Archive for the ‘.Net’ Category

I just won a copy of Telerik’s JustCode Visual Studio add-in

I just received an email from Carol over at DotNetCurry stating I was one of the winners in their recent contest. It looks like, based on the winner listing, that I received a free license for Telerik’s JustCode Visual Studio addin. I am currently using DevExpress’ offering, and have noticed it really gets in my way and slows Visual Studio down quite a bit. I am hoping Telerik’s product is faster (as they claim it is). We shall see!

Thanks to DotNetCurry for holding the contest, and thank you to Telerik for contributing the licenses!

Telerik releases beta of FREE dotNet decompiler: JustDecompile

I just received an announcement that Telerik, makers of one of the leading dotNet Control suites on the market, has released a beta of their new Decompiler for dotNet. It is named JustDecompile and is being advertised as “free, forever”. I gave it a quick download and picked apart a custom control assembly we have to use from a prior contractor. I had a few issues with this particular assembly when we took over the codebase, as they provided outdated source code for this control library. I was able to use another decompiler to pull some of the newer code, but none that I tested were this easy to use. Red Gate’s offering, .Net Reflector was nice – but not free (not expensive either).

If you have a need for a decompiler for dotNet assemblies, then I highly recommend you give Telerik’s new JustDecompile offering a preview to see if it meets your needs.

A new project begins

After working briefly with my boss on a rewrite of Chivalry and that really going nowhere (due to lack of time – thanks a lot work!) I have decided to attempt my own browser based game. This is going to be my first game – though I dabbled with my own 2D tile engine way back in ’98 or so written in C++. Anyhow, here’s the abstract from the design doc I am working on:

Project Overlord is a battle for supremacy over the land. Each player joins the game and must work their way up the social and political ladder. Eventually, the player will be able to start townships and they can progress into full fledged cities with castles and strongholds. The player *can* start a town from the get go, but without other players pledging loyalty from the outset, their town will not last long. This is a mix between MMORPG and Time Phased Strategy

This is something I can work on in the evenings a little at a time. Eventually, I will be pursuing game development MMO style with a Silverlight front end.

Baby steps young padawan.

At this time, the working title for this project is “Project Overlord”. Inspiring, I know. Once the game gets closer to completion (hell, I am still on the design phase – it will be a while) I will select a release title. As for the specifics of the architecture for this game:

  • Written in C#
  • ASP.net architecture. I have not decided if I want to go with Webforms or MVC
  • Sql Server Express backend. Once more players join (if that ever happens) I will look at SQL Server 2k8
  • Initially, I will probably deploy this to a cloud-based VPS. Sure would be nice if my cloud hosting platform of choice supported Windows images. I may have to look at another provider – the price is a bit outrageous however.

So keep your eyes here for more information. Eventually I will get a website setup specifically for this project – but I need to at least get out of the design phase first 🙂