I've been working diligently on Zombie Epidemic Simulator on Windows Phone 7 and have made some big improvements. First of all the graphics and level design have been increased in quality. Meaning the actual game levels will look a lot better have more interesting gameplay per level. I'm trying to avoid repeats of levels that only tweak a few variables. There might be some but most of it will major changes to an existing level design. I've also gone for the retro 8bit-ish graphics, but not quite pure 8bit, more like 8bit inspired themes to set the art direction correctly. 

 Also the notion of the heroes being human have been changed. Now as the player you are the human controller of 4 intelligent H.E.R.O (Human Epidemic Response Officer) units. This will fit better into the story and theme of the game and allow me to have a bit more freedom in designing and illustrating the heroes. Also a new zombie type has been added, our favorite zombified canine.

Well I can talk all I want but that won't be fun, so here is a video of the current work in progress. The game is slated to ship when WP7 devices start shipping.

Glorious days for Scribble Defense for Windows Phone 7! The game is now feature complete and almost ready to ship! Well I can't ship it because there are no phones yet to ship to :)

 Anyways to celebrate I added a new video with the complete set of features for Scribble Defense!

One of the cool things about developing for Windows Phone 7 is that the developer has access to the touch screen. This mode of input can provide a more intimate tactile feedback than a controller could in many different situations. For example in Scribble Defense for Windows Phone 7, I added the ability for the player to flip over the pencil and use it as a eraser. The player then proceeds to rub the enemy scrawls to death, which from my recent testing have shown can be very fun :)

Another advantage with the touch screen is by placing contextual buttons in the game screen. Most people are used to pushing buttons with labels on them, this creates a self-reinforcing notion that this button will always do what it says. The player does not have to worry about memorizing controller layout, they just look at the screen and there are all the controls. It also is easier for people who skip tutorials and jump right in the middle of the game, because the controls are self labeled making them less prone to confusion.

I've made this video to show the upgraded UI and the eraser mode. Enjoy!

My real time strategy game is being ported to Windows Phone 7. I have already accomplished the framework to support basic gameplay. Now work will begin to actually make it into a shippable game for Windows Phone 7 platform. The game will support multi touch, different levels of AI opponents, a campaign mode, as well as a skirmish mode. Here is a video of the current build running against the CTP Windows Phone 7 Emulator.

That is what I learned from working on the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7.!

I've recently ported over Farseer Physics to work with CharZero Framework on the Windows Phone 7 emulator. I also have added support for 2d animations, and particles. 

I've been using the GumDrop framework for Xbox and PC based XNA games. However this does not lend well to the Windows Phone 7 environment. Now I am currently working on my 2nd gen framework called CharZero. This will feature most of what I had in GumDrop like object pooling, object management, etc ... But optimized for Windows Phone 7. Here is a current demo of it running.

I know that the indie scene on XNA is fairly new but that does not mean we need to forget how important user testing is on our games. We as developers often fall into the trap that if it feels good to us then other people will love the game. However this is a misguided form of thinking as we have intimate knowledge of the inner workings of our games. All the subtle rules and interactions that we know about most likely does not translate well in the eyes of a new user. So I just want to call out that each XNA developer should:

1. Get as many friends/family to try out the game in it's different phases/milestones. The higher the frequency the better
2. Test on the target platform. PC and Xbox have different user experiences and with WP7 coming out the need to test on mobile devices is needed too
3. Make sure the people who play your game are familiar as well as unfamiliar with the genre. The different view points from each of these groups are really important in determining if your ideas/systems are being perceived as you intended

I decided to give the game's philiosphy a name. That is the Active Movement System, with this philosophy the player should never sit idle for long periods of time waiting for things to happen in a tower defense game. The player's direct involvement is crucial to winning the game. Having the player dynamically upgrade and pick up money are core components to the game. Also having certain nodes be movable adds another dimension to a already crowded tower defense genre.

I will be demoing Scribble Defense during GDC, but for those who won't be at GDC to see the game I posted up a video of the Build that I will be showing off. Here are the following changes since the last video:

1. Added tower placement UI, the towers are not hard coded to specific keys/buttons anymore and now are handled through the new UI
2. Added support for up to 3 separate creep paths. Creeps can come from all over the place! :)
3. Added a Area of Effect Tower that can harm all creeps within its range. Good for whittling down enemy health en masse
4. More tower/creep specific animations
5. Added support for high scores