September 7, 2008 — The September update of all FlatRedBall files is uploaded. Here are the highlights of this release:

* The GuiEditor is a new tool that's been added to the FRBDK. Now users can create their own Gui skins (guisknx) files and apply them to the FlatRedBall.Gui. We expect this tool to see improvements over the coming releases so please let us know your thoughts on it.
* Significant Gui fixes and improvements - we've focused heavily on GUI this last month while working on the GuiEditor so this month also brings a lot of releases to the FlatRedBall.Gui namespace.
* Fixed 1080 crash on the 360 - now FlatRedBall runs on the 360 when the console is set to 1080i or p.

Of course there are a variety of small bug fixes. As always let us know if you encounter any problems this month and thanks to all contributors for your help.

--Vic--

August 24, 2008 — First the announcement, then the history that led to it.

Today the FlatRedBall Tools Template is available for download. This is a .sln file (not a Visual Studio template) using FlatRedBall XNA which can be used to create custom tools like the SpriteEditor (and it's easier to use than you might think!). The file can be downloaded in our Downloads section as usual. A new wiki section accompanies it which walks through the steps of creating a simplified version of the SpriteEditor. It can be found here:

http://www.flatredball.com/frb/docs/index.php?title=Category:Tools

Or alternately by navigating through Wiki->Tools.

Now, the long-winded history of the Tools Template...

August 3, 2008 — Today brings the August updates for all FlatRedBall downloads. This month was unfortunately a little slower than others, but we still have some fantastic improvements including:

* Fixed FRBDK so it now runs on 64 bit operating systems (finally!)
* New AxisAlignedCube shape class
* Numerous crash fixes on the FRBDK including fixes editing SpriteRigs
* Many internal bug fixes in the engine.

And on a related note, I mentioned in the General Discussions that Aaron Kahn has joined us as a programming intern. He'll be working on the FRBDK. I'm excited to see how this helps FlatRedBall grow. Thanks for joining us Aaron, thanks to everyone else who's already on the team and has helped us get this far, and thanks to all users who have reported bugs.

--Vic--

July 31, 2008 — I normally don't blog specifically about a game, but with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 I just can't help myself. In short, this game is good, and in some cases it's awesome, but I just can't understand why they didn't make some very minor changes to the game to push it into Mega Awesome territory. What's really upsetting is that the changes to make the game really good are MINOR. Almost insignificant from a development point of view. And knowing this is so frustrating that I think I'm going to have to spread a thick layer of sarcasm across the rest of this blog.

July 18, 2008 — Summary:

Mike thinks that Nintendo's Wii (and DS) should win because of their fantastic paradigm shift about video games. They're looking at video games in a different and more effective way.

Victor thinks that Microsoft's Xbox 360 should win because they are so heavily focused on developers, and in the long run this will improve game development more than anything.