Creators Club Communiqué 44

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Greetings, Creators!

Welcome to March! This is the month that “comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.” Spring is knocking on our door and it would seem this is making all Xbox LIVE Indie Game Creators more productive than ever. As of March 10, 2010 the Xbox LIVE Indie Games catalog boasts 819 games!

Now on to some learning!

  • XNA/DirectX MVP Jon Sedlak has released the “Focused Games Framework” (or FGF). It is a framework used for learning new technologies and exploring ideas. He’s constantly working on adding new features to it, too. If you’re using XNA Game Studio to make your game it is worth checking out!
  • The ever industrious Shawn Hargreaves has has several incredible posts over the past week including: A Pop Quiz on XNA Game Studio Features and Hardware, Why Portability Matters, and Differences Between Gaming Platforms. Per usual, they could all make you smarter.
  • Another XNA Game Studio Team member and Space Brain, Nick Gravelyn started working on a new tile system and editor for a ninja game he’s working on. He was looking for a the ability to change level sizes in a basic 2D array. So, naturally he solved this by building an extension method for resizing any 2D array that he shares with you in his blog!

 

Finally, next week is the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Many members of The XNA Game Studio Team will be in attendance, will you? Tell us all about what you see there by dropping us a line at creators@microsoft.com and be sure to say hello if you see any of us!

xxoo

~kathleen sanders

XNA Community Manager