What a day!

"Sorry dad, I am just not going to be a programmer."

This simple phrase has been turned into a lie thanks to a recent attending of a windows phone 7 garage learning extravaganza.  Held on May 21, 2011 at Microsoft Offices in Alpharetta Georgia. We arrived hoping to get a free subscription to the marketplace for my father, but leaving with so much more.  It started with a very intense learning session dealing with how to create an application for windows phone 7.  This went by quickly, as I was designing an XNA game when they spoke on silverlight.  My father, ever loving, nudged me when important parts on XNA came up, along with his thoughts on my initial design. Once that phase was over, we started an open lab where we had to create an application before the afternoon ended.

The stakes are high, a new Dell Venue Pro for the winner, and a Zune HD or Visual Studio 2010 for second place.

With a clear layout in mind I set myself to creating the program before the 4:30 deadline.  I decide on creating a simple color pong game with matching colors of an incoming ball.  Knowing ahead of time my computer can NOT run the windows phone emulator(direct x 10 required), I hoped my code would simply run when converted from a windows game (direct x 9ex) to phone.  As my father saw my program take shape, my nerves moved him to usage of his laptop for emulation.  The code runs!  I continue development on his machine, removing him from his work and entry into the contest(sorry, Dad!).  As time moved on, I tested it on the real phone with a working prototype, Glen Gordon and Joe Healy were so impressed that they gave me a "Learn Programming NOW" book!  Nearing the deadline, I attempt to make the accursed vibration work with asking for a temporary real phone for testing(it fails).  But, even without this I managed to create a presentation that hopefully wowed everyone.

The final vote? I win with 21 points with second place getting 11 points.  Hooray!

PLUS, using dream spark, I was able to get a free app hub license.

Microsoft Gave me a:

• Free Phone
• License to create games for the phone
• Book on how to make games for the phone

Now it is up to me to create the games.