VB bites the dust.

So last week, in a fit of frustration, I switched from VB.net to XNA.  XNA (it's not an acronym) has a bunch of built-in tools for both 2D and 3D graphics.  I'm liking it so far.  I also have access to all of the direct3D 10 features as well.  Not that I can really use them: it's taken me a week just to write shaders that will do basic lighting operations.  And I don't even have shadows working yet.

There's two ideas for games that I have that I would like to develop.

1)  A tower defense game with a new twist.

It's set in a post apocalyptic world where energy resources are scarce.  The player defends a high-tech civilization that dwells inside of a volcano.  The base of the volcano has been capped with a structure that draws power from the magma.  This provides all the power that the player needs to develop their civilization.  It's also under an extreme amount of pressure.

The other civilizations in the world are just a little bit jealous of the sweet gig that the player has at the base of the volcano.  But they lack any sophisticated technology to take the volcano.  So they've taken to throwing large rocks and boulders down the volcano.  It's really not very nice.

The player has a wide arsenal of weapons to either destroy the boulders or knock them back up and over the side of the volcano.

2)  Hi-level strategy game set in the ancient world.  I'll have more on this later since it's a rather large topic.