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We’re pleased to announce XNA week with Microsoft, Rare and the Higher Education Academy – a series of events and workshops designed to help you understand and use XNA Game Studio Express in your student engagement.

XNA Game Studio Express is the next generation of games development platform from Microsoft. For the first time ever students will be able to develop for and on the same next-generation console they can purchase in-store today.  Students can now use the latest technologies to build games for both Xbox 360 and Windows without the need for expensive development kits.

XNA Game Studio Express is based on industry leading technologies such as Visual Studio, the .NET Framework and DirectX. These technologies are then extended with a cross-platform game development framework that specifically makes game development significantly easier and allows for very high rates of reuse across both platforms while still allowing each platform to be fully exploited. We’ll be looking at the technology and thinking behind XNA, and at how academics can begin using XNA Game Studio Express to enhance their teaching portfolio.

XNA Game Studio Express Launch: Warwick University Conference Centre - Wednesday 13 December 2006

We’re delighted to announce that Chris Satchell – General Manager of the Microsoft Games Developer Group, and Peter Molyneux, Director of Lionhead Studios, will be giving us an overview of XNA Game Studio Express and looking at how we can inspire a new generation of games designers and developers. Finally Nick Burton from Rare will be giving us a deep-dive into the graphics platform realised by XNA Game Studio Express.

In addition, we’ll have technical speakers and guests from Microsoft, Rare, and also a number of UK Universities, who will be lifting the covers on XNA Game Studio Express, and showing you how to get to grips with this new technology.

There’ll be plenty of opportunity for discussion throughout the day, and we’ll close with a Q & A session with a panel comprising experts from both industry and academia. 

You’ll leave with everything you need to start exploring XNA.

This event is open to Academics, and also to Research and Undergraduate Students alike. However, spaces are limited, and will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis. 

XNA Game Studio Express: Hands on Labs: Rare Studios, Twycross.  11, 12, & 14 December 2006

In conjunction with Rare, the Microsoft UK Academic team are pleased to invite you to a one-day hands on lab, where you can get a test drive of XNA Game Studio Express, with expert help on hand to help you understand the technology and its application.  We’re going to be joined by a team of experts from Rare, who will also be on hand to talk about the company, and may even show you around.

You’ll leave with everything you need to start developing applications with XNA. This is a fantastic opportunity to give XNA Game Studio Express a test drive in a unique environment!

Due to very limited spaces, this event is only available to UK academics and research students who are planning to implement XNA technologies in their teaching and research practice.  Participants will be expected to provide their own laptop with Windows XP in order to participate in the lab sessions.

This event will run on 11, 12 and 14 December from 10am until 4pm.

To see the event programme and register your interest in the launch day and/or labs please visit www.ics-heacademy.ac.uk/events/events.php alternatively you can email ukmsacad@microsoft.com to request more information.