OK, so I know most intelligent people are tired of the MS bashing that 
goes on, but I still couldn't resist the title :)

Anyway, a few days ago I downloaded the free XNA studio* to give it a 
try.  I read a bit on C#** over the last couple of days, decided it 
might be worth trying out (it couldn't be worse than Java, and I gave 
*that* a try), and tonight fired up the studio to look through some of 
the tutorials and examples.

I must say, I'm quite impressed with a couple of things in it.

1) The project frameworks provided are incredibly robust and complete. 
Creating a new project from a template sets up a decent game framework 
that can be extended and customized with ease.  Game properties like 
framerate limits, constraints on video resolution, etc can be set with 
one line of code due to the layout of the data structure.  At best with 
C++ game libraries I've looked at, I've had to copy & paste not only 
several files of generic code to get a working app, but also hunt 
through the Project Settings to look out for anything that might cause 
problems.

2) Resource manage is *incredibly* easy.  In the "Solution Explorer", 
simply bring up the context menu and choose "Add Existing" or "Add New", 
give it a name (and select the file if it aleady exists), and it's 
imported into the correct directory.  Loading the resource in your code 
is as easy as one line, and you only specify the resource name as a 
handle - you don't have to worry about the actual file name or directory 
at all.

3) It "compiles" extremely quickly compared to C++.

4) The included documentation seems complete and informative.

In about 15 minutes, I had a bouncing ball and a framerate counter. 
Mind you, this is the first time I've *ever* done anything with either 
C# or XNA Studio.  It was very easy to get into, and I feel like I at 
least know where to look for everything I need.

This weekend I'm going to start work on a larger test project to see how 
it handles.  I'm interested to see how I respond to working on something 
larger, and if I'll remain as positive and hopeful after a few days with it.

*For those of you who are not aware, the XNA Studio is a special 
packaging of Visual Studio designed specifically for creating casual 
games on the XBox and Windows platforms.  Amateur game developers are 
allowed to upload their games to the XBox Live Marketplace, where anyone 
on Windows or an XBox can play them.  If I end up liking C#, then 
playing my games with friends will be one more reason to get an XBox 360.

**I won't comment on the language until I've used it a bit more.

-- 
...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

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