XNA Game Studio Express Free Download

Design Your Own Game with XNA

A set of tools from Microsoft that facilitate computer game design, development, and management, XNA is meant to bring all the aspects of game production into a single system. This way, developers don't have to deal with repetitive code and many of the boring aspects related to designing video games.

The cool thing about XNA Game Studio Express is that an amateur video game designer can not only use the software for free, but they can also publish their games for Windows-based computers for free. This isn't to say that that this video game design software is incredibly easy to use for anyone like how MS Paint or Microsoft Movie Maker are created for the average Joe. XNA is still a specialized tool and it would probably be a good idea to look into a video game design school for some initial guidance.

After getting some basic knowledge about how to make a video game, the eventual result is limited only by your imagination! An XNA Game Studio Express free download can serve as a huge launching point into your career as a game designer. Alternatively, if you want to just keep it as a hobby, that's fine too. The gaming community can always use some free homebrew entertainment.

XNA Game Studio Express Free Download

When feel reasonably confident about the basics of video game design, it might be time for you to download XNA Game Studio Express for free. Surfing through the Microsoft website, you'll come across one specific page where you able to acquire the software.

You can click here to download XNA Game Studio Express.

The current version available through Microsoft is XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Refresh. As the community matures and more people jump on board, Microsoft will surely update the software package with more advanced features and perhaps a better user interface. As it stands, the "final" version was released on December 11, 2006. There is no indication for certain as to when (and if) and upgrade is on the way.

The Express edition of XNA Game Studio is largely targeted at students, hobbyist and independent game developers. It provides a basic "starter kit" to introduce people to the nature of video game design and some of the work that goes into some of the most popular titles, both for the PC and for home gaming consoles. However, it is not free to run these games on the Xbox 360.

In order to publish the "precompiled binaries", game developers will need to pay an annual fee of $99 for admission to the XNA "Creators Club." Alternatively, there is a four-month fee of $49. Most hobbyists would likely stick to Windows publication for this reason.

Other Versions of XNA Game Studio

For people ready to step up to the next level, Microsoft also offers XNA Game Studio Professional. As you can imagine, this version is more advanced than the XNA Game Studio Express free download. Targeted at the professional game developer, Professional "will contain all the functionality present in XNA Game Studio Express and will add support for tools and services that professional game developers need to ship commercial games built using the XNA Framework on both Windows and Xbox 360."

Beyond this, there is also the XNA Framework and the XNA Framework Content Pipeline. More information on all of this can be found on Microsoft's website.