XNA – The state of play
The death bells have been wrung many times for XNA by the community but as they've been ringing for several years and XNA is still here what is happening? Is XNA a dead platform? And does it have any benefits - should you still be using it - or even learning it?
Firstly - we have to consider the platforms:
XBOX:
With the 360, the ONLY option for indie games is XNA. While support from Microsoft has been spotty at best, a few people - myself included - make a decent living from this platform alone. Even just as a platform to toy with to show your friends code running on consumer hardware, XNA on Xbox is valuable. Is it dying? Well, we are likely to see the NEW Xbox (720, loop, whatever) Holiday 2013. That's nearly 2 years away. And the 360 wont die instantly - in fact, its likely for people who cant afford to upgrade - indie games may be the only outlet of new games after a while.
Its possible the new Xbox will run XBLIG games - and possible that you'll be able to publish new XBLIG games but in all likelihood it'll be a new SDK.
WindowsPhone:
Microsoft has already announced the death of Silverlight pretty much - and in the same announcement has either said WP8 will support new XNA apps - or wont. It's hard to truly read between the lines. What we DO know is that everything in the store right now will run on WP8. There is also a good chance that WP8 will not be rolled out to the old devices, meaning you've got a captive market.
Windows:
This platform is the home of most of the paranoia - yet its the easiest to answer. Windows 8 will not support XNA within the metro environment. Does this mean XNA is dead? Anything but. Firstly, XNA on PC can only be compiled for x86 (not ARM) meaning all machines capable of running it will have desktop mode. Desktop mode will always support XNA - for the same reasons it will always support VB6 and so on. The PC is an open platform and thus you cant place limits on what it can run.
The concern is more that, as its not supported under Metro, it cannot be sold under the new Win8 store. This doesn't mean XNA is more dead - it just means its not more alive. However, just because Microsoft hasn't given us the tools to make XNA run in metro doesn't mean they wont exist. Because native development is possible - and how open windows is - there is no limit to what you can do - and there are several teams working to bring XNA to metro. The earliest we are aware of is the ANX Framework which is a port of XNA to DirectX11 - and openGL for Linux. Also announced recently is that MonoGame will be working towards a metro version.
If this new store is of no concern to you, such as you wish to release for free, or on another marketplace such as Steam or IndieCity then the changes (or lack there of) in Windows8 are of no concern at all - XNA is as valid a platform as it was with Windows 7, Vista and XP.
There is also Shawn H's new toy - DirectXTK - created with Chuck Walbourn - a few little toys for c++ that are based on XNA ideals - so you can make the move to Metro smoother for yourself while learning a new language.
iPhone:
Iphone? Yes, thanks to MonoTouch, c# apps can be run on ios, and thanks to the open sourcproject MonoGame , porting XNA apps is a lot less work than you imagine. The MonoGame port gets stronger and stronger every day, with 3D support being added recently - and new platforms being added frequently. iPhone seems to be the primary platform for the MonoGame and probably the healthiest platform if you intend to at least cover costs. the iPhone is actually a platform where XNA support is getting STRONGER rather than weaker and there are some rather interesting facts. Due to the apple app store rules, c# cannot be JIT on the iPhone - it has to be compiled. This means XNA code on the iPhone runs fast. REALLY fast. Much faster than the same code on WP7 for instance. There were some early concerns about some small print in the developer T&C's but apple has reverted these meaning using c# for iOS development is fully legit.
Android:
As above, MonoGame is allowing XNA dev on android. While not as mature, progress is being made fast and is worth consideration.
MacOS/Linux:
Both MonoGame and ANX are targeting these platforms. ANX seems to be more solid graphically, MonoGame more solid in the nitty-gritty stuff.
Playstation Vita:
Sony's Playstation Suite is a c# (mono based) platform for indies to create games on the PSV and 'Plasystation' android devices. While nothing concrete yet, since it supports c# already, using MonoGame or something similar wouldn't be a huge stretch. Its early days yet, but its certainly on the radar.
So what does it all mean?
If you a WP7 developer, your future is unknown. If you develop for XBOX, the future is uncertain but you've got at least 2 years of marketplace left. However, XNA is far from dead - in fact, if you're willing to stray from MS platforms - or at least non MS versions of XNA at least - its more alive than its ever been. Us developers - especially in the XNA community do like a bit of doom and gloom but its just not warranted. MS may not be supporting XNA directly for a while, but its got a lot of legs left in it.
Not only that, if you are starting out, XNA is an amazing platform to cut your teeth on - and what you learn is applicable on pretty much every other platform out there.
Sgtconker.com will be covering all of the above tech and will cover issues of porting, multiplatform development and the like. XNA isn't at the end of its life, its just growing up and leaving home.
Under new management
The illustrious leader has stepped aside for the time being and I, madninjaskillz, have taken command until he returns from his globe trotting/domination.
Some of you may know me already, many will not. I cut my teeth in XNA programming with an XBLIG app called 'ezmuze', which I followed up with the super successful 'ezmuze+'. In that time I went from decent zero to hero somewhat, so I think I'm rather well positioned to know what articles the noobs need and also, what the pros need too.
I hope under my command, the site will shake its reputation for not so many updates. I hope to expand the scope slightly, with tutorials and news on alternative XNA platforms such as monoGame, technologies such as DirectXTK (the spritebatch like c++ libs from Shawn H) and maybe even a little bit of WinRT/Metro.
My expertise are most certainly in the audio realm so I will be looking to others for other articles as you can only discuss iPad ports and DSP so much. If you want to contribute, please contact me with an article.
Hopefully we can restore Sgt.Conker to its former glory and help and inform a few people along the way.
Ignoring a Hidden Clingerman to Visit Germany
Looks like there were a new addition to the league of XNA/DirectX (didn’t that read DirectX/XNA once?) MVPs: the German Roland “Glatzemann” Rosenkranz, who is running amokcausing havockeeping posting on the XNA.mag and our beloved AppBuh forums. Congratulations, chap!
Meanwhile, in Jim “So Evil That Even George Ducks and Covers” Perry-land the Overlocker himself continues to spam his blog. This time, he covers Spy Game Design – Multiplatform Issues/Capability and Spy Game Design – Character Training. Lets see if he can keep up the pace while The Hidden One continues to, well, hide.
The Replacement Clingerman
As George W. “Father of an Army” Clingerman went quite quiet recently (conspiracy theorists claim he’s the XNA/XBLIG community manager now and hence is as quiet as the void that wasn’t a community manager…) we have to turn our head to the Evil MVP Jim “The Replacement Clingerman” Perry, who replaced locking with blogging what seems to be some sort of The Spy Game Design Series:
- Spy Game Design – Agent Specialties
- Spy Game Design – Inventory and Related Areas
- Spy Game Design – Assignments/Missions
- Spy Game Design–Death
- Spy Game Design – Advancement
- Spy Game Design – Combat
- Spy Game Design – Identities
And, compared to the AppBuh Forums mess his forums are alive and kicking.
Catalin on 2D Skeletal Animations
Catalin “Too Proud To Self-promote” Zima (you might know him as our local XNA MVP Captain ZSquare) has a nice write-up of 2D Skeletal Animations over at his blog. So, if you ever wondered what the benefits of skeletal animations in the 2D world as compared to our beloved sprite sheets are, his post would be your starting point to explore this very topic.
The Joplin Tornado Fund for DeathmatchGames
Via The Dead Pixel Society comes the word about the impact of the Joplin Tornado on the XNA community:
As you may or may not know (until now) a fellow XNA developer @DeathmatchGames and his family were victims of the May 22nd tornado that ravaged Joplin, MO. You can find extensive coverage of the tornado and the devestation [sic] it's caused at CNN.com, Google, and everywhere else.
Head over to the DeathmatchGames - Joplin Tornado Fund to read more and to learn about the ways to help.
High End Performance Optimizations on the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7
Ian Nicolades
Technical Director, UberGeekGames
For the Xbox or Windows Phone 7 programmer, performance is something that should always be kept in mind. For any moderately complex game, it can be very easy for framerate issues to crop up, and seeing as those pesky gamers insist on having a smooth playing experience, it can quickly become problematic.
Having had quite a bit of experience in this area with our last few games, this article will be a “missing manual” of sorts; the kind of cheat sheet that would have saved me more than one headache! 
Windows Phone 7 Unleashed Hackathon
Via Chris G. Williams comes the word of an upcoming Windows Phone 7 hackathon in Atlanta, Georgia. Quotes the Chris:
This is a "hands on" hackathon where you will learn from Windows Phone 7, XNA and Azure experts how to build, scale and publish your Windows Phone 7 app or game. If you are just a beginner, or already have apps in the Marketplace this event will should not be missed. BYO Laptop!
RSVP early, space is limited to 300 attendees: http://bit.ly/RegWP7Hackathon [Ed.: The unshortened URL for the event details is here]
(YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A TECHED ATTENDEE TO COME TO THIS!)
Hiding a Clingerman to Talk Natively
In Benchmarking C#/.Net Direct3D 11 APIs vs native C++ (a post from March 14, I wonder why I did not share this already…) Alexandre Mutel explores the cost of calling native APIs from managed code (AKA interop) via micro benchmarking various managed Direct3D 11 APIs. He does this because:
Hopefully, in SharpDX unlike any other DirectX .NET APIs, this code has been written to be consistent over the whole generated code, and was carefully designed to be quite efficient… but still, It has obviously a cost, and we need to know it!
Spoiler: The offerings Microsoft has in store are, by far, slower than SlimDX/SharpDX.
In other news: There is a thread over in the AppBuhAppHub forums praising the XNA MVPs. We here in the barracks fully support that effort – mostly due to the fact that Captain ZSquare has access to various arms here and we lost the keys to lock up the arsenal… – so you might head over to add to the +1 (none of the Google +1 stuff) choir.
Recommendations on Resuming
Coming hot from the freshly-awarded MVP Michael B. McLaughlin, a set of no less than eight (8= 2*4 = 3+5 = 10-2) tips to improve the experience of users when they need to close and resume your XNA game on Windows Phone 7. The article is a must read for everyone who doesn't want to annoy their customers.
Go ahead and read it now.