XNA
Neat uses of the XNA Platformer starter kit?
The latest version of XNA has been out for a little over a week now, and surely that's enough time for XNA fans to really start cranking things out with it. One of the neat new additions with XNA 3.0 is a starter kit, for building a platform game. (Remember the classic Sonic and Mario games? Fun times.)
Games for Windows LIVE may be free for most users, but not for XNA developers
Microsoft's Games for Windows LIVE service used to cost money, but as Engadget reported back in July, it is now free.
Flash in XNA now open source
While no actual licensing is available, that Flash processor and player for XNA I discussed last March, Fluix, now has its source available from the creator, who is looking for someone who can take over development of the project. Unfortunately, Scott Graham, the guy behind Fluix, hasn't had the time to work on it, and as far as I know, it's yet to be updated to work right with XNA 2.0, never mind 3.0 (which despite not being released, is out in CTP form).
I hope that we'll be seeing some new life for Fluix soon!
How can you read a book that hasn't been published?
Simple. You do a technical review.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
If you've played my game from the first TOJam, you will have probably noticed how it gets slower and slower as play progresses. For my first foray into .NET game development, I had developed the most absurd entity management system and relied on the garbage collector to take care of matters.
Big freakin' mistake.
The Zune is coming to Canada, and you can make games for it!
Dave Weller announced yesterday that a preview of XNA Game Studio 3.0 is out and about for people to play with. This CTP has all you need to start making games for Microsoft's Zune media player.
Fluix release 4 is out!
Yesterday, Fluix release 4 was set loose upon the world. With this release, Fluix finally works with the XNA Refresh, although there are still issues with audio. This release also includes the source for Fluix. If you'd like to add Flash to your game projects, you can download Fluix here.
Updates for the Game Explorer article
My article on Game Explorer and XNA has been updated, just slightly. This update has been some time in coming, although it doesn't include all the information I was hoping. Check it out and see if you can tell what the changes are!
New content on the Creators Club site, including a huge starter kit!
There's a whole bunch of new content up on the XNA Creators Club website. Rather than have me enumerate it all, you'd be best off to check it out for yourself. Included in the update, however, is an entire racing game packaged as a starter kit. Have fun!
What's Next for XNA?
So what's next for the XNA Framework now that the 1.0 Refresh has been released? Mitch Walker on the XNA team is wondering if developers want to play with loose .wav files rather than process all audio ahead of time as is currently done.

