XNA Game Development News
It's great that with XNA, my job now officially lets me combine my hobby of gaming with my profession of software development. With the announcements at the 2007 Game Developer Conference, the XNA Creator's Club Online site and the Dream-Build-Play contest site have moved into full availability.
XNA Game Studio Express is a free framework for (and I can vouch for this next word) easily creating both PC and XBox 360 playable games on the Windows platform. (The also free) Visual C# Express is required to create games with XNA Game Studio Express. PC deployment is free, but to play your XNA games on your XBox 360, you'll first need an XNA Creators Club license.
The "Dream-Build-Play" contest is running through July 2, 2007 and if you create an original game with XNA Game Studio Express, you could win one of the prizes.
Some useful links for the game developer in you:
- XNA Developer Home
- XNA Creator's Club Online
- "Marblets" Starter Kit Game Sample
- Samples - Sprites, Mapping, Skinning, Animation, Fonts, etc.
- XNA FAQ
- XNA Tutorial Videos
- XNA Team Blog
- Dream-Build-Play Contest Site
- XNA Game Studio Express Download
- Visual C# Express Download
Now if only you can convince your boss that the next internal development support tool you write should have a gaming interface...
-Chris
P.S. I'm planning to deliver a session on XNA-based game development at Code Camp 7. ("Would You Like to Play a Game?" - Introduction to XNA Game Development.) View the current list of CC7 sessions (and volunteer to give one if you'd like!)