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A helping hand for bedroom coders throughout the land.

Meetings

back to top What's on the agenda (Wednesday December 7th 2011)?
After the success of last months freestyle coding session we're doing it again. Bring along a laptop and join us in coding on whatever your current project is. The experts will be on hand to answer any questions or give you a helping hand with any problems you have.

All technologies are welcome. DirectX, Unity, OpenGL, whatever your preferred platform, if your making a game then come along.

Don't have a project to code on? Don't worry, we have a team project that you can join.

There'll be the usual Pizza of course.

We hope to see some new faces so please do try and get your friends to attend if they're interested in games development.

There's no need to register, but if you are on facebook it would be great if you could let us know that you are attending the event.
back to top What goes on at the meetings?
On the first Wednesday of each month we hold the XNA UK User Group meeting in Kenilworth, just outside Coventry.

The meeting gives our members a chance to meet up and talk about XNA and development in general. The meetings are totally relaxed and informal, we're mostly hobbyist XNA users here and want all members to feel welcome.

The meetings kick off at 7PM, usually with a talk on a given subject (members are free to suggest subjects that they'd be interested in hearing about). These talks can range from technical demonstrations and publishing walk-throughs to game demonstrations.

We always like to see the games and projects our members are working on so if you have something you'd like to show us, let us know and we will find you a little time to show off your work to the group.

Half way through (at 8PM) we usually have Pizza which gives everyone a chance to have a chat before having another talk or presentation. The meetings come to a close at 9PM but the discussions usually continue in the nearby Pub for those that don't need to shoot off home.

Each attendee is asked to provide £10 on the night to cover the booking of the room and pizza for the meeting (students pay a discounted rate of £5). Your contributions help us arrange events as well as providing services via the User Group website for all members.
back to top Where are the meetings held?
The meetings are held at Kenilworth Community Centre, in Kenilworth, a few miles south of Coventry:

back to top How do I get there?
If you're wanting to attend the meetings you'll want to know how to get to them;
By Car
If you're driving you'll want the address for your satnav:


Kenilworth Community Centre
Abbey End
Abbey End Car Park
Kenilworth
CV8 1QJ

01926 855205

Alternatively, you can find directions using Bing Maps.

If you are travelling from Birmingham the A452 exit from the A45 leads directly into Kenilworth. At the clock tower roundabout, turn left and then, almost immediately, right into Abbey End Car Park.

From the A46 (which leads to the M40 or M6) take the Kenilworth exit and follow the high street (Warwick Rd) to the clock tower roundabout at the top of the hill. Go straight on at the roundabout, then almost immediately turn right into Abbey End Car Park.
By Bus
The Number 12 bus from Coventry (including Coventry Station, Warwick Rd.) or Leamington Spa stops near the clock tower at the top of Kenilworth's main high street (Warwick Rd), just a few yards from the Community Centre. Walk through the entrance to Abbey End Car Park, which is to right of the Subway & Blockbuster shops. The Community Centre is straight ahead.
By Train
The nearest train stations with connecting bus services are Coventry & Leamington Spa. In both cases you will need to get the 12 bus to Kenilworth, the clock tower stop.
back to top Why should I attend?
The meetings are great fun and offer all XNA enthusiasts a chance to meet up and talk face to face. It's great to meet fellow developers and share the appreciation we have for XNA and talk about the projects we're working on. You might make some new friends and find some people who can help you with your game or project.

Everyone is welcome, we have quite a wide range of members with many students, hobbyists and professional programmers amongst us. For the less experienced members it's a great opportunity to get together and chat to people who've been using XNA for years. We love sharing our experience and knowledge with our members and are always happy to answer any questions at the meetings and via the forums.

If you'd like to attend a meeting please sign up and join the XNA UK User Group Meetings group here on the site. You'll be able to find more information on the meetings there.
back to top Meeting roundup (Wednesday May 4th 2011)?
We had a few regulars couldn't turn up this time but it was nice to see some new faces too. Paul Foster from Microsoft attended and it was good to see some new guys from Blitz Game Studios who're using XNA for their personal projects. We had a good turn out and we'd like to encourage our members to tell everyone about the meetings as they're fun for anyone interested in XNA.

Edward Powell kicked off the meeting showing us a cool demo he's been working on which uses Kinect sensors to create a mesh which can be fed into the CADCAM software he writes for work. He showed how combining the depth data and image data can create interesting and detailed scupltures when turned into 3D meshes, and ultimately sculpted in physical materials.

Paul Harman told us a little about his programming history and Leda Entertainment. He showed footage of InterSceptre which looks to be a promising mash-up of many classic games with modern twists too. InterSceptre is scheduled for launch on Windows Phone 7 in June, along with AstroSwag being developed by Ben Pritchard, also for Leda Entertainment.

Simon 'Darkside' Jackson gave us an overview of how SunBurn works and showed us how the editor can be used to alter the scene and the lighting. We also had some discussions regarding the way in which SunBurn works, the rendering is very impressive considering it even runs on Windows Phone 7!

Neil Holmes gave an impromptu talk on his work for Global Game Jam. Showing us a game which he worked on for the competition and a great little level editor he's made. Thanks to Neil for the talk, especially with this being the first meeting he's attended.

Jonathan Hart also gave us a brief demo of a game he made for a University project. The game is an on-rails shooter and also uses a custom deferred renderer which Jonathan has written. What's most impressive is how the entire game has been developed in only a few months.

Martin Caine gave a talk on the updated website and how he's working to bring more people to the user group via the web. We now have a Facebook page along with our Twitter feed and will attempt to keep the website fresh and up to date in future.

After all the talks were finished it was time to head off for a curry. It was a great chance for us all to have a chat about our projects and get to know each other a little better. We hope it'll encourage our members to go out and tell their friends what fun the meetings are. Not only did we have a great meal (courtesy of Paul Foster from Microsoft) but we had a wide range of interesting talks this month, so a big thank you goes out to everyone that attended and to everyone that gave a talk.