When: Tuesday 4th December 2007, doors open 6:00pm, meeting starts 6:30pm

Where: UWE (University of the West of England), Frenchay, Bristol (see FAQ for directions and a map) - Room 2q48 (in Q block)

What: Xmas XNA eXtravaganza (XXX) With NxtGen

Who: Pete McGann, Dave Bonner and Andy Sithers (with 'help' from Richard Costall, Dave McMahon and John Price)

Why: Because no less than 5 (count them: one, two, three, four, five) of The Next Generation User Group crew are coming to Bristol to party, give out swag, wish us a Merry Christmas and talk XNA. Also because XNA is the easiest, most fun way to write games using a .NET programming language and because Christmas is an excellent time to take a moment out to write that Halo 3 killer that you know you've always wanted to write. I mean, how long could it take: a couple of hours, maybe a few days ? And then you'll be rolling in it.

How do I sign up for this meeting: Send an email to meetings at dotnetdevnet.com and quote your user name and the December meeting.

Abstract:

Pete McGann, Dave Bonner and the NxtGen boys come down from NxtGenUG in Coventry, for an evening of XNA Gaming. They’ll cover everything you need to know to get you started writing your favourite 2D or 3D game, from the original idea, to building the game engine, creating your graphics and finally deploying to the Xbox 360. They’ll also happily troubleshoot any questions you have.

Pete McGann's Biography:

I've been writing games since I was about 10-11 years old, beginning with simple text adventures written in Basic on the spectrum .  My school was just around the corner from where I lived so I would rush home most lunchtimes and key in new locations for my latest adventure game. I hadn't at that time mastered the verb-noun parser so my games were very simple but I loved them just the same. I started writing arcade style games in earnest (as well as more text and point-n-click adventures) when I got my first Amiga 500 and a copy of Blitz Basic - which was more like C than Basic and even had an inline assembler! One of the games I wrote using Blitz featured in a magazine called Amiga Format. Eventually I made the step to writing 3D games using another version of the Blitz Compiler, this time on a PC. Since then I have written many 2D and 3D games (mostly at varying levels of completion) using a variety of languages and compilers.
I started using XNA when version 1.0 was released in 2006 and I have never looked back. Finally, someone has created a package that gives the developer real commercial-level power while working within a neatly designed framework. I have created several 2D games in Xna and a couple of unfinished 3D projects, mainly to help me understand the framework better. Oh, and so that I can live in a house rather than a cardboard box, I also develop software professionally using .Net, C#, SQL server etc.

Dave Bonner's (drastically cut) Biography:

I have spent many years as an enthusiastic home-brew games developer; this has always been my main interest and hobby in life.  Here’s a whirl-wind tour of "the story so far"...
 
I discovered the joys of game programming way back in 1990 when we bought our first family computer, a Commodore 16K.  The first game I ever wrote was written in Commodore Basic and was a (very poor!) clone of Asteroids.  My poor old C16 (God rest it’s soul) got me hooked.  I realised back then that this was what I wanted to do with my life.

<Massive cut in the Biography here with apologies to Dave>

I don’t think there has ever been a more exciting time to be part of the games industry.  My dream, and life-long goal, has always been to be a part of it.  The passion for games, and games programming, has always been a part of my character. 

XNA is an exciting, powerful new technology that I think is going to have a dramatic impact on the industry in the coming years. 

My XNA Blog:
http://www.xnaengine.blogspot.com/
XNA Home-Brew collaboration I’m co-founder of:
http://www.darkomengames.blogspot.com/
www.darkomengames.co.uk