After five+ years of blogging here on MSDN, I’ve decided to move my on-line presence and slap on a new coat of paint. Nothing’s changed in terms of my role at Microsoft or the topics and community events I’ve been blogging about, but it was time for a change – to a platform where I could have a bit more control over look and feel and even get my feet wet with WordPress.

So look for my new ramblings now at https://codocent.com. This site will remain on-line, and I may continue to post to both sites as a I try to wean my audience slowly to the new property.

Spend four hours with me, and I’ll walk you through using Scirra Construct 2, a free 2-d game development environment that you can use to build games for both Windows 8 and Windows Phone, and I’ll give you a few pointers on how to best market your game for additional exposure and downloads. You’ll have some time to work on your game too, so come with your laptop loaded per the Meetup instructions!

I’ve built a few games with Construct 2 including LetterMan, my first attempt shown below, but don’t be fooled by its simplistic look.  To its right is a screenshot from Mortar Melon, a multi-level and artistically amazing game also created on Construct 2 by Mudvark.

We’re providing two flavors of workshops – one focuses on building casual games and the other on building apps with REST-based APIS – come to one or all! Each of these events runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with lunch included. Be sure to bring your own laptop with Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 (Express versions are fine) installed.

Not close to any of these locations? Know of some friends or co-workers that would commit to attending one closer to you – perhaps at your own office? Let me know, and we can try to arrange one in your area!

Boston Windows Dev Meetup events

Northeast User Group Map and Calendars

Well, the new and improved App Builder site covers whichever of these situations you’re in. Alumni of the program (also known as Generation App) will recall the self-paced 30-day programs to take you from scratch to app or game with a combination of technical resources, design advice, and blog commentary. That’s still there, but now there’s even more value for experienced developers who just need to skip to “how do I do X”, and here’s the best part – we’ve built in some gamification.

If you’re already a part of App Builder, you can simply login and opt in to the new rewards program. If you’re new, you can quickly set up a new account, and you can even use your Facebook id as a login! Once you do, you’ll see a status bar like below that shows you the various quests you can complete to earn achievements and points that you can redeem for cool prizes like Xbox games, Windows 8 Pro upgrades, and even developer store accounts.

Sign up today and start reaping the rewards!

	Michael Cummings has been on the team since January making his mark at multiple events in Boston, Farmington, and several of the State University of New York schools. Michael has a penchant for gaming (including the XNA, MonoGame, and Unity frameworks) and cross-platform mobile development via Xamarin.
	Steve Maier joined the team on July 1st and is based in the Rochester, New York area. For years he’s been a Microsoft community focal point in that area (and co-leads AppRochester) and is also an adjust professor at RIT. He’ll be the go-to guy for developers in the upstate/western New York area.
	The ink is just about dry on Josh Drew’s employment forms! Josh joined the team Monday and is based in southwestern Connecticut. He has deep experience in the digital agency realm, most recently as VP of Technology in Weld Media, and he’s the proud new owner of a Nokia 1020 to boot!
	Most of you already know me (you’re reading my blog after all!), and I’ve been with Microsoft for about 5 1/2 years all in my current role. I live in the western suburbs of Boston and will be spending most of my time at events in the Boston and Cambridge area along with Rhode Island, Southern Maine and New Hampshire.

Lest rumors start flying about my former colleagues, Chris Bowen and Edwin Guarin, congratulations versus goodbyes are in order. Both Chris and Edwin have moved on to new roles and new challenges at Microsoft, and I expect they won’t be strangers to the developers and students they’ve fostered over the years. After all, you can take the evangelist out of the community, but you can’t take the community out of the evangelist!

There are plenty of great ways to get started and for about the next week you can get a Window Phone developer account for just $19 (that’s an 80% discount!)

If you’re the git-r-done type, check out Windows Phone App Studio. You can pick from a number of predefined templates (sports team apps, company apps, wedding invitations, etc.), provide data, and customize colors and background all within a web browser! When the app is generated, you can provide it to friends and family to download, or if you want to make it more your own, download the Visual Studio source code and tweak (or gut) away!

If you prefer a more “from-the-top” approach, there a great new resource on Channel 9 – a 35-part, 11-hour series of screencasts taking you from installing the SDK, to working with XAML, to incorporating audio, to leveraging location capabilities and background tasks (and pretty much everywhere in between).

And of course there’s plenty of additional content at the Windows Phone Dev Center and the Windows Phone Developer Blog.

As is the case for all code camps, these events are run ‘by the community, for the community,’ and attendance is free. But rather than just attend, consider sharing your own unique knowledge and expertise; first time participants as well as seasoned speakers are encouraged to present on a topic related to software development and process.

See the links below for more information on each event, including registration links and sponsorship information.

Attend	Speak	Sponsor

Vermont Code Camp is turning 5 this year, and as in past years is being held at Kalkin Hall on the campus of the University of Vermont in Burlington. This year’s edition takes place on Saturday, September 21st from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and is expected to draw 150 – 200 area technologists.

Attend	Speak	Sponsor

The Code Camp that started it all is in it's 10th year and celebrates it's 20th event(!) on Saturday, October 19, at the New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, MA. You can review the schedule from this past Spring to get an idea of tremendous breadth of topics. 

Note: attendee registration is not yet open, but the link to the left will get you to the right place once it is!

Boston Windows Dev Meetup events

Northeast User Group Map and Calendars