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For those of you who dont know, XNA game Studio is a set of tools to help aid independent developers in creating games. Since the XNA Framework uses C# and is based on the .NET Framework, applications made with XNA game Studio can be run on the latest Windows operating systems as well as the xbox 360.

As soon as I installed it, I started messing around with Space War, a sample game that comes with XNA game Studio. I was very excited to see that it supported the xbox 360 controller. Unfortunately, Windows XP only supports wired 360 controllers at this point so I was unable to try it out. I love the fact that xbox 360 functionality is built into the framework. It seems like it would be fairly easy to make a game for the PC or the xbox 360 and transfer it to the other.

After altering all the code in Space War, I started to work on my own game. I managed to get some boxes to move around the screen fairly quickly. A few hours later, I had a simple pong game (Download Here) with some great AI. Although I had never programmed anything in C# before, I felt it took way too long to make a playable version of pong.

While XNA game Studio lets the user focus mainly on coding the game, it is still too advanced for just anybody to pick up and create something. You will have to have a good understanding of the .NET Framework and be familiar with C# in order to make something decent.

posted by 83212  # 5:53 PM