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Website News
11/06/2006
10:48 - Started work on site.
21:36 - Finished frame of pages and main graphics.
21:39 - Finished uploading main graphics onto host.

13/06/2006
10:49 - Started work on site again.
15:53 - Finished work on site.

29/07/2006
11:43 - Started work on new graphics for the site.
20:13 - Moved to Bravehost server.

19/08/2006
17:23 - Website will have a GamerCards section later this week.

20/08/2006
15:45 - The GamerCards section has been implemented, if you have a GamerCard, please E-Mail it to me and I will post it in the GamerCards section.

01/09/2006
21:33 - Sorry to have not updated the site recently about the news of the XNA Game Studio Express Beta being launched at 18:00 GMT on 30 August. I've been busy creating the n00b game programmer's first project (or at least, one of them) Pong, called Pong360, the game only works with a 360 controller, but fear not for I have included the source code for you to modify and use whatever input you desire (even a dancemat). I have the Pong360 game in the Projects section. I have never actually made Pong before, however, I made 3D apps before, and one or two 2D games. Anyway, enjoy.

Note:
If you want to edit and build the code successfully, you will need this, this and this (install in that order, also I'd recommend installing the framework download). Have fun and read the documentation under Help>Contents>XNA>XNA Game Studio Express.

03/09/2006
12: 44 - I updated Pong360 yesterday and you can now play it without a 360 controller plugged in (you'll see what I mean : )). I've also begun models for an FPS game for when the real XNA GSE launches, in the meantime I'll probably make another 2D game (a beat-'em-up? Nah, a shoot-'em-up!).

20/09/2006
16:59 - Well, I've finally moved everything to an actual domain, if you want a cheap domain, I would recommend my host, 4 u Hosting are the guys and gals that I go with (they didn't hold a gun to my head to plug them, but I'm always here to help others with needs). Anyway, with that out of the way, I've closed my FreeWebs and Bravehost sites down, the sites now redirect to this one. Also, you'll notice that there is a Reviews section now, that's mainly just a college thing, I've also updated the Team section with the review team. I'll be keeping the site up and running for an infinite amount of time, however, housekeeping may lag behind, I'll try my best, though.

23/09/2006
11:36 - Now that I have a weekend free, I'm starting some work on the website's Reviews section and a new section called Release Dates.

30/09/2006
17:58 - The site is undergoing a framework update, it should be functioning again in two hours at the most. Thank you for your patience.
19:51 - Framework update completed. (Hey, it's just under two hours!)

30/10/2006
20:20 - Having finished my Halloween pumpkin an hour ago, I decided to pick up StickMatch and the website. The site (for those of you on FireFox/Dillo/Opera/most other browsers) has had some missing images or broken links, they are in the process of being fixed and will all be repaired in the next day or two. A Downloads section in the Projects section will be up and running very soon. The recommended browser for the site is FireFox, available from mozilla's website.

14/12/2006
12:33 - By late January 2007, there will be those models I have talked about (still getting into the swing of Blender) as well as some XNA tutorials (some 2D, fun tutorials) as well as some links to C# and XNA resources.

28/12/2006
17:23 - I am working on a new section of the site, entitled "Game Development", which will cover programming tools (free and non-free), XNA tutorials, C++ tutorials and (when I get round to it) GP2X tutorials. Also, I'm currently learning shaders which is why I just felt like typing this out, as I have discovered another really useful shader tool, which is ATi's RenderMonkey (which I use with nVIDIA's FX Composer and Cg Toolkit). I may write up some tutorials by the end of 2007 on shaders.

13/1/2007
20:58 - One tutorial (only the tutorial thus far) is up and running, it needs some work, but it will be looking all good soon.

18/01/2007
20:13 - The website will be looking different for next week, so if you see any images change and change again, don't worry, I'm just uploading the images. It will take a few days for me to figure out the exact final look, but I'm sure it will look better than it does now.

27/03/2007
17:24 - Okay, it's been two months since the last update and I'm sorry about the state of the site, the forums and reviews section will be taken down within the following week. I may re-instate the forums at a later date. Also, I am going to update the Team section accordingly as well as the Game Development section as there is very very little or no information there at the moment. I am one person who only knows basic HTML, so what did you expect? :P. That aside, I will create some C++ tutorials and upload them over the next week or soon after. The XNA tutorial is going to be taken down as I don't really have a lot going on with it that the XNA site hasn't already covered. I will, however, bring them back with a more advanced (and basic, if needs be) twist to it. I will fix the site fully within the next week. The C++ tutorials will be used with the Ogre3D SDK (1.4.0 as of now), the GP2X console, DirectX and that's about it for C++.

10/09/2007
00:50 - Site has been transferred to HostMonster, 300Gb of web storage now accessable.

19/10/2007
19:27 - Site is now open to Linux distributions for the ASUS EeePC sub-laptop.



Gaming News
28/07/2006
99 Nights (N3) demo released on the XBOX Live Marketplace.

19/08/2006
17:24 - The F.E.A.R. Multiplayer game has been released, head over to FilePlanet to get the game and don't forget about the product key.
17:26 - The Dead Rising Demo was released a while ago, I'm sorry, I've been busy with the website, also there's a Prey demo and a Saints Row Demo. Again, sorry.

27/09/2006
20:36 - Wii: Wii's release date is 8/12/2006 which will come with Wii Sports for free, Nintendo is expecting to sell 4 million (count 'em) units before the end of the year. A new Resident Evil game for the Wii with the working title "Resident Evil: Chronicles" was announced.

XBOX 360: Splinter Cell 5 is exclusive to the XBOX 360.A rumour that Resident Evil 5 is exclusive is going around, maybe because X06 is this week and there was a no-show at TGS this year. Doom is now on the XBOX LIVE MarketPlace (a very good port) for 800msp. The HDDVD Drive is priced at £129 or $199 with the Universal Media Remote and, for a limited time, King Kong HD. Also a new game titled "Halo Wars", an RTS (finally, the original Halo!) game with a cool cinematic at their website, is coming out for the XBOX 360.

30/10/2006
20:23 - XBOX 360: The Rainbow Six Vegas demo was released last Wednesday, it has some framerate issues, but nothing that can't be fixed in time for the game's launch, besides, (to use the cliche) never judge a game entirely on it's demo. A fantastic Gears Of War television and film advertisement can be downloaded from GameTrailers, which shows Gears' destroyed beauty theme running throughout, with the track by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews, Mad World. The advertisement is also on the XBOX LIVE Marketplace.

Retailers: Lik-Sang has been shut down for good! This is due to a lawsuit by Sony, apparently Lik-Sang cannot distribute the PSP console from Japan to another part of the globe. A petition has been assembled for anyone who is annoyed with this lawsuit.

17/11/2006
00:00 - XBOX 360: "A Halo 3 Beta will be out in the spring", say Bungie. Also Gears of War is released today.

08/12/2006
11:30 - Wii: The Nintendo Wii launched today! Along with The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Red Steel and Wii Sports (to name a few).
11:31 - XBOX 360: XNA Game Studio Express launches in 3 days! Along with the Spacewar and XNA Racer Starter Kits. I will upload all of the projects on XNA Beta 1 & 2 for the XNA GSE 1.0. EDIT - The XNA Racer Starter Kit will not be available until some time after launch.
14:34 - PC: The long-awaited AMD Quad FX motherboard has appeared on AMD's website here. it was nine days ago, but I haven't visited AMD's website in a while. Very cool, indeed for PC gamers everywhere.



Project News
08/19/2006
17:30 - As you may be aware the XNA Game Studio Express IDE was announced a week ago at GameFest. I'm hoping to get a Zork-styled game out asap. I'll post it here when it's finished for the Beta and XBOX 360 release. (EDIT - It seems that the XNA GSE does not support text output as standard, yet, so the project will not come to light, no big loss, still, sorry).

01/09/2006
21:37 - A mini-project Pong360 has been put in the Projects section.

03/09/2006
13:06 - Pong360 has received an update.
16:13 - The Forum has been updated with some new categories and forums. We look forward to any feedback for the projects and suggestions for new categories/forums.
18:32 - The first of many updates is now available here, only a moving sprite, but better than nothing, however, the game takes up a variation between 60Mb and 320Mb for some reason, that should be sesolved in the next few updates, the next update will be have collision detection for those all-important kicks, punches and throw moves, that should be out in the next few days. Sorry, the file has been removed, as it is no longer XNA GSE compatible.
18:52 - Fixed the bug that had the game vary between 60Mb and 320Mb, it now runs at 22Mb constantly. I'll tell you what my mistake was with a small section of code:

I have this which, as you can see, loads the images and displays them. NB: This code is now obsolete, but the same principles still apply.

protected void LoadResources()
{
     fightersBatch = new SpriteBatch(graphics.GraphicsDevice);
     backgroundBatch = new SpriteBatch(graphics.GraphicsDevice);

     Fighter1 = Texture2D.FromFile(graphics.GraphicsDevice, ".\\Graphics\\Fighter1.dds");
     Background = Texture2D.FromFile(graphics.GraphicsDevice, ".\\Graphics\\Background.dds");
}

Then I loaded it up into the Draw() function, that was the mistake because (as I should've known) then every frame the images would be reloaded. The way to do it properly is this:

protected override void OnStarting()
{
     base.OnStarting();
     LoadResources();
}
Which (as the name states) does anything here on the start and only then.

So you can see how even the best of us ;) can make these minute, yet, costly mistakes.

04/09/2006
00:37 - I just realised a major piece of code that I didn't put into the second version of Pong360, that issue has now been rectified. The piece of code added stops the ball from moving when the game was finished.
12:14 - I've tried to get animated sprites working with no luck so far, I do, however, have an idea; I'm going to do it in 3D. Despite the fact that I can't use the content until the XNA GSE is released. I will try to do it in 2D when I can get around to it. Yet naother mistake, damn I'm not looking too god right now ;), but mistakes and judgements will be made that will not come to pass, again oh-so sorry about the mistakes I made here.

08/09/2006
20:46 - Work on my game that I started work on yesterday, Shoot Those Things!, has an executable and some source code if anyone wants to look at it (please note that I have still not figured out most things on the XNA GSE, so if things look the same as to Pong360, then that's because I want to structure it in a familiar way).

23/09/2006
12:27 - Work on Shoot Those Things! Has begun again, I really hope I can finish it before XNA GSE Beta finishes, it is a very simple-looking and functioning game, but I'm working with the joystick in all directions so it may take some time.

09/10/2006
21:24 - StickMatch has been redesigned for the GP2X, so I will now continue to work on a it as a GP2X exclusive, sorry to not have it for the XBOX 360, but I think that it will work out better this way. It was only a short demo, anyway. As for the XNA development, I have decided to wait until the full release of it before I continue work on any projects other than Shoot Those Things. The Projects section has now been updated with this information.

30/10/2006
20:34 - This certainly has been a good week, having started StickMatch from the ground up (still no memory manager, but there is no real need for one) I now have the stick figures walking, punching (kicking coming soon (EDIT: I couldn't quite get a good kick from the game, sorry, I had it before but it just won't work anymore)), health bars, a menu (of sorts), the intro scene and the win/loose functions. All-in-all a very productive five days.

02/11/2006
19:28 - XNA Game Studio Express Beta 2 was released yesterday, having only heard today, I decided to install it and try and get Pong360 (Windows) working, however, it has changed slightly, so there will be a Pong360 (Windows and XBOX 360) update within the week. Also, Shoot Those Things has now been restarted on the Beta 2. The Beta 2 adds some new cool XBOX 360 project support, if only the XNA option was available in the 360 dashboard...

05/11/2006
17:51 - Pong360, Shoot Those Things and (a new app) 3D Test will be released as both an .msi file on Emergance Day in the UK. Pong360 will be converted to Beta 2's code scheme, a small change to the code is all that's required. StickMatch is 90% complete, too, so expect it to be emerging ( ; ) ) soon. WireFrame FPS (working title) is also another title that's being worked on very soon. It may have a 2007 release depending on various factors, Windows and the XBOX 360 are the destined platforms for the game.

17/11/2006
00:00 - Well, Emergence Day is here, and to celebrate we have the XNA Files and the final release of StickMatch, it's been a project that I've been dragging out for six months, but I only worked on it for a good three months. Happy Emergence Day!

02/12/2006
14:19 - Well, only nine days to go until I can test out my XNA projects on my 360! That aside, I received my GP2X yesterday and have found three problems (two of which have been fixed) with the code running on the GP2X, one being that it was not possible to press the start button, another being that it would not play the audio track and the third being that it wouldn't handle the Win/Loose parts of the code. It will all be fixed by the end of today.

03/12/2006
11:19 - StickMatch for the GP2X was changed and fixed fully yesterday with one slight problem, it will only use the .wav format, I have tried the .ogg format but it will not play at full speed and I have not yet learned how to overclock the GP2X to run the game at normal rates. Anyway, here is the fixed and final version of the game, enjoy.

08/12/2006
11:28 - Over on XNA Resources there are some tutorials which I will be converting to the 360, which should happen by next Friday.

10/12/2006
18:06 - With less than a day left I'm feeling a bit generous and have decided to give you all this a bit early. Enjoy!

17/12/2006
18:55 - Well, with XNA being 360-compatible for almost a week, I have updated the games, go to the Projects section and download the new XNA Files installer that will be appearing very soon. The compatibility is for HDTVs, though I am also working on a SDTV 4:3 and 16:9 solution, so that may be done in time for the holiday season, or maybe just after.

21/01/2007
18:50 - I know that I said that I'd release those models this month ending, but it's going to be one of those "It's done when it's done" titles, I'm not going to quote a release date anymore. So, it will be done when it's done.

24/01/2007
20:43 - I've discovered how to overclock the GP2X, so now the game rund at 250Mhz to give it a smooth operation when playing the more portable .ogg file format. Download the .zip here.

27/03/2007
17:31 - Although I'm not under an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) about my next project (Pond Hockey) I still don't want to give a whole lot away right now about it except for the fact that it will be on the XBLA (providing MS give us the green light) and it will be based around the title, oh it will also be Cel-Shaded :D.

19/10/2007 19:30 - Pond Hockey is still underway, however, I have picked up a lot of personal projects, so they will need to be the high-priority things for now. Pond Hockey will have to wait a bit.