Benedetta's blog

Prayer of St. Francis - the video

2009-12-07T15:29:00.003+01:00

Ad Dei Laudem - polyphonic choir exibition

2009-12-07T11:38:00.003+01:00

Hi there,
Christmas is near and my choir is starting with its exibitions.
Here we are performing in Augusta (Itay) into the main church.
Great great day.
(did you know I'm a choir girl? No? It is ten years I'm singing with this choir)

a name for my newest #xna cocktail database app

2009-11-09T16:31:00.003+01:00

Hi guys, I need your help. I'm looking for a new name for my cocktail database app.

This time it is focused on the database, there are more recipes (115 rigth now, growing) including this time the non-alcoholic ones, and there are lots of queries possible. You can search by ingredients (at least one matching and/or all matching), by genre, by tags (sweet, strong, fruity etc) and if there are more matches it indicates the matching percentage. Searches are fast and easy. All the ingredients are organized in a better way and I plan to extend the database of cocktails every couple of months.

It is clear it isn't a "Cocktail Paradise 2" it is too different and this is more database oriented than CP.

Names I'm planning to use:

100+ COCKTAILS
COCKTAILS!
A cocktails database
The cocktails database
DRINKS!
100+ DRINKS

I'm open to suggestion, the more original it is the better.

me, me and...

2009-10-27T15:37:00.004+01:00

It's me, the dog Frame and the cat Script. Isn't he wonderfull?

my kittens

2009-08-26T12:10:00.004+02:00

Aren't they the cutest things you ever seen? In this picture the two in the left side are 1 month old (and they are brother and sister) the kitten in the right side is two months old (his name' Lupin).
Lovely!

loads of news!

2009-06-30T17:03:00.004+02:00

I have a couple of news.

the first: my cat Mail had 5 tiny cute kittens (still looking for names)
the second: my second Xbox lifestyle app was just approved (yes, the second) it's a shiatsu massaging tool with instructions: you can download for free a demo here

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025855024b/

soon some other details and piece of art.

my dog Frame is having some relax

2009-06-20T15:46:00.002+02:00

(my dog Frame sunbathing)

She had an hard working day, running and barking for hours in my garden.

... and some screens (preview)

2009-06-16T17:55:00.005+02:00

... some screens of the upcoming (very soon) "Shiatsu Massage" on Xbox Live Community Games, called now Xbox Live Indie Games

Coming Soon!

2009-06-16T16:39:00.005+02:00

hello world....
this time (waiting for the kittens...) I'd like to show you some arts of "Shiastsu Massage", my next XNA lifestyle app.

In the next days I will add more arts of my past works (a lot of mobile games).

World, let me introduce you Pixel, Router and Mail

2009-06-14T14:53:00.005+02:00

Hi everyone,

here's three out of seven cats I own. These are the latest (waiting for Mail's kittens)

note: The picture is a little outdated, now Router (the black one in the middle) is a six Kg giant cat!

I can't wait!

2009-06-10T13:17:00.003+02:00

I'm just looking at my cat (one of..), as said before she is pregnant...

The thing is... she is huge! I'm especting for kittens and I'm pretty sure that they'll come suddenly and very soon (hours? days?)
The last night she called me in the middle of the night and she were so nervous!
I'm getting nervous too, I can't wait anymore!

vote for Cocktail Paradise!

2009-06-05T12:03:00.001+02:00

If you don't mind please vote for Cocktail Paradise here

news! my cat is pregnant!

2009-05-31T16:38:00.000+02:00

yes! it is true... one of my cats (Mail is its name) is pregnant, I suspect that her boyfriend is her brother Router.
Both are black cats, so, if all their little kittens will be black... I will have the all the evidences (lots of little evidences...).

stay tuned! In a month I will have more kittens to show you!

who's talking about me

2009-05-30T16:38:00.000+02:00

Hi followers,

looking around on the net about my little app I found some guys talking about it.
here some links to their interesting articles / blogs / reviews:

http://blogs.ign.com/HustlingOnRadio/2009/05/28/121624/
http://gparcade.blogfaction.com/article/108260/xna-community-game-of-the-month-cocktail-paradise/

a big thank you to these guys who tried (and liked) my app.

If you find more comments about Cocktail Paradise please share with me (posting comments here).

I'm back (with reserve)

2009-05-19T23:07:00.000+02:00

Hi world, I spent the last days at home with a bad bad cold...
Even take the notebook and write few words was really hard and no xbox for days! But now I'm back and the good news is that the updated version of Coktail Paradise was approved (cool! I was in a bed with a flu and my fellows creators reviewed my game)
Thanks guys! I will return the favour asap!

Cocktail Paradise update on the go

2009-05-12T18:14:00.000+02:00

The update is actually in peer review phase, and it will fix some issues. The most important is a wrong conversion calculation CL -> FLOZ on some Xbox for some cocktails (really sorry).
I added also two new features: a slideshow, good to use an a cool screensaver during your parties, and a random pick, usefull when you want to try something new but you can't decide.

The update will be out soon but I can't say when, so check frequently the community games list, and see if there's the new version out.

thank you post

2009-05-06T20:10:00.000+02:00

Looks like my xbox app is very popular, I'm really really really happy to see this.

I want say a big thank you to everyone downloaded my Cocktail Paradise.
I want say a big thank you to everyone purchased my Cocktail Paradise.
I want say a big thank you to XNA guys and their amazing framework.
I want say a big thank you to the entire community games... community.

THANK YOU!

P.S.
(I want also say thank you to my pets. My cats Router, Mail, Script, Game, Over and Pixel and to my four dogs: Java, Frame, Tera and the little Brew.)

a few words about Cocktail Paradise

2009-05-04T23:21:00.000+02:00

What's Cocktail Paradise?
Cocktail Paradise is a lifestyle app available on Xbox360 (community games section).
It is a database of 100 cocktails with pictures of every single cocktail and complete instructions. The cool thing is that you can search your cocktail in a lot of differet ways: in a alphabetical order, by type and by ingredient, choosing one or more ingredient (more than 120).
Do you like cocktails containing orange juice or vodka? Select both the indredients and start mixing your cocktail.

Approved!

2009-05-04T17:13:00.000+02:00

It is official, now I'm a Xbox developer. My first game (a lifestyle app to be honest) is live now.
If you have an xbox and a live account download it here

(let me know if you like it and DON'T tell me if you don't like it... :D )

here the youtube video

I'm back

2009-04-30T21:53:00.000+02:00

I'm exausted... days of hard work (not alone, my two black cats helped me) and now my little app is in the peer review process... finger crossed.

As soon as I can I wil upload more images and details here.

but in the meantime... look at this video!

ooops... obviously I will upload some pictures of my pets too!

Did you know?

2009-04-26T21:44:00.000+02:00

Some tips about me:

I'm a volunteer in a dogs "hospital", not sure about the word, it is a place were we feed and take care of sick or abandoned dogs.
There are over an hundred dogs, and they costs a lot for us (time and money)!
We're a dozen of volunteers and we have no public or private funds.

Anyway, I love dogs (and cats) so I'm happy to be helpfull.

wow, first comments on my app

2009-04-21T15:39:00.000+02:00

Just received my first feedbacks, it is a very usefull process!
Thanks to who reviewd my app, an update is coming, stay tuned!

Cocktail Paradise now in playtest

2009-04-19T19:05:00.000+02:00

I did it!!!

I'm really excited, I just uploaded my first XNA project.
It is a cocktail database with more than 60 cocktails ral images and a search option.

here a an image:

almost done!

2009-04-09T17:11:00.000+02:00

Here we are, my first game/app to put in the community games is almost ready.
I hope to put it playtest in the next days.
Soon more details and screens.

just learned XNA

2009-04-08T01:47:00.000+02:00

My first post!
As a first thing I wanna tell you I just learned to program XNA.
Now me, my dogs and my cats are thinking about making a game for Xbox to release as Community Game.
I have an idea, I thing new for the Xbox360 world.

Soon I will share with you my idea and some screens.

Cheers!