Executive Summary ‘Euchre with Friends’ and Game Fabric v1.0 are very close to marketplace release. Gameplay is very stable with most edge cases tested and regression tested with each update. I made the following additions to Game Fabric: 1. User Profile Tile (2x1) 2. User Stats Tile (1x1) 3. Leaderboard Tile (demoted to 1x1)   … Continue reading Game Fabric Update

Compute is often considered the most expensive resource in cloud computing solutions however there is one resource that can add up quick if you are not careful: Storage Transactions. Yes at only $0.01 per 10,000 transactions these pesky things look very cheap. Very, very, very cheap in fact. However, in just a few days of … Continue reading Storage Transactions: The Silent Killer for Ad-Supported Apps

Executive Summary I continue to expand on the stability and feature set of the Lobby Service of Game Fabric by hitting edge cases within functional testing of Euchre. As testing progresses, additional user stories make their way into my product backlog and are prioritized. This week the following items made it there: Go to Game … Continue reading GameFabric Update

  1. Allow users to quickly resume or start a game directly from the start screen of your game Game Fabric will automatically detect if the current user is in a game and display a “Start Game” tile if the user is not in a session or a “Resume game” tile if they are in … Continue reading Game Fabric New Features

Cloud Scan is a solution that I built using Windows Phone, .NET and Windows Azure technologies. Here is a video that demonstrates the functionality of the Windows Phone application. The application has the following features: 1. Windows Client to Upload to Azure Storage Account 2. Windows Phone Client to categorize uploaded documents 3. ASP.NET Web … Continue reading Cloud Scan for Windows Phone 7

So I have been laying the foundations for my avalanche of upcoming multi-player games. I call it the GameFabric. It’s a set of reusable services and client APIs that make getting the plumbing of multi-player games going easy. Last weekend was a busy one. Here is a synopsis of the features that I have implemented. … Continue reading Game Fabric V1.0

I have further enhanced the AccessControlServiceSignIn.xaml control to use a more tile based user interface. I am debating whether I should leave the textual names on there or the icons are enough to get the point across. Hopefully people know about Google, Yahoo and Windows Live but then again, you wouldn’t want the lack of … Continue reading Improved Identity Provider Selection

There is the Windows Phone Azure Toolkit. It has these fancy project templates that load your Windows Phone app up with an Azure Storage Service Proxy, ACS, Table or SQL Azure based AuthZ, etc. Once you are done you have a behemuth of a Windows Phone app and everything ticks and ties (for the most … Continue reading SL.Phone.Federation, I made it better

My previous dabblings in Windows Phone development have been miserable failures. I admit and accept that. I have decided building apps for personal utility (Per Diem, Loyalty) or convenience of data provider (Ohio Roads) just doesn’t work. It gave me some practical exercise and experience building apps but the financial returns were uninspiring. So, I’ve … Continue reading Adventures in Building Windows Phone Multi-Player Games