Some Mix Videos to Watch

If you weren’t at Mix and you want to watch the video of my session you can now view it here:

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MIX/MIX11/EXT06

You can get all the demo code that I talk about here:

http://www.robmiles.com/demos

This afternoon I was invited to take part in a Live Channel 9 session on video game design. Also on the stage was Brandon Foy, perhaps the coolest person I have ever met. He is the creator of an astonishing Windows Phone fan video that you can view on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/windowsphone

Microsoft have said that if they get more that 200,000 views they will pay to put it out as a TV advertisement.  So, if you want to cost Microsoft some money, go take a look. Actually, it is a stunning piece of work and well worth 2 minutes of anyone’s time.

The video game session itself was great fun, as well as Brandon there was Nic Fillingham  from the XNA team and John Papa kept us all under control. For me the interesting thing was how much we all agreed on what is important in video game design. In a nutshell:

• Figure out what your game is about and then protect this idea against all who would wish to “improve” it.
• Get help with the graphics. Programmers think they can solve any problem with software. They probably can, but graphical design is not a problem as such. You really need someone with a good eye for that, and a coder is not guaranteed to be that person.
• Put your game into the hands of people who can give you proper feedback. This doesn’t mean family or friends, this means those whose only reason the like the game is the game itself.
• Design in the persistence features right at the start. A phone game will have to stop and start. When you make the game objects you need to figure out which bits must be saved and when. Adding this stuff right at the end of the development is really hard. If you have this stuff there all the time it means it will be properly tested when you send the game out.

After this I staggered back to the hotel to do some packing. My flight leaves at 7:15 am tomorrow. Lovely.

Mix 11 Keynote Windows Phone Fun

Scott Guthrie describing all the new goodies for Visual Studio and Windows Phone Mango.

Went to the Mix 11 keynote today. The new Windows Phone version, codenamed Mango and due for release later this year, looks very good. It seems as if they’ve worked through the wish list from the previous release and just about added everything.

Mango gives task switching, background processing (in a very well managed way), sockets, an on-board database, application powered Live Tile support and some lovely enhancements to the user interface. Furthermore, the emulator enhancements in Visual Studio will make it really easy to simulate the accelerometer and GPS system. And we will also be getting some impressive performance monitoring tools.

Applications will also now be able to use both Silverlight and XNA components in the same program, which will make creating game menus much easier. There was so much stuff I’ve probably forgotten something..

The tools will be available next month, the phones start being upgraded around autumn. This is great news for Windows Phone lovers like me, and anyone who fancies following the easiest path to mobile development that there is.

After the keynote I went for a wander.

This is a Kinect controlled LazyBoy recliner. Just move your hands in front of the sensor to move around and even recline the seat. Amazing.

Over at the Curious Cloud stand they are now getting readings from teams who have devices that are uploading sensor data to the cloud.

Mix 11 Windows Phone Booth Session

I asked the audience to sit down and look at me as if I’d just said something amazing. They did a great job. Such good sports. I wasn’t intending to produce a panoramic shot, but the stitching seems to have worked quite well. The guy with the accordion is one of the few people out there who has actually bought a copy of Cheese Lander. Make of that what you will.

In the afternoon I got to do my phone session again, as stand-up. Went very well, I was determined to get someone on every seat watching me and by the end I kind of had.

For those of you who made it through to the end, especially the VB developer who went away with a copy of my book, thanks for being there, I’d have felt really silly if I’d just been presenting in front of nobody.

Next stop, Ask the Experts, starring me as an expert. How could that go wrong…..

Mix 11 XNA Madness

This is the left hand side of the room. The right hand side were just as good looking. You can find that picture on Flickr, just click through to get there.

Just done my Mix 11 session. Great fun. Needed nerves of steel (or at least corrugated cardboard) when the video projector shut down just at the start. Fortunately the audience was super terrific. And most of them like cheese. Some great questions at the end.

You can find the slides for my session here.

I’ve made a brand new demos site with all the session demos for today, plus loads of other Windows Phone good stuff. You can find it all here:

http://www.robmiles.com/demos

I’ll keep this up to date with any new stuff I write, and move some other things in there that are presently hard to find.

If you want to see me go through any of the other demos, catch me at the Windows Phone Booth today at 2:00.

XNA eBook on Deal of the Day

If you fancy getting hold of the eBook version of my XNA 4.0 book at reduced price you can head on over to http://oreilly.com/store/dd-mix.html to get one today. There are some other tempting offers, particularly as the books you download are DRM free.