XNA Game Studio 3.1 Now Available!

If you are not sure what XNA is, XNA Game Studio enables hobbyists, academics, and independent game developers to easily create video games for Windows, Xbox 360, and the Zune digital media player by using optimized cross-platform gaming libraries based on the .NET Framework in the C# programming language.

This release is incremental to XNA Game Studio 3.0 and contains many new features, including avatars, Xbox LIVE Party support, and video as well as enhancements to existing features. For the full list of improvements in this release, see the “What’s New in XNA Game Studio 3.1” section of the documentation once you have installed the product.

Download XNA Game Studio 3.1 here.  The readme file highlights that you have to uninstall XNA Game Studio 3.0 before proceeding.  Here is a link that details what’s new in XNA Game Studio 3.1.

Some great Tutorials for developers new to game development using short and effective screen casts:

A few links to help get you started (by no means all inclusive):