[Tolwyn]

XNA Game Studio Express

XNA Game Studio Express is a new offering, targeted at students and hobbyists for game development. XNA Game Studio is based on Visual C# Express 2005 and lets developers target both Windows and Xbox 360. XNA Game Studio Express contains the following:

• The XNA Framework Content Pipeline, which is a set of tools that allow developers to more easily incorporate 3D content into their games.
• The XNA Framework, a set of managed code development libraries that make it possible for game developers to be more productive when creating games for Windows and Xbox 360.
• Game Studio Express also contains a full set of documentation, how-tos, and starter kits that demonstrate how best to use the content pipeline and XNA Framework.

The first beta of XNA Game Studio Express was released on August 30, 2006 and can be found at http://msdn.com/xna/gse.

Developers will be able to download Game Studio Express from MSDN and develop games for Windows at no cost. Additionally, XNA Game Studio Express will allow developers to commercialize their games for Windows.

[Colonol Dekker]

You got to pay Microsplodge money to put games out on 360 though dont you?

(I remember hearing that somewhere............)

[Tolwyn]

yep

[aldo_14]

You got to pay Microsplodge money to put games out on 360 though dont you?

(I remember hearing that somewhere............)

There's not even a delivery method at the moment AFAIK; you have to physically move over the code and compile on another machine to distribute.  I don't really see the point, myself, because I think it's more useful to actually learn the base stuff from scratch rather than work-on-middleware. 

I wonder what the odds are on 99% of output being space invader or r-type clones, though?

[Colonol Dekker]

Good old snake on the PS2 (the BASIC coder that came with the original PS2 demo discs rocked)

XBOX 360 at a push will see a flood of the aforementioned plus Geometry WARS clones i reckon.

[Descenterace]

At least it's not DarkBASIC. Enable idiots to produce games and idiots WILL produce games. A bad programmer will produce bad code regardless of how many tools he's given.

However, this one looks as though some actual understanding is required, since it's a framework rather than an environment.