July 2007 - Brian Peek's Blog

Back in May, I posted about my involvement in Maker Faire 2007.  For one of my projects, myself and several friends, collectively known as Ganksoft Entertainment, created a game from scratch using the Microsoft XNA Framework and Game Studio Express called Head Banger.  It's a rhythm-based music game in the vein of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) and Guitar Hero.  If you are a fan of either game, or the genre in general, you'll likely enjoy what we've created.  I have posted the game up to our website in both Windows and Xbox 360 flavors.  Sometime soon I will be writing an article that will appear on Coding4Fun on how the game was created along with the full source code of the game.

But, in the mean time, try out the game and enjoy!

I have published my latest article on MSDN's Coding4Fun titled "Microsoft Robotics Studio and Lego Mindstorms NXT".  This article will demonstrate how to use Microsoft Robotics Studio v1.5 to drive a robot built using Lego Mindstorms NXTwith an Xbox 360 Controller in C#, VB.NET and MSRS' included Visual Programming Language.

Comments welcome!

I've received a few more emails from folks using my Managed Wiimote Library to do some cool things with the Nintendo Wiimote in Windows.  Here are a few more:

• PowerPoint + Wiimote = Wii Key by Chad Hower
• A Wii Flock of Boids by Robert Burke
• Vibration Recorder by Brian Uphoff

Amazingly fantastic stuff.  I've created a list of projects using the library here.

If anyone out there is using my library for a project, please let me know and send me a link so I can add you to the list!

Woo hoo!  I was notified earlier today that I've been awarded the 2007 Microsoft MVP Award for Visual Developer - Visual C#!

A gigantic thank you goes out to John Papa for nominating me for the award, and to the entire Microsoft MVP team for selecting me.