This post was written by Jeremy Foster, who works at Microsoft as a Developer Evangelist. Jeremy Foster was educated in computer engineering and mathematics, gathered disparate industry experience in education, aerospace manufacturing, and insurance. With just enough and not nearly enough education and experience, he finally joined Microsoft with the goal of informing and inspiring other software developers to write code and write it right. Jeremy is the author of CSS for Windows 8 App Development. When he is not working, he is likely spending time with his wife and son, hiking and camping, sailing, scuba diving, or working on house projects. Find Jeremy online at @codefoster and codefoster.com.
With the exception of some time spent teaching high school, I have always been a professional developer. I should qualify, though, that I have never been a professional designer. An amateur designer I am for sure – a somewhat passionate hobbyist, yes. Let me put it this way, when it comes time in the creation of a new app to create the icon, I get very excited.
These days, developers can hardly avoid the acquisition of design skills. Corporate developers working on enterprise apps may be fine sticking entirely to back-end development, but it’s certainly not so with web and mobile developers – and especially game developers!
I find all too many developers still limping along with a free bitmap-based graphics package that ends up being a royal pain to use consequently limiting the time and effort they spend working on the design of their app and consequently making a poorly designed app. I just want to throw a vector bomb their way and have it explode in front of them and see them realize the power of designing with vector-based software.
I’ve been a CorelDRAW user for over a decade now (an eternity in the software world!) and my frequency of use approaches daily. As a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft, I am constantly switching from one program or event to another, and practically everything requires some graphical presentation of information to people and that requires graphics software. Whether it’s whipping up a poster to advertise an event, composing a report of program success, or designing a new logo and microbrand for something, I usually launch CorelDRAW.
One program that I’m working on these days is called ZERO260 – a virtual game training studio, and, yes, I made the logo in CorelDRAW. Participants register from zero260.info for any of several sessions and then join us online for direct training creating Windows 8 games using Scirra Construct2 (scirra.com). The event is primarily targeted at student developers of any programming skill level. Microsoft provides, as an incentive for a student to get involved and complete their apps, what every student can use more of – Xbox hardware!
Following the car racing theme, some students win copies of Forza Motorsport 4 and the Xbox Racing Wheel package. In addition, Microsoft has a program call the Windows 8 App Madness which qualifies students to get $100 for every app (max of 5) they develop. Corel has chosen to team up with Microsoft as well as generously offer every participating student a free copy of CorelDRAW Essentials!
In the process of learning how to create a Windows 8 game, students are given CorelDRAW training. Creating game graphics using a vector-based graphics package like CorelDRAW is much easier and more flexible than the same using a bitmap program.
In the online sessions, students are taught concepts like:
So far, participating students are excited about turning their ideas into pictures using CorelDRAW and turning their pictures into games.
If you’re interested in participating in a ZERO260 event, please visit http://zero260.info/events and find one that works for you.