Game Theory

Moving along at Microsoft

dawate — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:11:17 GMT

After over four years as an Academic Developer Evangelist at Microsoft, I have been blessed with an incredible opportunity to take on a new challenge. Effective June 13, I will be working in Microsoft Game Studios as Community Manager for the Kinect team...(read more)

Imagine Cup: Windows Phone 7 Competition Finalists Announced

dawate — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:23:19 GMT

This morning, Microsoft announced the finalists for the various competitions in the Imagine Cup. Since I am a co-captain of the Windows Phone 7 competition I will post those results here. Major congratulations to the teams who advanced: Korea HOMERUN...(read more)

Digital Audio Resources for Windows Phone 7

dawate — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 17:18:14 GMT

I’m at the Imagine Cup US Finals here today in my home base of Bellevue, WA, and I am presenting a session soon on designing musical instruments with Windows Phone 7. First and foremost I want to give a shout out to Grant Kot . Grant is a student at Julliard...(read more)

My Super Secret Kinect Project

dawate — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:50:28 GMT

What I’ve Been Working On Between Imagine Cup, writing apps and games, developing tutorials, speaking at Web Camps, doing university visits, and just generally keeping busy, I’ve been working on a real doozy behind the scenes and I will be doing a tutorial...(read more)

United States Imagine Cup People’s Choice Awards: Vote Now, Vote Often!

dawate — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:30:32 GMT

Students do incredible stuff, especially in the Imagine Cup. To see what I’m talking about, visit this page on Facebook: https://apps.facebook.com/imaginecupcontest You can vote every day. Make sure to check out each of the teams, read about their projects...(read more)

ShedTrax - Super Simple Fat Loss & Lean Gain Tracker

dawate — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:08:07 GMT

I just released a new application which I wrote to help me monitor my progress through P90X, a very very effective workout program that I’ve been doing for the last 6-7 weeks. I started this exercise and diet routine after seeing tons of friends and family...(read more)

Imagine Cup Windows Phone 7 Competition Round 1 Results

dawate — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:33:29 GMT

Congratulations to all of our fantastic Round 1 competitors in the Imagine Cup – Windows Phone 7 competition! The submissions were fantastic and the entries were incredibly competitive, to say the least. The teams really brought some great ideas to the table and as judges we were certainly impressed. Unfortunately we could only choose 100 teams to advance to round 2.

Here is a list of all of the teams that advanced.

Argentina - Synergy
Belgium - Chocolate Moose WP7
Belgium - Digital-Cavemen
Belgium - Digitron-WP7
Belgium - SpudgunSoft
Belgium - The Flemish
Brazil - Ecoala
Brazil - Legen...wait for it...Dary Team
Brazil - NewLeaf
Bulgaria - Dido
China - HITWH
China - HustBazinga
China - LandSlide
China - SeaMoon Studio
Colombia - Mindhood
Croatia - CoGo Team
Croatia - CroCoderz
Czech Republic - CNX
Egypt - CSED Stars
France - BuildTogether
France - Deeders
France - Food 4 All
France - MaRoSi
France - RD Team
Germany - CabWalla
Germany - Gesundheit
Greece - Alania
India - Chikitsa
India - Destined Winners
India - mitheros
India - WP7 Developers
Indonesia - .dreamBender.
Indonesia - Bambu Team
Indonesia - DP7
Indonesia - D-SAR
Indonesia - dynasi
Indonesia - G-Arm
Indonesia - Gatotkaca wp7
Indonesia - GCD
Indonesia - Laskar Pemimpi
Indonesia - Palapa
Indonesia - Syllable 2011
Indonesia - Theta
Italy - Edu Games
Japan - Sughoi
Kazakhstan - IITU
Korea - DoubleU
Korea - HOMERUN
Korea - MENCOKES
Korea - Stay Cool
Korea - Zipi Zigi
Malaysia - Grassroots Voice
Mexico - Contrast Team
Mexico - kibo
Mexico - XCOM
Morocco - Freshair
Pakistan - DE-Shell
Palestinian Authority - Creatives crew
Philippines - MDG5
Poland - CodeRaiders-mobile
Poland - cof
Poland - Life Matter
Romania - LEAD IT
Romania - Taishan
Romania - The League of Extraordinary Developers
Russia - BigTurtle
Singapore - Christine
Singapore - Code Instincts
Singapore - Curious Circle
Singapore - EcoDrive
Singapore - Envo Seven
Singapore - Evolution Savior
Singapore - Gaia Technological Outreach
Singapore - Green Savior
Singapore - GreenDefence-Windows7
Singapore - Gynae in the bottle
Singapore - Magic Pen Studio
Singapore - Mobility Health
Singapore - Team I'm a PC
Singapore - Team Mango
Singapore - Volumers
Singapore - vSoftNTU
Singapore - WISH
Singapore - Y²Z
Spain - Hall4
Taiwan - Calorie War
Taiwan - Eagle Eyes
Trinidad and Tobago - KIRI
Tunisia - woms team
Turkey - Care n' Share
Turkey - New7ork
Ukraine - DashPoint team
Ukraine - Red One 7
Ukraine - SaveTheGreen
United States - FindMe
United States - Nariño
United States - The Lifelens Project
United States - Voces
United States - WIT-NET
Venezuela - Grupo Grafico 21

A preview of what’s next on this blog

dawate — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 21:05:41 GMT

I quickly realized that I posted something for another blog to this one by mistake. My apologies if you had to read through my personal P90X stuff.

Anyway, I have been working on learning some great new stuff with XNA and Windows Phone 7. I have a 3D orthographic (think Fruit Ninja-esque) port of MonkeyFeeder (from my Zune book) on tap that I’m about to publish to the Marketplace. After publication, guess what’s coming? A big fat tutorial series! That’s right! Soup to nuts, Windows Phone 7 game with modeling, texturing and more.

I’ll point out that I have been using this great, free texturing plugin for SOFTIMAGE XSI Mod Tool called Roadkill, which unwraps UV’s very very nicely, Makes texturing a breeze, I wish that Mod Tool had the Unwrap option available but it’s not there in that version.

Installing Roadkill is not really that easy because you need to install some Python libraries. There is an excellent forum topic that describes the process and I followed it; it works.

I’ll be checking in soon, with more info.

-Dan

Donate to the Red Cross, UNICEF, Boys & Girls Club and More with Messenger 2011

dawate — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:00:35 GMT

You may remember a while ago when we had the i’m campaign that would donate money based on causes you were interested in. It’s back with Badges in Messenger 2011!

To activate a badge, click your name in Messenger and choose Personalize –> Change Badge.

You can then select from an array of badges. Well, where are the Red Cross/UNICEF badges?

You have to install them from this page. Click on the cause you’re interested in, and it will install into Messenger for you.

After installing, you will be able to select and use your new badge to support your favorite cause! Right now I’m using Red Cross to help support the disasters in Japan.

How I Conceived A Simple WP7 App While Getting High – And Built It in 2 Hours

dawate — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:02:31 GMT

Boy, if that’s not an attention-grabbing headline, I don’t know what is. Thanks Randy Guthrie, I totally poached your idea for this post title.

About a week ago I was driving up to Snoqualmie Pass, elevation 3,022, in the Cascades for a little recreation. I didn’t have a GPS with me, but it occurred to me that it’d be cool to see my current (estimated) altitude from various places on the mountain. I didn’t want a fancy thing with maps and stuff, just access to the number, in feet or meters.

And thus, Simple Altimeter (Free) was born.

Here’s an example of an application that you can write in 1 hour and then spend another hour working on the supporting graphics. I literally finished this – from start to submission – in one day.

I also plugged an ad control in there so that I can get some ad revenue from it. People won’t mind it because it’s innocuous, and it lets me keep the app free.

Here’s a screenshot. It passed cert testing on the first try. It uses the “high” accuracy mode of the GPS chip (thanks Clint Rutkas for helping me figure that one out) and is only accurate as the phone’s GPS. But who cares? It’s free and reasonably useful.

You can do this too!

Don’t know where to start with WP7? Searching for ideas? Start simple. Use this as inspiration. Post your comments here when you’ve executed it

No drugs were consumed during the conception or development of this app, with the exception of Vitamin D and some fish oil.