Resourcium

The 3D Primitives sample is now on the XNA Creators Club site. One of the possible uses for the 3D primitives is creating bounding boxes that are translucent or wireframes so you can debug your collision detection.

The Shapes:

• Cube
• Sphere
• Cylinder
• Torus
• Teapot

A new Skinned Model Extensions Tutorial has been added to the XNA Creators Club that shows you how to extend the original Skinned Model example. The new tutorial takes the C# source code to process and render a skinned 3d model and builds on those fundamentals. The new sample addresses the challenges of animating independent parts of your 3D character model, placing objects in your model's hand, and collision detection.

Imagine you want to have your character walking on the screen, but at the same time you want to have the character wave their hand whenever a player clicks a button. By using the technique in this tutorial, you could isolate the bones of the 3D character's arm and just animate that part separate from your walking sequence. Now you wouldn't have to setup a completely separate walking and hand waving animation and save yourself a lot of 3D animating effort.

The second challenge addressed is placing objects in the hand of your model. The sample source code shows you how to place the object relative to an animated bone. In this case your character is playing through the walking animation sequence, but you want to make sure it appears the hand is holding an object while it swings.

Lastly, this example shows how to attach bounding spheres to the animated character. This can be used for collision detection.

The Skinned Model Extensions Tutorial opens up the possibilities for those wondering about programming 3D model animation. It provides the basis for you to experiment with mixing together animations on your 3D model.

Martin

I've been searching around the various game development studios seeing what type of experience they are looking for. Often I see that one of the skills listed is game console development experience. Normally this would be a difficult area to gain experience in, but not since Microsoft has provided the XNA Creators Club and the XNA Game Studio framework.

By getting involved with the XNA Creators Club now, you can start working towards making a game for the Xbox 360 console and gaining the experience you will need to ease your transition into game development. Imagine walking into the interview with the ability to show how you've already made games on a next gen console.

If you aren't sure of the type of project you want to start, there is a forum where you can get started working with someone else on their project.

Sorry, I ran out of time to look for news today, but I was able to quickly post some links of interest.

• Why Big Media's arrival in games is good for independent studios
• Cliff Bleszinski: PC Gaming in Disarray
• The man behind GDC: Jamil Moledina speaks
• Top game development jobs this week
• Why Big Media's arrival in games is good for independent studios
• Opinion: Our Inevitable Episodic Future

Gamasutra has an interesting game design article on making your video game accessible to those that have disabilities. It talks about the motivations behind creating games that are usable, which tend to have design elements that make them accessible to various disabilities. Game design challenges are looked at and how they may conflict with one gamer over another. There is a section on creating simple game control schemes that allow the game developer to open the game to a wider audience. Lastly, it discusses the critical step of testing the game with target groups of gamers.

Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD and others may be announcing a PC Gaming Alliance targeted at keeping the pc computer a competitive gaming platform. They are expected to focus on fixing issues that have turned some gamers to easier to use console gaming systems.

It is easy to understand that many gamers would turn to console systems. You can go crazy trying to keep up with the latest graphics card hardware and drivers, operating system patches, software running in the background, and tweeking the settings to get your game running optimally. Compare that to a standardized video game console system where you insert the disk and start playing a few moments later.

Betsy Aoki has posted some game development tutorials on making a 2D XNA game.

• Making a 2D XNA Game - When Cods Collide Part 1
• Making a 2D XNA Game - When Cods Collide Part 2

Wired has a interesting short article from the Design Innovate Communicate Entertain, DICE, summit in Las Vegas. Namco Bandai's Roger Hector spoke about the value of building a character through high-quality entertainment.

"The secret to character longevity is to steadily increase a character's equity, a concept the industry veteran learned during his tenure at Disney. "All characters have equity," he explained. "Equity is something that builds up with time through the association of that character with high-quality entertainment."

The article is short, but it got me thinking about creating a character brand. If I were creating a new game, I would create new characters in an attempt to make a game with unique content. I don't often think about starting my own character brand and creating new entertainment experiences around them.

Are you going to be at the Game Developers Conference and looking for a new job in the game industry? Gamasutra has prepared a guide to maximizing your job search at the GDC. Take their tips on what to do before, during, and after the show.

"If you're on a mission to make your next career move, good news: the Game Developers Conference is right around the corner! GDC is the best opportunity for game industry job seekers to start forging the relationships that make a significant impact on your professional success. "

"Graduates in the UK face an increasingly tough time getting a job in the games industry, and university courses aren't necessarily the best means of preparation."

Matthew Jeffrey, Electronic Art's head of Global Talent Brand, warns that a lot of the gaming degrees don't prepare graduates for a career in the game industry. He advises students to look towards traditional degrees so that they have options available to them.

There are a lot of gaming degree programs out there. Make sure that you are researching the best path to getting a job in the game industry as well as one that provides you some flexibility to work in other fields.