Thanks

I don't think I got around to writing this before, which is a shame. So, whilst I wait to announce things (just signed off the press release!), I'd like to take the opportunity to thank a few peeps who aren't credited on Clover.

I've said before the community aspect of the XNA Creator's Club is the model's greatest asset, and consider this saying it again. Whilst there are some incredibly unhelpful, immodest, and snipey sorts (it is the inforweb after all), there are a great many more who go out of their way to be pleasant and helpful.

Nathan Fouts - Nathan runs Mommy's Best Games, and gave me a lot of useful and constructive feedback on early versions of Clover. He's been dead handy in setting me up with people, and it's a favour I'm trying to return. Go check out Weapon Of Choice and Grapple Buggy!

Nick Gravelyn - Nick's an MVP who runs the excellent xblig.info which was instrumental before we got integrated ratings, has a blog and is a frequent Twitterererer. Like most of the MVPs, he suffers a lot at the hands of dumb questions from the likes of me, so how he's not gone completely insane yet is beyond me. Oh, and he's written Pixel Man.

Shawn Hargreaves - He's on the XNA team, and if he can't answer your XNA question, then it's not worth answering. Helped me with thorny issues on more than one occasion, and is probably owed a lifetime of pints by the XNA community. His wonderful blog has gotten me out of a sticky situation so many times, I doubt I'd've finished Clover without it.

MVPs - George Clingerman, Catalin Zima and The ZMan spring immediately to mind as being rather helpful XNA types. There's probably a ton of others I can't remember off the top of my head.

Conkerjo - Another XNA developer, who gave lots of useful and encouraging feedback, and still does. If his game SBARG ever makes it to market, I'll cancel out the pint he owes me!

Beatles: Rock Band

Earlier this week, I was really looking forward to getting myself a copy of Beatles: Rock Band. I've managed to miss this whole music game melarkey, and was thinking of doing a combined cultural catch-up with both the music genre and the music of The Beatles.

After playing both Rock Band and Guitar Hero at a party last night, I've decided I'm never going to spend any cash on either of the franchises.

For those lucky people that don't know me personally, I dabble in music. I've been playing bass since I was 15, and I also play drums (badly) and guitar (exceptionally badly). I've recorded on 6 EPs/albums, gigged over a hundred times over 6 years, played in front of 1,000 people, done shows in London's Leicester Square, been interviewed by the national music press, and been featured in Kerrang's Pandora comic strip.

So it's with the above experience that I just assumed that I might just be able to muster the ability to get through The Killers - When You Were Young on medium difficulty. Alas, no.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to observe this, but actually playing instruments makes playing these music games incredibly hard. You try playing to what you can hear rather than the reduced inputs that are required, and the games seem to want you to be ever-so-slightly ahead of time.

I'm pretty disappointed. I was really looking forward to B:RB, and now it just seems like it's a game that's not for me. Can you play it with just a controller?

Anyway, I'm off to play on my real drum kit in order to try and heal my bruised musical ego!