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Geek Culture / Xbox XNA

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Indicium
17
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Joined: 26th May 2008
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Posted: 14th Dec 2009 23:38
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Hey, im getting an xbox 360 at christmas, and was just wondering about XNA.

I mean, it would be damn cool if i could make my own 360 games!
So if you dont mind, i have a few questions about it...?

1) is it free to use personally, or do you need a licence?
2) Is it hard to learn?
3) How is it complied? Do you compile it on windows then transfer to the xbox harddrive, or transfer to xbox harddrive and compile, or can the whole thing be done on windows? (including testing? )
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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 14th Dec 2009 23:55
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Quote: "1) is it free to use personally, or do you need a licence?"


$99 dollars USD per year to join the developers club and for the license.

Quote: "2) Is it hard to learn?"


It uses C#. Shouldn't be difficult to learn at all.

Quote: "3) How is it complied? Do you compile it on windows then transfer to the xbox harddrive, or transfer to xbox harddrive and compile, or can the whole thing be done on windows? (including testing? )"


It has to be tested on an XBox, and you need your XBox to be connected to the internet to do so. That's all I know.

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Indicium
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Posted: 15th Dec 2009 00:01
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hmm, so £50, that isnt bad at all. I guess i might look into C# then and the internet connection wont be a problem. Thanks!
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Jeku
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21
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Joined: 4th Jul 2003
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Posted: 15th Dec 2009 00:18
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Quote: "3) How is it complied? Do you compile it on windows then transfer to the xbox harddrive, or transfer to xbox harddrive and compile, or can the whole thing be done on windows? (including testing? )"


Visual Studio takes care of that nicely Just pop in a code your 360 gives you and then you compile and start the game in Visual Studio on your PC--- your 360 will run the game as if it's on your PC. It's great because you can breakpoint and use the debugger.


Senior Web Developer - Nokia
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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 15th Dec 2009 00:22
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This is making me want to save up for an XBox and start getting more serious about learning C#, lol. It's definitely in my plans for the future.

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BearCDP
15
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Joined: 7th Sep 2009
Location: NYC
Posted: 15th Dec 2009 01:40 Edited at: 15th Dec 2009 02:47
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If you're a student, then you can get a free year subscription to the XNA Creators Club, as well as a free license for Visual Studio Professional 2008 from http://www.dreamspark.com. To maximize your freebies, try developing a good chunk of it on Windows first (which doesn't cost anything) and then once the game starts to get a little robust then activate your Creators Club trial and see how it runs on the box.

Game Design, Audio, and Music Blog
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Sid Sinister
19
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Joined: 10th Jul 2005
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Posted: 15th Dec 2009 07:19
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The MS Academic Alliance has it for free as well. I just bought an Xbox Black Friday because my degree requires it (jealous? ) for the XNA classes I'll be starting in the spring. I am very excited for them!

I believe there is a Windows Game portion to XNA as well. I don't think you absolutely need a 360. Only if you want to develop 360 games.

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
Current Project: http://strewnfield.wordpress.com/ (Last updated 06/11/09)
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entomophobiac
22
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Joined: 1st Nov 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 15th Dec 2009 08:12
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Quote: "I believe there is a Windows Game portion to XNA as well. I don't think you absolutely need a 360. Only if you want to develop 360 games."


You don't. In fact, anyone can download XNA at any time, start with Visual C# Express and be up and running within a time-frame depending on their downloading speed and nothing else.

It's really easy to code in, as well. It has many of the strengths of C++, but is a lot easier to learn and a lot faster to code. As a language -- and with XNA in particular -- it does everything for you, really.
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Syncaidius
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Joined: 22nd Mar 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 15th Dec 2009 10:42
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You can also get XNA for 360 by signing up the XNA competition over at http://dreambuildplay.com/main/default.aspx.

I got 12 months free of them last year, and another 12 months free for this years competition, even though I never entered a game.


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