XNA

Last night I went through the process of installing all the software I needed to start deving on XBox 360. It took longer than I felt it should have to get all the download links for each part.

First I grabbed the XNA specific stuff and tried to install that. It wouldn't work with my copy of Visual Studio 2005 and requires Visual Studio C# Express.

After all that fun, I got all the specifics installed and fired up the IDE for the first time. Visual Studio C# Express has an annoying green tint to it.

So now that all the software is installed on my comp, I need a starting project.

I was thinking of pinball-ish type game. Should be simple enough.

We will see how my motivation turns out.

I picked up Drawn To Life for the DS for nak. Watching her play gave me a nifty game idea, that I may try to flesh out into an project.

What?!

Who needs this kind of help? BestBuy is a silly store.

Game Development

Some of my peoples know that I consider myself, very lightly now a days, a programmer.

It's always been a goal of mine to write some interesting and useful programs, but more specifically, I'd like to make some games.

I put out a couple small demo's to the Dark Basic community back in those days, but nothing too serious.

Currently though, there are some potential opportunities on the Horizon for me.

WiiWare was announced by Nintendo back in July, 2007 as a low budget, indie-developer solution for creating games on the Wii. I was ecstatic about this! I think of all the current consoles the Wii is my favorite. I've already had a few vague concepts floating around in my mind on what I could develop for the Wii using the unique control system.

On the Microsoft side, there's XNA. A set of tools and whatnot for developing games for the XBox360. I'm already familiar with Visual Studio and slightly so with DirectX so I've got a head start in that department, but I don't really have any motivation to dev anything for the 360. The Wii is clearly my preference.

Unfortunately, Nintendo is sparse on the info relating to WiiWare. Aside from the official announcement that it's coming, they haven't dropped any new info... cost, time frame, API's, etc.

The other problem is that I'm really a one man shop. Not terrible mind you, but it can be crippling when I come to a roadblock. I don't have many system programmer friends, they're mostly web guys. The ones that I do know aren't generally interested in doing this kinda work. I have found one, but I haven't really talked to him in ages (it seems anyway :))

Maybe the next step is to sit down and really flesh out a few of my ideas to see if they're truly feasible or if I'm just spinning my wheels on an unlikely goal.

Jam Sessions

Jam Sessions is coming out Sept 11th on the Nintendo DS.

I'm very stoked.

As some of you may know, I would very much like to play guitar. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or motivation to progress beyond anything super basic.

Jam Sessions is my cure.

I've got it pre-ordered from GameStop, but I recently discovered that if you get it from BestBuy you get 3 extra songs... good songs too!

The standard track list is as follows (from 1up.com):

* Beck - Jackass
* Blind Melon - No Rain
* Johnny Cash - I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know
* Cheap Trick - Surrender
* Coldplay - Yellow
* Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Follow You Into the Dark
* Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
* The Fray - Over My Head (Cable Car)
* Marvin Gaye - What's Going On?
* Jackson 5 - Never Can Say Goodbye
* Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby McGee
* Avril Lavigne - I'm With You
* Bob Marley - No Woman, No Cry
* Nirvana - The Man Who Sold the World
* Rascal Flatts - Life is a Highway
* James Taylor - How Sweet it Is (To be Loved by You)
* Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good

And the BestBuy additional tracks are:

* Jimi Hendrix - Wild Thing
* Brad Paisley - I'm Gonna Miss Her
* Tom Petty - Needles and Pins

Now GameStop purchases come with a 1 year subscription to Spin magazine, but who cares? I need to rock out some Hendrix.

1up.com has a ton of info on Jam Sessions including articles and videos. Taking Back Sunday even has a go at it playing one of their songs electro-acousticly.

You can get more info on the official page at Ubisoft.

I'd like to conclude with <school-girl-squeal>EEP!</school-girl-squeal>

Multimedia message

Dave!

He has returned.. For the weekend atleast.

Tired?

I know that ruth gets tired.