Keeping a Cool Lap

I’ve never been that bothered about laptop coolers. These tray type things sit underneath the laptop and have fans that help your portable computer nice and cool. However, I picked up a Microsoft one recently and it actually turns out to be quite useful. Not so much for the fan, which I don’t really think a properly designed computer should need, but for the way it keeps the machine off your lap. The Microsoft one also has a foot that you can use to bring a portable to a better angle to use on a desk.

All things considered  there are worse ways to spend 13 pounds or so.

Windows Phone Foamies for Everyone

The parcel I thought was books turned out not to be. Instead it was packed full of Windows Phone Foamies that Stephanie had sent over for my Red Nose Day Lecture in Rhyme next week.

All this after a dangerous and expensive trip to Sheffield to pick up the parcel. Dangerous because I undertook some dodgy satnav-inspired lane changes and expensive because we stopped off at Meadowhall on the way back.

Anyhoo, I think I can say with confidence that if you come along on Friday there is a very good chance that you will get a foamie. As long as you put some cash in the bucket. I’ve also found out that I’m getting some real, non-foam, Windows Phones from a Very Generous Microsoft to give out. One will be given to a random person chosen from my list of donors on:

http://my.rednoseday.com/robmiles

Give me some cash and you could be on track to get a phone of your own. (you see, I’m getting into the rhyming spirit already). Now, if only I could find something that rhymes with “Silverlight”.

Kinect and Midi at Platform Expo

Laurie Welton of Home Sweet Home checking out the Kinect interface.

Spent an hour or so down at the KC Stadium today marking out our territory for the Platform Expo that is happening in just over a fortnight. I’ve taken a Kinect driver from Code Laboratories and some sample MIDI code and we are going to make something that lets you control the music playback and video show using your body as the controller.  I’m working with Tom Watkins and Laurie Welton of Home Sweet Home who fancied having a play with this stuff.

Great fun. We’re linking the MIDI signals to Ableton Live audio and Resolume video systems. I’ve not played with MIDI for ages, it seems to have come on a bit…

Anyhoo, I’m doing something which might be interesting, where we are using video images to perform the MIDI mapping . This should make it really easy to design “human user interfaces” for use during different performances.

This is the first version of the program that we tested, and it even mostly worked.  If you want to see it in action, come on down to the Expo at the KC Stadium on 28th of March. That’s the same day as the final of our Three Thing Game contest, which will also be taking place during the expo. Almost as if we’d planned it that way. We’ll have lots of Nintendo 3Ds machines around and there are talks and demonstrations of 3D in entertainment and games, I’m doing a Kinect workshop. There are lots of other platforms and sessions and demos and really good stuff. And there will be lasers.

Robs Red Nose Day Game Takes Shape

Now with added Nose Images and High Score

The Red Nose Day game is coming along quite well. For something I started at 2:00am in the morning last week while jetlagged it is actually progressing in a reasonable manner. Some time back I read a very good interview with Jordan Mechner, the man behind “Prince of Persia”.

He said some very sensible things about game development and one point he made really resonated with me today. He said that it was OK to play around with ideas and mess about with your game until you find out what it is really about. Once you have got your central game theme sorted you must then build on that like crazy. And you must defend your idea against all.

Up until today I’d got some bits and pieces moving around the screen and some text drawing and screen swapping code, but I didn’t really know what the game was about. But now I do. I’m not saying it is going to be awesome. But it is going to be quite fun.

I’m hoping to finish all the bits and pieces, add some music and get the game into Windows Phone Marketplace by the end of the week so that everyone can get a copy and play with it on their Windows Phone, and donate lots of cash to Comic Relief.

http://www.robmiles.com/RedNoseDay

Definitely Not Fixed

We had another Open Day today. And another Prize Draw. The winner of the copy of my book, pictured above, had the surname Miles. This was not fixed. Not at all.

Note: Eagle eyed readers will of course have spotted that the book above is for version 2.0 of XNA, not the more recent version 4.0. This is because it seems that the copies of my Version 4.0 book are presently in a warehouse near Sheffield, waiting for me to go and pick them up. This is thanks to a particularly shy delivery company who don’t seem to want take the package to anywhere that might have someone able to receive it. Mr. Miles will get his proper version of the book sent through as soon as we have got hold of ours.