Session: Rules of Engagement: Blizzard's Approach to Multiplayer Game Design
Feb 20, 2008
Speaker: Rob Pardo, Blizzard Entertainment Rough notes below Game Balance solo to max level important role in a group, raid, and group PVP Starcraft - Race totally different Better players can win games fast Offense over defense (don’t want Starcraft 2 as a Sim City simulator) Creative strategies Every unit has a counter Be fun Game Balance…more
Session: Taking Xbox LIVE Arcade Games to the Next Level
Feb 20, 2008
Note: I’ll be regularly blogging on session at GDC (Game Developer Conference) _Rough _notes Speaker: Scott Austin: Xbox LIVE Arcade, Microsoft I just interviewed Scott and we’ll be posting the video on Channel 9 in the next few days Games N+ - Level editor * P2P versus server (doesn’t need to be policed) * RezHD Input Achievements GeoWars * Pacifist - 60 seconds of living * Drives different behavior * Tetris Splash * Every unlocked achievement adds new fish to your fish tank * Small Arms * Buzz around non-descript achievement * You had to play against someone who had the achievement * Then play against someone who has the achievement * Indirectly played against someone that has the achievement (2 devs had it and achievement spread from there) * Braid * Coming out soon * 65 levels * Uses time as part of the game mechanic * Parallel time stream, distort time, reverse time * Meta story - find the meaning of life * Similar to bioshock * Ikaruga * Polarity - Black or white * Black kills white * White kills black * White ship shooting white actually helps you * Schitzoid - * Co-op - only black can kill black, only white can kill white * Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4) * Allows you to integrate your music into the game, not allowed to integrate your music into rhythm game, (ex: can’t do guitar hero with your music) * Rip music off your DVD - E4 will figure out rhythm and analyze the music automatically * Texas Hold ‘Em - Statistics * Analyze win/loss, flop, turn, bankroll, hands you’ve received * Undertow * Art/graphics to a new level for an arcade game * Cut scenes in-between levels, immersive experience * 16-person multiplayer game * Double Dragon (retro games) * Extras section - read storyline, original artwork, hints and trips * Take away * Innovation is really important to us * Innovate in any direction * Push the envelope * Questions * Statistics - Do we have stats on how many games are selling?…more
The Bill Gates Interview
Feb 12, 2008
I’m such a huge Bill Gates fan, not only for his technical and business brilliance, but for all of the work his foundation has done. That’s why when Jeff Sandquist and Charles Torre told me I was going to be interviewing Bill, I was….beside myself. The interview went well (in that I didn’t pee my pants or kneel to kiss his ring like some bad Italian mafia flick) and it was fascinating hearing how Bill still prototypes code/APIs and how he’s looking to do even more coding on health and education applications for the foundation.…more
New Channel9 Interview with Scott Guthrie on Mix
Jan 30, 2008
Last night, I caught up with Scott Guthrie and we talked about the up-and-coming technology that will be shown at Mix. I just posted Part 1 of the video onto Channel9 where we discuss IIS 7.0 and what it means for developers. I’ll post Part 2 tomorrow, where Scott delves deeper into the technology for desktop, Web, and RIA development. The other news coming out today is that Ray Ozzie is now confirmed to keynote at Mix too.…more
Build and Publish Web Sites with Popfly Explorer Beta
Nov 09, 2007
I’m back in Seattle after attending TechEd Europe earlier in the week. It was an absolute blast and thanks to everyone who came to the overflowed Popfly session! Tony Goodhew and I did demos in Soma’s keynote, check out Patrik and Andrew’s blogs for a recap on the keynote: Patrik Lowendahl’s: Live from the keynote with Somasegar * Andrew Woodward: TechEd 2007 EMEA keynote In my demo, I showed off **AddOn Studio for World of Warcraft **(separate post on that later) and the now-available Popfly Explorer.…more
Facebook F8 Event Photos
May 24, 2007
Mark Zuckerberg kicking things off Some insane stats, 12MM people return daily, 24+ million users, 40 billion page views Facebook provides you a Canvas that you can do anything with including full ASP.NET or Popfly applications Dan’l Lewin, Microsoft Corporate Vice President talking about Popfly and Visual Studio Express
Microsoft + Facebook Partnership
May 24, 2007
Today at Facebook F8, Corporate Vice President Dan’l Lewin announced a new partnership between Microsoft and Facebook. * Popfly Facebook Block: Available immediately, we’ve added the Facebook block which prodices access to Facebook data including the User Profile, Friends, Photos, Photo Albums, and Events. * Leverage Existing Blocks: You can build Facebook applications using Popfly blocks like Flickr, Digg, Soapbox, Twitter, Windows Live, Xbox Live, and Virtual Earth. * Silverlight Support: Another big win here is Facebook has native support for Easily build next generation applications using Silverlight.…more
Microsoft @ Maker Faire
May 12, 2007
Jacqueline Russell has been planning another great presence at this year’s Maker Faire and I have to say I’m pretty pumped! Check out the Maker Faire Coding4Fun page for full details. Microsoft will be out in full force including: Windows Home Server, Windows Live Spaces, Microsoft Robotics Studio, XNA, SQL Server, Visual Studio, Microsoft Academic team, Evangelism including Channel9 and on10, Virtual Earth, Microsoft Research, and even two of our Coding4Fun authors, Clint Rutkas and Brian Peek.…more
XNA Game Studio Express - Toronto Game Camp and SpaceWar Webcast
Oct 18, 2006
*Updated to include Seattle Code Camp (per Z-man) **Seattle Code Camp - October 27-28th **There are many XNA sessions including: Exploring the XNA Framework by Mitch Walker * Introduction to the Programmable Pipeline in XNA by Rick Hoskinson * Making an XNA Game for the Xbox 360 by Charles Cox * XNA Balls by Jason Mauer **Toronto Game Camp - November 11th **Daniel Shapiro from Microsoft Canada is hosting a free 1-day Game Camp for students, teachers, and hobbyists in Toronto that will show off how to create games using XNA Game Studio Express.…more
Learn How to Mod Mech Commander 2: 3-Part Webcast
May 01, 2006
As I blogged about earlier, and as was mentioned on Slashdot and Digg, Mech Commander 2 is available to download, and using Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition, and the webcasts listed below, you too can learn how to create your own game mods. Michael Kulcher, a PM on the XNA team is doing a 3-part webcast (more info) on how to create your own mods so mark your calendars for the week of May 26th!…more