Microsoft has released a game making software suite that allows you to make a video game for Windows XP and Xbox 360. You now have the power to make your own Xbox games at no cost whatsoever.
There are plenty of free game making suites available to you but none of them work with a console system. Microsoft has changed all this by making available a platform for making video games that will play on your Xbox 360 system. That’s right; you can make a game and play it right on the 360 you have at home. And one of the best things about this is that it is totally free. As a little guy with big ideas you now have the chance to make your game making dreams come true. This new software is called Microsoft XNA.
Making a game does take work of course and there are some software requirements needed so let me review these. First off, you need a computer that runs Windows XP with service pack 2 and you need to install a program called Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition. (XNA is written in C# so that’s why this is required.) This software is also free to download. You also need a graphics card that supports DirectX 9.0c and Shader Model 1.1.
There are some optional tools and requirements like an audio authoring tool called XACT and if you want to use this tool you will need to install the .NET framework version 1.1 on your computer but this is not mandatory. You can create games without using the XACT tools.
XNA looks like it is going to be very popular and there are lots of websites springing up that are devoted to it and Garage Games has already created a software utility that will make game development very easy. There are also many tutorials and examples available to help you through the learning process.
If you always wanted to make a video game for your Xbox now is the chance to get some official software that will make your creative game ideas come true.
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