Spritefont Effects (Ouline, Dropshadow, etc.) in XNA

In the course of trying to jazz up the text in my current game, I came across a great little tool for generating XNA Spritefonts with various effects added. Effects include outlining, beveling, dropshadows, and texturing.

It generates a .png file that you add as content to your project using "Sprite Font Texture" as the content processor rather than "Sprite Font Description". In code, you load it just like any other SpriteFont.

You can find it here.

Something Completely Different...

A video of my current project:

Converting 3d studio max .3ds files into .fbx format for Xna

You'd think that importing .3ds files into Xna would be a common enough operation that a quick search would come up with a solution. Think again. I wasted a whole morning trying to find a working method. After a bunch of dead-ends, I finally found the Autodesk FBX Converter.

You can download it here.

It purports to convert .3ds, .obj, .dae, and .dxf files to .fbx, but so far I've only tried .3ds.

Note that I had to select FBX 2010 as the destination format, as the default of FBX 2011 didn't work for me.

More Tunescape Press

Here is an update on various reviews of Tunescape from around the web. I've been pleasantly surprised to find that there are quite a few gaming websites out there that cover Xbox Live Indie Games. Now if only more people read them...

• GamerGeddon now has a full review up.
• The Tunescape Launch Trailer on GameTrailers.com.
• gaygamer says "I honestly wasn't expecting much going into the game. And now I can't stop playing".
• XboxHornet calls it an "amazing little physics/music hybrid".
• The folks at Signed In had a lot of nice things to say about Tunescape on their weekly podcast.
• xblig.co.uk rates Tunescape 4 out of 5, and says "this could be the music driven game to beat this year".
• xblaratings.com rated Tunescape 9 out of 10, saying "This is one of the best musically themed games I’ve played!". Update: They now have a brief interview with me up.
• The Veteran Gamers did a segment about Tunescape on their podcast.
• XBOX 360 Digest gave Tunescape 4/5 stars, calling it "one Indie game that’s hard to put down".
• SFX360 says "this addictive little game can quickly change the way you enjoy music on your Xbox 360".
• Nukezilla gives tunescape a -2 (that's 8 out of 10 on their rating scale), saying "the gameplay is fantastic and the music is great".

Thanks to everyone who took the time to review the game. I really appreciate it!

Tunescape starting to get some reviews

Tunescape has only been available for a few days, but I've already started to see some reaction to it online:

• xnPlay picked it as one of their favorites of the week, and say "finally a 'gameplay is based on your music' game that works well".
•  GamerGeddon calls it "a steal at 80 points and well worth checking out".

Thanks for the feedback!

So far so good, despite the baby...

When Tunescape hit the New Arrivals list on Xbox Live Indie Games, my first reaction was "Cool!". My second reaction was "What's up with that baby?". I'm guessing a lot of other people have the same reaction. Oh, well - nothing I can do about that.

Despite the baby, Tunescape is off to a pretty good start (at least by Indie Games standards). It made the Top Downloads page today, which was a very pleasant surprise. My trial to purchase conversion rate so far is almost 10% 12% 14%,  which I am also quite pleased about.

Tunescape is live on Xbox Indie Games!

Tunescape passed peer review earlier today and is now available on Xbox Live Indie Games for 80 Microsoft points ($1). I know, pretty spendy...

Last time I checked, it was not yet showing up in the "New Arrivals" section, but if you search for it under 'T', you can find it.

The Tunescape page on the web-based marketplace is here.

I've also put together a little promo website:

  tunescape.nostaticsoftware.com