Greetings,

 I am new to both C# programming and the XNA framework.

 

However, I have been programming professionally in C,C++ for the last 10 years. Additionally, have also worked in the game industry since '97. Took a break for a while but I just had to return.

I've worked with DirectX since version 5 (I just kept waiting for version 4 to come out and jeez, guess I must have slept a year or so) so am very familiar with what's going on. At first, I was kinda thinking C# was a bit goofy but it's actually pretty neat once you get going.

I've worked in the game industry as both 2D/3D artist and Programmer. Now I'm doing my own thing.

Anyways - gotta get back to the project at hand. Just wanted to drop in and say hello. Hello!

--Scott,  a.k.a. Layre

Alternate State Entertainment

 

Greetings Scott, it will be interesting to see what you come up with on your own.  Jumping into C# and XNA will be a breeze for you.  What games have you worked on?

I was 16 when I first started. It was my sophomore year in high school. Everything we did was in Java, and it was pretty cool. The next year, I took CS II, when XNA had released months earlier. At my school, CS II is the "fun" course where all you do is make games. AP is the serious stuff. That was last year, and the entire year was devoted to programming XNA games. I learned so much about programming and 3D math in that class. Now I'll be 18, and taking AP CS.

Hi!

I was part of the second team to begin work on Prey at 3D Realms. When they delayed it in '99, was moved over to Duke Nukem Forever. However I left a little while after that.

While at 3D Realms, I worked as a texture artist. That was my first industry job. The funny thing was back then, they (the industry) realy needed people but only wanted people with experience. Catch-22.

So to get my experience I created the Duke Nukem 3D TC pack entitled "Layre" - which was ultimately my resume and portfolio rolled up into one.

After that, I started Alternate State Entertainment and worked to produce software for Magic Lantern/Gold Creek to make Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Covert Ops Essentials for Red Storm (R.I.P)

In late '99-2000, I co-authored a book being published by Sybex called "Age of Empires II: Official Scenario Design Toolkit" - I wrote the scripting sections of the book.

At some point in 2001, e licensed the Unreal Tournament (as it was called then) engine for our RPG called Second Genesis. We received positive feedback from a few AAA title making companies and one, seriously interested in the title. However, a certain person (with whom I am no longer associated with) decided to put that project on hold in favour of another project that ended up being published by Infogrames. Soon after, I needed a break from the industry (working years on end, 7 days a week, 18+hrs a day begins to take it's toll on a person). Exited the industry and pursued something else for a while. I was bored and wanting to try something a bit different and so I wrote a Drum Sampler/Synth module as a VST plugin module - called DS8 Drum Works. Worked on some other private ventures for a while but wasn't until I was contracted by a couple neurosurgeons to create a small racing/driving game with the ability to test memory & recall so that it could be used to measure the concussed state of a person. A game project that was never destined for a public shelf.

Anyways, that's it in a nutshell. Now I'm looking to make an XNA game in C# and so far it's been a blast!

Wow, Scott, that's quite the history!  Interesting!  I'm sorry to say I have no professional experience in the gaming industry, but happy to say that that's in the process of being changed right now!  Can't wait to see what you make.