It should also be pointed out that orderby performs a quick sort which has an average runtime of O(n * log n), but a potential worst case of O(n^2) The more efficient thing to do here would be a Fisher-Yates shuffle which has O(n) complexity: ...

The perspective is different, but the principals and math are identical. I recommend checking it out anyway.

dadoo, my friend, you may very well have found a C# compiler bug! I reviewed the C# 3.0 language specification: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcsharp/aa336809.aspx Here's what I found: Section 7.5.6.2, "Indexer access", indicates that this scenerio should perform a member look up for the indexer which returns a ...

The documentation includes a tutorial for adding scrolling to the platformer starter kit. Check it out!

Everything you need to know about parallax is done in Layer.cs; you just need to duplicate the x-axis code for the y-axis. Try setting making the scrollRate into a Vector2 or rename it to scrollRateX and add a scrollRateY. Do the same with cameraPosition. Investigate how these two variables are used in the Draw function. A good trick ...

Ah, OK on windows it is a little different than Xbox :-) If you just want to change the size of the viewport, you need to adjust the size of the backbuffer during initialization. Set the PreferredBackBufferWidth and Height. This will keep everything the same size, but show a different subsection of the level. The Zune version of the game does ...

Do you mean the standard Xbox video output scaling? The platformer SK does nothing to dissable that. If I recall correctly, it uses a different static resolution for each platform. On Xbox, it (probably?) uses 720p and automatically upscales or downscales. You can detect the current resolution and perform scaling yourself if you need to. What is ...

[quote user="Nick Gravelyn"]The splash screen happens and then your game happens.[/quote] Actually, I'm not quite sure that is correct. I believe the splash screen shows until your first Draw call. You could presumably have a 30 second first frame, all showing the splash screen, until you are ready. I wouldn't recommend ...

Up to date URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.xna.framework.gamerservices.guide.beginshowkeyboardinput.aspx Create a new Windows Game project, add a GamerServicesComponent to your game, then call that API. You can find out for yourself in less time than it took me to write this response :-)

Be sure to read the whole series! http://creators.xna.com/en-US/tutorial/collision2dperpixeltransformed