Portfolio

Introducing Your Brand to a Metro Style Windows 8 App

Designing Metro style apps on Windows 8 can be challenging just like any other new platform.  It is especially challenging on a platform that’s so radically different than its predecessors. The most fundamental part about abiding by Metro standards is to not lose your brand’s personality and unique elements in the process.  Metro as a design style should never replace your brand as a whole.

Using Metro as a foundation along with your brand’s style guide is key.  It’s a common misconception that every app will look the same if you’re using Metro properly.

Impressions of Windows 8 – Part 2 of 2

This is the second part of my impressions of Windows 8. You can read the previous part here.

Impressions of Windows 8 – Part 1 of 2

I have been using the Windows 8 Preview For six months now – the Developer Preview since its public release in September and more recently, the Consumer Preview that was made available in February.

I have used Windows 8 on a tablet, a touch screen laptop and an old desktop and the experience has been good on all of these platforms. I have used it for anything from developing Windows 8 Metro style apps, through typical Office applications scenarios, browsing the internet, playing games, listening to Spotify, instant messaging etc. What I have not used it much for actually is to run Metro style apps, except for the ones I was developing myself, since there are not so many available yet (around 100) and the ones available do not fit into my daily use of a tablet or computer.

I have been using most versions of Windows available in the past 20 years or so. I have also been using an iPad for a few months now. I think Windows 8 is going to be huge…

[GA2] Making a Game Out of Tower Defense (Part 2)

Finally, the long awaited Part 2 for Making a Game Out of Tower Defense.  Good thing too, considering we went gold at the end of last week!  Please grab the game here.

Asynchronous UI development in WinRT, Silverlight, Windows Phone & WPF with async/await keywords of C# 5.0

C# 5.0 comes with the new async/await keywords that make asynchronous code easier to write, read and maintain. This is very nice if you have properly declared methods that support this pattern and Windows Runtime (or WinRT – the API for Windows 8 Metro Style Apps) comes with a lot of these methods for long running tasks or ones of nondeterministic duration – especially in I/O or web calls. It is however completely lacking in support for asynchronous UI development, even though one of the main goals of these new keywords was support for responsive UI.

Interactive coding often introduces the need to start an operation, like an animation or a dialog box and then wait for an event before switching the state of the UI, for example: running another animation or removing a dialog. Reading this article you will learn how to do it better using the upcoming features of C# 5.0, regardless of whether you develop in WinRT, Silverlight, WPF, Windows Forms or even Web Forms. The source code that comes with this article contains a library you can use to cut the amount of code you need to write by half!

Thoughts from CES: Day -1

 

I arrived early to CES to help support our experiences. With that, I got an exhibitors pass which gave me pre-show access.

 

It only took a few hours to update things and make sure everything was setup. So, I had some time to kill. I thought I could get some exercise in by taking a walk through the hall, It was a lot of exercise. The Las Vegas Convention Center is huge and going through all 3 halls was a trek. Not to mention trying to avoid all of the construction cranes and crates.

 

From my walk-about, I gleaned a few key nuggets. Not much detail yet, but I already know some of the big things.

 

Tron: Illustrated

At Vectorform we get to work on a lot of high profile brands, and Disney’s Tron: Legacy HTML5 online graphic novel experience was no exception! Given a tight deadline, we created an interactive graphic novel that leveraged animations, effects, and audio made possible by the latest HTML5 technology.

Such a cool experience needed a unique intro screen and loading animation, something that was a bit more specialised than just a simple bar. Working on two rotating pieces that would lock together at 100%, I knew the style would need to remain consistent with the established look of the graphic novel, ink strokes and all. Instead of trying to illustrate each animation frame by hand, I turned to Lightwave.

Creating a Side-scrolling Game with UDK

I wanted to find a way to introduce others to UDK in a way that is fun and simple. I discovered some notes I took while prototyping a simple UDK side-scroller, and turned them into this little guide. This guide attempts to lay out the groundwork for developing a simple game with the Unreal Development Kit. It will help readers understand the structure of a basic UDK game, its elements and the relationship between them. It does not, however, detail creating levels or assets. For that, please refer to the excellent 3D Buzz video tutorials available on the UDK website.

Remote Temperature Monitoring With the Arduino & SM5100B

The Problem

In January of 2010 the hot water heating system of my family’s lake house failed with catastrophic consequences. Many of the copper pipes in the home froze and burst. By the time we found out about the problem the damage had been done, and done well. The basement had several inches of water in it and we were also treated to beautiful ice sculptures such as this one, formed on our deck.

Is this the Hoth system?

The impact of Apple’s Siri release: From the former lead iPhone developer of Siri

The Siri application released with the iPhone 4s has the potential to radically impact how we interact with technology. Ed Wrenbeck, former lead developer from Siri, talks through his history with the app…