Welcome to Checksum Labs.

Lately I've been reflecting on the countless hours spent in front of a computer, from the TRS-80 to the Commodore 64 to present-day. Over the years I've come up with different justifications for living in this pixelated world, some of them legit and some not. When it comes to Checksum Labs and the time I poured into these projects, I have no regrets. They served two main purposes: 1) realizing a life-long goal of creating games and sharing them with the world, and 2) ramping up on career-bolstering technologies in a fun and engaging way.

Sometimes my reasons for putting these projects front-and-center were a little selfish. I was hoping my creativity would reap a little recognition. I wanted to time-warp my fellow old-school gamers to the Maniac Mansion days and give them a few laughs.

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Buddy Knavery II and RAGE have been upgraded to Silverlight 5 and I added a few improvements while I was at it. RAGE now leverages Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) for the discovery of scenes, character controls, ScriptActions, and more. Also, the low-latency XNA SoundEffect class is now implemented for the playback of WAV files.

Head on over to the RAGE area for more details, particularly the updated article on setting up the environment and extending the engine.

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While normal Americans stuffed their faces over the long Thanksgiving weekend I decided to finally dip my toe into the HTML5 pool. jQuery lured me even further into these unfamiliar waters, but ultimately I would have to sink or swim by experimenting with LOST Redux.

Day 1 was re-writing the site in MVC3, which was painless. Day 2 was the challenge: taking the Silverlight trivia quiz and making a completely plugin-free version.

It's tough to tell the difference between the versions, so to that end things went pretty well. The quiz now comes in a mobile-optimized version also, though I've only tested on an iPhone so far. If your mileage varies I'd appreciate any details you can pass along.

I jotted a few notes throughout the weekend and shared them below. I admit they're pretty random and unorganized, but who knows, they might help you avoid a snag or two down the road.

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I've been in software development for about a dozen years, with gigs ranging from dot-com startups to Microsoft's main campus. I don't claim to be a wily veteran or industry expert, but I recognize the patterns across companies and can offer some advice. Keep in mind that while I lean on generalizations I know there are exceptions to every rule. Your mileage will vary.

Tip #1: Reject the classifications that others place upon you.

It won't take long for you to pick up on this: people in the tech industry — recruiters, developers, and managers alike — tend to make hasty assessments of your aptitude. If your portfolio includes a decent-looking web site, don't be surprised when they classify you as a "UI guy" (pardon the gender type). Conversely, if you have a knack for algorithms don't be surprised if they assume you struggle with creative tasks. On several occasions I've worn the albatross of the "UI guy" distinction. It took a while to convince my peers that, yes, I could understand their oh-so-complex C# code.

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In the Alpha/Silverlight 4 version of RAGE, developers can create their own ScriptAction classes to extend the RageEngine environment. Unfortunately, the current setup requires that each custom class be registered manually. In the WinRT/Metro version that's all going to change. In fact, many of the Environment's current limitations and assumptions will be eliminated with the adoption of the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF).

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A few years ago a co-worker sang the praises of ASP.NET MVC, lobbying for its adoption by the team. I certainly struggled with it. Part of that was me, part of it was MVC being in Beta at the time and having all sorts of quirks. But things have changed. Thanks to MVVM and Silverlight I'm very comfortable with the concepts, and the MVC framework has since matured by leaps and bounds. And now, after re-writing Checksum Labs using MVC3, I can't imagine going back to Web Forms.

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The first step toward Metro development is having a place to document all the ups and downs along the way. Checksum Labs has just undergone a facelift to achieve that goal. Here's a summary of the changes:

• Cleaner design, plugin-free, spiffy new logo.
• Articles now categorized by subject. Better organization means I'll be adding technical content more often.
• RSS feeds available for the overall blog or by subject.
• New version developed in ASP.NET MVC 3 (okay, this one's mostly a technical bonus for me).

Lots of good stuff coming in the weeks and months ahead, so be ready!

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As I shift my focus from Silverlight to "Metro" development there will inevitably be significant changes to Checksum Labs. I won't attempt to establish a specific timeline but these changes are roughly aligned with the release of Windows 8. The following is a breakdown of what'll happen over the next few months.

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It was 2006 when I worked at Microsoft's main campus and started seeing hints of a mysterious thing called "Jolt." I soon learned it was the codename for what would become Silverlight, a big first step into a world dominated by Adobe Flash. SL1 was heavily dependent on JavaScript (which I avoid like the plague to this day), but when I learned that SL2 leveraged C# everything changed.

I devoted the next few years of my life to Silverlight. Buddy Knavery was the new platform's first point-and-click adventure game. Literally thousands of people around the world gave it a spin when it was published on Microsoft's Silverlight Showcase. It was exhilirating to say the least and it propelled me to develop more projects.

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It's the home stretch for multiple projects and I've decided that Friday, July 15 when they're ready is the day to release the following...

RAGE helps you rapidly build adventure games in Silverlight and leverages existing tools like Blend and Visual Studio. RAGE handles the grunt work, you focus on building scenes. An entire section of this site will be dedicated to RAGE resources and tutorials.

The evil Barry McClanahan is collecting ancient tablets and exploiting their hidden powers. Buddy Knavery has returned to Lazarus Falls to thwart his sadistic plans. Buddy Knavery II is the second episode of the series and is built using RAGE.

Some improvements to this site are coming, including sharing widgets and better organization of content. The design won't change that drastically but fans of retro games might find the site a bit more compelling.

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