The Steam Podcast

The website is up and domain is good to go. We’ve officially settled in at SteamPodcast.com!

I’m still tweaking the site a bit, and I may even replace the default Wordpress theme with a better one if I can find the time to write one myself. But for now, this is how it’s going to look.

I did a little more investigation and we’re going to be able to host our podcasts on the Internet Archive. They’ll also be labeled with a Creative Commons license in the process.

Look for the first episode within the next week or two.

Episode #001 of the Steam Podcast will be recorded this weekend! I’m also proud to announce that our guest this week will be Will Smith from the SourceForts mod team. For more information about SourceForts, you can check out the SourceForts website, or listen to the podcast! We’ll also have the latest in Steam Powered news and updates, as well as some general tech news and gaming hardware announcements.

The podcast will be released to the public at 12:01am Saturday morning. You can either visit the site and download the podcast, or better yet subscribe to us and get the latest episodes delivered right to your computer automatically! You can subscribe by adding the podcast feed URL (that orange icon to the right) to your podcast aggregator of choice. (Hint: iTunes can do it!)

After we’ve released the first episode, the show will have a page in the iTunes Music Store as well.

We’re taking YOUR questions about the SourceForts mod to be answered by Will Smith on the show! Send them in by posting them in this thread at Steam Powered.

File Mirrors

• High Quality MP3 - SteamPodcast.com
• High Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• Low Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• OGG Vorbis - Archive.org

This week’s podcast features the following on-air personalities:

• Bob Somers - SteamPodcast.com
• Ramzy - Steam Powered Forums
• Will Smith - SourceForts Mod Team

The following news articles were discussed on the show:

PopCap Games Come To Steam
PopCap Games has brought their collection to Steam. Games like Bejeweled, Zuma, and Chuzzle are now available for purchase and download on Steam. I think this is a big move for Steam into the arena of a content provider, not just a game distribution system. These aren’t big games, they’re casual games, so perhaps when you find Steam installed on your Grandma’s computer so that she can play Bejeweled you won’t be so surprised. (full story)

Team Fortress 2 To Be Bundled With HL2: Episode 2
Valve announced on Thursday that Team Fortress 2 and a new single player game called Portal will be bundled with Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Release is slated for the first part of next year. Interestingly, Valve is also developing Episode 2 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 as well… (full story)

Microsoft Releases XNA Game Studio Express (Beta)

XNA Game Studio Express enables individuals and small teams to more easily create video games using new, optimized cross-platform gaming libraries for Windows and Xbox 360. This beta release targets the development of games for Windows. The final version of XNA Game Studio Express will be available this holiday season and will enable development of games which target Windows and upon purchase of a XNA Creators Club subscription, the Xbox 360 as well.

As I understand it, the library requires Visual C# 2005 Express Edition to write your code. However it’s freely available from Microsoft.

Will this really work in terms of cross-platform development? Can I write my game in Windows and then just recompile it for the Xbox 360 without changing anything? This good be a real time saver for developers that are targeting multiple markets. (full story)

Blizzard Drops Hints About Starcraft 2
Chief Operating Officer Paul Sams told an IGN reporter at the German Games Convention that Starcraft 2 is in the works. Sams said that Starcraft is his favorite game of all time and that Blizzard will certainly continue both the Starcraft and and Diablo series. He also said that he can’t say anything yet, but Blizzard will have a “major product announcement” in 2007 and is working on 3 unannounced titles at the moment. (full story)

Free Spectator Passes To CPL
You can get a free spectator pass to CPL in Dallas, TX just by filling out a form at the CPL website. Tickets are first-come, first-served, so you better get one now if you plan on going. (full story)

For more information on the SourceForts mod discussed in this week’s episode, check out www.sourcefortsmod.com and download it for free!