So, after some more digging, I figured out the trick to getting XNA games to run on machines without needing Visual Studio and XNA Studio installed. It seems that the normal DirectX9 package, which I prefer (I don't like web installers), and most people probably used to install DirectX, does not actually install everything that XNA needs from DX. You must use the web installer to be able to run XNA games independent of VS/XNA.

In light of all that, I can now release Asteroid Rage in a form that (mostly) anyone should be able to play! Without further delay, here's what you need...

Just a quick post for anyone who might be interested--Asteroid Rage (briefly mentioned in my last journal) is done. After another weekend of work (finally), it's fully playable, now with explosions, sounds (courtesy of yours truly), and the possibility of losing!

The only proviso: it seems that XNA games (at least, those from VS2005/XNA2) can't really be made into any easily distributable format. So it will require VS2005 SP1 and XNA Game Studio installed in order to run; sadly I can't seem to find any way around that.

But if there is anyone else out there looking at XNA development, feel free to give it a spin. I'll see if I can't do a real journal on this weekend's travails later in the week, as well as post the source project (going to hold off on that one until I've gotten the project turned in for credit, just to be safe ).

For now though, here's the .ccgame package for anyone who can use it.

As many of those reading may be aware (at least those on our games sites), I work offsite. Probably less known though is where; I'm currently studying programming at university, with hopes to move on into Stardock's game development team after I finish my degree.

So anyway, this semester I'm studying C#. As part of this, we're going to have an open project at the end of semester, in which we will make pretty much anything we want, so long as it demonstrates a sufficient skill and knowledge in the language. While the professor is a command-line die-hard, referring to anything with a GUI as "dog and pony show", we have the option to make our projects as fancy as we like.

Toward that end, I had some time this past weekend and figured I'd better try and get a handle on at least getting 2D graphics on-screen in windows programs, beyond the simple form elements that you can drag and drop in Visual Studio. First I looked around for some tutorials on GDI or DirectDraw, but couldn't find anything all that helpful. So I then looked around for some stuff on XNA, and came across this pong clone tutorial.

Pong main menu.	Pong, with tweaks.

Since it doesn't seem to have spread out of the Demigod forums yet, let it be known that GameSpot has a new Demigod interview up with Chris and Brad, as well as the first preview trailer:

It's been rumored for a while now, and this week at E3, an Electronic Arts executive has confirmed it: KotOR is going massive, multiplayer, and online. Could this be the one to beat World of Warcraft?

Bioware is well known as a maker of quality roleplaying games, but this will be their first MMO, and they're certain to have plenty of hype behind them. After all, who doesn't like Star Wars?

More interestingly, the executive also commented that they expect to see PC games grow from 1/3 of the gaming market to 1/2 in three years--seems EA's not buying into the talk about PC gaming being dead. He also mentioned that the company was interested in "online, and direct-to-consumer" (read: digital distribution?).

CD Projekt, known most recently for The Witcher, has announced the coming launch of a new DRM-free classic games store named Good Old Games. They plan to have a variety of goodies such as Fallout, Freespace, and Jagged Alliance available at their opening in September, and are planning to update them all for compatibility with current hardware and XP/Vista.

I think this is great news for gamers. Like a certain other online store (wink wink), there won't be any obnoxious DRM, and customers will be able to download as often as they need. If things go well for GOG, the days of nasty DRM and limited downloads may well be numbered. Between new games on Impulse and old games on GOG, we may well soon see a day where nearly any PC game you want to play is available at your fingertips--legally and with no strings attached!

Last night, 2K Games announced that effective immediately, all limitations (install count limits, in particular) have been removed from Bioshock's activation system. A 2K representative further commented that the SecuROM activation system does remain, but it won't stop users from installing the game as frequently as needed.

Building on this fulfilled promise, she also vowed to users that should support for the game be ended in the future, 2K will ensure that users are still able to install and play it.