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Microsoft Releases XNA Game Studio Express Beta
by Chris Remo, Aug 30, 2006 10:24am PDTMicrosoft has announced that the public beta of XNA Game Studio Express, its free XNA-based development environment for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Xbox 360, has been released for free download. The software is derived from Visual C# Express 2005, and is tailored specifically towards cross-platform game development. The game "Spacewar" is included as an example for game creators. Game developer and middleware provider GarageGames also announced that it will begin accepting applications for its upcoming Torque X, an XNA-compatible version of its own Torque engines including Torque Shader Engine and Torque Game Builder. GarageGames hopes that the full release of Torque X will align with the release of the final version fo XNA Game Studio Express, planned for this holiday season. For more on GarageGames' plans, check out our interview. XNA Game Studio Express allows enthusiast developers to create and compile Windows games for no charge. To export games to Xbox 360, users will be required to join the XNA Creators Club for a membership fee of $99/year or $49 for a four month trial period. This membership is also required to run other creators' games on Xbox 360. In the longer term, Microsoft hopes to offer an online service through which developers can sell the games they have created with XNA Game Studio Express via Xbox Live.
Comments
I wouldn't really use the term "cross-platform"... it's misleading...
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i think i can pull off playing with XNA under the guise of trying to learn C#
I mean, I am the lone java guy working at a .NET shop!
So how realistic a scenario is this:
- Start project in VS2005 using the XNA Framework and C#
- Work away at it, finally decide you like it
- Pop it into Visual C# Express so it can go to the Xbox 360 (when that part of the process becomes available)
I'm already hitting limits in the VC#X program I don't like, so I'd like to use VS2005 but have the option of going back to VC#X later if I get into that XB360 bit.
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http://www.xnaspot.com/Tutorial_GettingStarted.aspx
I assume we can do 2D since I don't see how else we can do interfaces. Is there the equivalent of orthogonal view in DirectX?? I am more familiar with OpenGL myself...
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1) It's a shame that even though the documentation shows how to handle controller disconnects that Space War doesn't.
2) The undocumented "Y reloads the settings file" item gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies.
3) ChangeState() is a bit of an odd pattern. I understand why it was done this way, but most games have I've worked on use one or more StateManager objects that can use and call State objects, and on a transition, call the proper State.Shutdown and State.StartUp functions. It helps keep code related to a state with the state as well. It can also help properly route input when you have modal pop-ups, but still want to render the previous screen underneath.
4) The templated caches are nice.
5) A *lot* of magic numbers in the code for items like health, damage, etc. A Globals static class, some consts or putting a lot of those magic numbers in settings.xml would be beneficial, especially for a starter kit. More bugs get caused by magic numbers in games than I care to admit...
6) The XStorage stuff seems to have missed temporary storage detection and access.
7) Given the extremely small amount of additions to Visual C# Express Edition (two extra "New Items", two extra "New Projects" and a Starter Kit), they may as well have taken the extra couple of minutes to get it over to Visual Basic Express Edition as well.
Just some initial thoughts, but I'm still digging...
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Microsoft has provided an awesome getting started tutorial inside the help for Visual C# Express. To access it, click on "Help" in Visual C#, now select "Content". In the sidebar that appears on the left, you'll see an "XNA" category. Expand that category.
Now you should see a sub-category titled "XNA Game Studio Express". Expand that category.
Below that category you'll see a sub-category titled "Getting Started with XNA". Expand that category.
You will now see a sub-category title "Your First XNA Game", click on that category and enjoy following the first tutorial to creating your first XNA Game.
By the time you are done with their tutorial, you should be able to draw a 2D sprite on the screen and have it move around.
Also, look at this thread for some other tutorial advice and sites.
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I have plenty of other projects to throw XNA at though :)
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I'm even looking at the source and it has GamePad objects, but no mention of the keyboard to even get past the title screen...
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Tip: If you are going to make your own game, remember that content is almost always the major bottleneck (not tech). Design your game around how much content your team can realistically create. If you are just a programmer working in his spare time, dont make a game that will require lots of custom animation or models to be fun or playable. You can accomplish a lot with just simple shapes, interesting lighting and particle effects.
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