up by the end of next Sunday (3/25/2012). You can all hold me to that and cheer me on or heckle me throughout the week. Either way that should help me stay a bit more motivated and focused. In my head this feels like it’s going to be a fun game so I’m looking forward to seeing how it actually plays!

    Read the article

  • XNA Notes 006

    - by George Clingerman
    If you used to think the XNA community was small and inactive, hopefully these XNA Notes are opening your eyes. And I honestly feel like I’m still only catching the tail end of everything that’s going on. It’s a large and active community and you can be so mired down in one part of it you miss all sorts of cool stuff another part is doing. XNA is many things to a lot of people and that makes for a lot of really awesome things going on. So here’s what I saw going on this last week! Time Critical XNA New: XNA Team - Peer Review now closes for XNA 3.1 games http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xna/archive/2011/02/08/peer-review-pipeline-closed-for-new-xna-gs-3-1-games-or-updates-on-app-hub.aspx http://twitter.com/XNACommunity/statuses/34649816529256448 The XNA Team posts about a meet up with Microsoft for Creator’s going to be at GDC, March 3rd at the Lobby Bar http://on.fb.me/fZungJ XNA Team: @mklucher is busying playing the the bubblegum on WP7 made by a member of the XNA team (although reportedly made in Silverlight? Crazy! ;) ) http://twitter.com/mklucher/statuses/34645662737895426 http://bubblegum.me Shawn Hargreaves posts multiple posts (is this a sign that something new is coming from the XNA team? Usually when Shawn has time to post, something has just wrapped up…) Random Shuffle http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/02/09/random-shuffle.aspx Doing the right thing: resume, rewind or skip ahead http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/02/10/doing-the-right-thing-resume-rewind-or-skip-ahead.aspx XNA Developers: Andrew Russel was on .NET Rocks recently talking with Carl and Richard about developing games for Xbox, iPhone and Android http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?ShowNum=635 Eric W. releases the Fishing Girl source code into the wild http://ericw.ca/blog/posts/fishing-girl-now-open-source/ http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/74642/454512.aspx#454512 BinaryTweedDeej reminds that XNA community that Indie City wants you involved http://twitter.com/BinaryTweedDeej/statuses/34596114028044288 http://www.indiecity.com Mike McLaughlin (@mikebmcl) releases his first two XNA articles on the TechNet wiki http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/xna-framework-overview.aspx http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/content-pipeline-overview.aspx John Watte plays around with the Content Pipeline and Music Visualization exploring just what can be done. http://www.enchantedage.com/xna-content-pipeline-fft-song-analysis http://www.enchantedage.com/fft-in-xna-content-pipeline-for-beat-detection-for-the-win Simon Stevens writes up his talk on Vector Collision Physics http://www.simonpstevens.com/News/VectorCollisionPhysics @domipheus puts together an XNA Task Manager http://www.flickr.com/photos/domipheus/5405603197/ MadNinjaSkillz releases his fork of Nick's Easy Storage component on CodePlex http://twitter.com/MadNinjaSkillz/statuses/34739039068229634 http://ezstorage.codeplex.com @ActiveNick was interviewed by Rob Cameron and discusses Windows Phone 7, Bing Maps and XNA http://twitter.com/ActiveNick/statuses/35348548526546944 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/cc537546 Radiangames (Luke Schneider) posts about converting his games from XNA to Unity http://radiangames.com/?p=592 UberMonkey (@ElementCy) posts about a new project in the works, CubeTest a Minecraft style terrain http://www.ubergamermonkey.com/personal-projects/new-project-in-the-works/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Ubergamermonkey+%28UberGamerMonkey%29 Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): VideoGamer Rob review Bonded Realities http://videogamerrob.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/xblig-review-bonded-realities/ XBLIG Round Up on Gamergeddon http://www.gamergeddon.com/2011/02/06/xbox-indie-game-round-up-february-6th/ Are gamers still rating Indie Games after the Xbox Dashboard update? http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/02/06/are-gamers-still-rating-indie-games-after-the-xbox-dashboard-update.aspx Joystiq - Xbox Live Indie Gems: Corrupted http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/04/xbox-live-indie-gems-corrupted/ Raymond Matthews of DarkStarMatryx reviews (Almost) Total Mayhem and Aban Hawkins & the 1000 Spikes http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=225 http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=229 8 Bit Horse reviews Aban Hawkins & the 1000 spikes http://8bithorse.blogspot.com/2011/01/aban-hawkins-1000-spikes-xbl-indie.html 2010 wrap-up for FunInfused Games http://www.krissteele.net/blogdetails.aspx?id=245 NeoGaf roundup of January's XBLIGs http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=420528 Armless Ocotopus interviews Michael Ventnor creator of Bonded Realities http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/02/07/interview-michael-ventnor-of-red-crest-studios/ @recharge_media posts about the new city music for Woodvale in Sin Rising http://rechargemedia.com/2011/02/08/new-city-theme-woodvale/ @DrMisty posts some footage of YoYoYo in action http://www.mstargames.co.uk/mistryblogmain/54-yoyoyoblogs/184-video-update.html Xona Games - Decimation X3 on Reviews on the Run http://video.citytv.com/video/detail/782443063001.000000/reviews-on-the-run--february-8-2011/g4/ @benkane gives an early peek at his action RPG coming to XBLIG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDF_PrvtwU8 Rock, Paper Shotgun talks to Zeboyd games about bringing Cthulhu Saves the World to PC http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/02/11/summoning-cthulhu-natter-with-zeboyd/ Xbox LIVE Indieverse interviews the creator of Bonded Realities http://xbl-indieverse.blogspot.com/2011/02/xbl-indieverse-interview-red-crest.html XNA Game Development: Dream-In-Code posts about an upcoming XNA Challenge/Coding contest http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/blog/1385/entry-3192-xna-challengecontest/ Sgt.Conker covers Fishing Girl and IndieFreaks Game Framework release http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/02/fishing-girl-did-not-sell-a-single-copy/ http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/02/indiefreaks-game-framework-v0-2-0-0/ @slyprid releases Transmute v0.40a with lots of new features and fixes http://twitter.com/slyprid/statuses/34125423067533312 http://twitter.com/slyprid/statuses/35326876243337216 http://forgottenstarstudios.com/ Jeff Brown writes an XNA 4.0 tutorial on Saving/Loading on the Xbox 360 http://www.robotfootgames.com/xna-tutorials/92-xna-tutorial-savingloading-on-xbox-360-40 XNA for Silverlight Developers: Part 3- Animation http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-3-Animation-transforms.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+xna-connection-twitter-specific-stream+%28XNA+Connection%27s+Twitter+specific+stream%29 The news from Nokia is definitely something XNA developers will want to keep their eye on http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/nokia-developer-news/2011/02/11/letter-to-developers?sf1066337=1

    Read the article

  • MVP Summit 2011 summary and thoughts: The &ldquo;I hope I don&rsquo;t cross a line and lose my MVP status&rdquo; post

    - by George Clingerman
    I've been wanting to write this post summarizing my thoughts about the MVP summit but have been dragging my feet since it's a very difficult one to write. However seeing Andy (http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/77625.aspx) and Catalin (http://www.catalinzima.com/2011/03/mvp-summit-2011/) and Chris (http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams/archive/2011/03/07/144229.aspx) post about it has encouraged me to finally take the plunge. I'm going to have to write carefully though because I'm going to be dancing around a ton of NDA mine fields as well as having to walk the tight-rope of not sending the wrong message or having people read too much into what I'm saying. I want to note that most of what I'm about to say is just based on my observations, they're not thoughts that Microsoft has asked me to pass along and they're not things I heard Microsoft say. It's just me sharing what I think after going to the MVP summit. Let's start off with a short imaginary question and answer session.     Has the App Hub forums and XBLIG management been rather poor by Microsoft? Yes.     Do I think we're going to see changes to that overnight? No.     Will it continue to look bad from the outside? Somewhat. Confusing right? Well that's kind of how things are right now. Lots of confusion. XNA is doing AWESOME. Like, really, really awesome. As a result of that awesomeness, XNA is on three major platforms: Xbox 360, WP7 and PC. This means that internally Microsoft is really excited and invested in the technology. That's fantastic for XNA and really should show you the future the framework has. It's here to stay. So why are Xbox LIVE Indie Game developers feeling so much pain? The ironic thing is that pain is being caused by the success of XNA. When XNA was just a small thing, there was more freedom and more focus. It was just us and them. We were an only child. Now our family has grown and everyone has and wants some time with XNA. This gets XNA pulled in all directions and as it moves onto new platforms, it plays catch up trying to get those platforms up to speed to where Xbox LIVE Indie Games has grown. Forums, documentation, educational content. They all need to be there because Xbox LIVE Indie Games has all of that and more. Along with the catch up in features/documentation/awesomeness there's the catch up that the people on the team have to play. New platforms and new areas of development mean new players and those new guys don't have the history of being around from the beginning. This leads to a lack of understanding at times just how important some things are because they seem so small and insignificant (Rich Text defaulting for new forum profiles would be one things that jumps to mind). If you're not aware that the forums have become more than just a basic Q&A, if you're not aware that they're a central hub to a very active community, then you don't understand why that small change should be prioritized over something else. New people have to get caught up and figure out how to make a framework and central forum site work for everyone it's now serving. So yeah, a lot of our pain this last year has been simply that XNA is doing well and XBLIG is doing well so the focus was shifted to catch other things up. It hurts when a parent seems to not have any time for you and they're spending some much time with your new baby brother. Growing pains. All families and in our case our product family experience it to some degree. I think as WP7 matures we'll see the team figuring out how to give everyone the right amount of attention. While we're talking about some of our growing pains, it is also important to note (although not really an excuse) that the Xbox LIVE Arcade developers complain about many of the same things that we do. If you paid attention to talks and information coming out of GDC 2011, most of the the XBLA guys were saying things that sounded eerily similar to what the XBLIG developers are saying (Scott Nichols from GayGamer.net noticed http://twitter.com/#!/NaviFairyGG/status/43540379206811650). Does this mean we should just accept the status quo since we're being treated exactly the same? No way. However it DOES show that the way we're being treated is no indication of the stability and future of the platform, it's just Microsoft dropping the communication ball on two playing fields. We're not alone and we're not even being treated worse. Not great, but also in a weird way a very good sign. Now on to a few tidbits I think I CAN share from the summit (I'm really crossing my fingers I'm not stepping over some NDA line I shouldn't be). First, I discovered that the XBLIG user base is bigger than I personally had originally estimated. I won't give the exact numbers (although we did beg Microsoft to release some of these numbers so maybe someday?) but it was much larger than my original guestimates and I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe some of you guys had the right number when you were guessing, but I know that mine was much too low. And even MORE importantly the number of users/shoppers is growing at a steady pace as well. Our market is growing! That was fantastic news and really something that I had to share. On to the community manager discussion. It was mentioned. I was mentioned. I blushed. Nothing more to report there than the blush in my cheeks was a light crimson color. If I ever see a job description posted for that position I have a resume waiting in the wings. I can't deny that I think that would be my dream job... ...so after I finished blushing, the MVPs did make it very, very clear that the communication has to improve. Community manager or not the single biggest pain point with the Xbox LIVE Indie Game community has been a lack of communication. I have seen dramatic improvement in the team responding to MVPs and I'm even seeing more communication from them on the forums so I'm hoping that's a long term change. I really think they understood the issue, the problem remains how to open that communication channel in a way that was sustainable. I think they'll get it figured out and hopefully that's sooner rather than later. During the summit, you may have seen me tweeting about how I was "that guy" (http://twitter.com/#!/clingermangw/status/42740432471470081). You also may have noticed that Andy and Catalin both mentioned me in their summit write ups. I may have come on a bit strong while I was there...went a little out of character for myself. I've been agitated for a while with the way things have been and I've been listening to you guys and hearing you guys be agitated. I'm also watching some really awesome indie game developers looking elsewhere and leaving the platform. Some of them we might not have been able to keep even with changes, but others are only leaving because of perceptions and lack of communication from Microsoft. And that pisses me off. And I let Microsoft know that I was pissed off. You made your list and I took that list and verbalized it. I verbalized the hell out of it. [It was actually mentioned that I'm a lot nicer on the forums and in email than I am in person...I felt bad about that, but I couldn't stay silent]. Hopefully it did something guys, I really did try hard to get the message across. Along with my agitation, I also brought some pride. I mentioned several things in person to the team that I was particularly proud of. From people in the community that are doing an awesome job, to the re-launch of XboxIndies that was going on that week and even gamers like Steven Hurdle (http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/) who have purchased one XBLIG every day for over 100 days now. The community is freaking rocking it and I made sure to highlight that. So in conclusion, I'd just like to say hang in there (you know, like that picture of the cat). If you've been worried about investing in Xbox LIVE Indie Games because you think it's on shaky ground. It's not. Dream Build Play being about the Xbox 360 should have helped a little to point that out. The team is really scrambling around trying to figure things out and make improvements all around. There’s quite a few new gals and guys and it's going to take them time to catch up and there are a lot of constantly shifting priorities. We all have one toy, one team and we're fighting for time with it. It's also time for the community to continue spreading our wings and going out on our own more often. The Indie Game Winter Uprising was a fantastic example of that. We took things into our own hands and it got noticed and Microsoft got behind it. They do every time we stand up and do something (look at how many Microsoft employees tweeted, wrote about the re-launch of XboxIndies.com or the support I've gotten from them for my weekly XNA Notes). XNA is here to stay, it's time for us to stop being scared of that and figure out how to make our own games the successes they should be. There's definitely a list of things that need to be fixed, things that should be improved and I think we should definitely keep vocal about that with Microsoft. Keep it short, focused and prioritized. There's also a lot of things we can do ourselves while we're waiting on them to fix and change things. Lots of ways we can compensate for particular weaknesses in the channel. The kind of stuff that we can step up and do ourselves. Do it on our own, you know, the way Indies always do. And I'm really looking forward to watching us do just that.

    Read the article

  • Will Python 3.0's backwards-incompatibility affect adoption?

    - by George Stocker
    I visited Slashdot this morning to find out that Python 3.0 has been released. I know C# and Perl, but have wanted to learn Python for some time, especially after I saw its ease of use to create useful tools, not to mention its use in game scripting. My question is, how does the intentionally backwards-incompatible release of Python 3.0 affect adoption, and should I learn Python 2? Or should I take the dive and learn Python 3.0 first, and wait for the libraries to be ported?

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  | Next Page >