Hi everyone

I'm doing a research paper for University on XNA.

I am trying to identify the different types of people who use the XNA framework.

I have met people who learn XNA;
* Simply for the hobby of it
* People who are using it as a stepping stone language into the world of prgramming
* A few people who are learning with the direct goal of making a specific game they have dreamed about (be it their own RPG, or even wanting to make a board game they used to play in their childhood)
* Others who want to become professional game developers

Do you know of any other different types?

What are your reasons for learning XNA? I'd love to hear them :)

Me? I'm a hobbiest.

I switched to csharp and xna from blitz (tried others too: darkbasic and cobra to name two).

I needed a substantial dll for the game I was working on as they weren't fast enough to handle large dictionaries.

But I don't see you mention commercial programs. Check this out. Shawn is also a regular contributer here.

Its a valid medium for developing games, blitz and darkbasic too have both been used for commercial games. As is usually the case, its not the language used but the skills of the programmer(s).

I use XNA because

I grew tired of writing C++ code, and wished there was a better version of C++. C# is that for me. C# has made programming fun again.

XNA is a great game framework, and there the opportunity to publish to XBLCG. My main XNA project already exists as a native code game. I'm porting/recreating/re-inventing it as an XBOX game.

For me it's 1,3 and 4 on your list of reasons, sort of.

I suppose my main reason for making a game is to help me get a job with a professional developer. But I'm also making a game for the sake of making a game. I'm working with a team of people and although I'm the only programmer, so I'm the only one that is really using XNA directly, XNA is attractive to them partly because of the possibility of releasing it on the Xbox 360. When it comes down to it, the main reason for us deciding to use XNA was good marketing on Microsoft's part.

I'm just hoping that I will be taken seriously by professional development studios when I tell them I made a game with C#. They bang on about C++, C++, C++ and that managed languages aren't "real" programming languages. Hopefully I will be able to convince them that I'm also a good C++ programmer, but I used C# in this case because it seemed the most appropriate given the situation.

Hello Jacquesy,

        I guess I fit under your first category the most. The reason I started C#, and later XNA, is mainly because I wanted to see if I could do it. I'm the sort of person who enjoys challenges, and likes to see whether things such as this are accomplishable by me. I guess now, however, the fourth option sort of applies, but it was not my original intention.


Glad to be of assistance!
Thanks!
chukrum47

Psyk60:

They bang on about C++, C++, C++ and that managed languages aren't "real" programming languages. Hopefully I will be able to convince them that I'm also a good C++ programmer, but I used C# in this case because it seemed the most appropriate given the situation.

Results are what matter.

I use XNA, because it is the only way to write XBox games without shelling out a lot of money for the full developement package.

Eckish:

I use XNA, because it is the only way to write XBox games without shelling out a lot of money for the full developement package.

Heck, forget about the money. The bigger issue is just getting approved for it. Microsoft doesn't just sell dev kits to anyone with the cash.

I use XNA because C# is a great language, it lets me make console games, and really simplifies game creation so I can quickly prototype stuff without spending ages just getting set up.

Why? Its been a long road. I started off with the false belief that games are only coded in c/c++.. Anything else is horrid. I bought book after book after book on c++ and struggled to teach myself. I then discovered game libraries.. like SDL and Allegro and many others including the defunct CDX. Better, but they were still a pain. I even dabbled in visual basic a bit. The problem is is it seemed ridiculously hard to learn and work with c++ even to do simple things, not to mention the 50,000,000,000 different ways people would tell you to do the same thing.. Oh.. and pointers! OMFG I HATED POINTERS.. =) 

This was all over a period of 5 years or so? then one day I heard of XNA, and almost didn't even look at it because I was frustrated.. but I did, and it amazed me at how simple it was to get something up and onscreen so that I could spend more time focusing and learning the more important concepts of OO, the logic, etc. Ever since I found XNA, I have never become as frustrated as I was with c++ and I have yet to get tired of it and give up, like I did in c++ a few times.

I love XNA and although its only a hobby, its great. I have no aspirations to become the next John Carmack or Sid Meyer.. I'd be happy getting a donation of $10 for one of my games.. but in general, knowing that my first game, Kollectiv, has been downloaded 400+ times just tickles me pink.. lol .. XNA was going to be a stepping stone for me originally, but I think instead it's turning out to be something to stick with. Who knows, later I might jump into IPhone stuff, or PDA games, etc.. but for now Im content..

I come from 10 years in the linux/web arena.  I figured I'd give C# a try and there's no way I can go back to anything without Visual Studio now.    Thanks to XNA and the chance to make some homebrew games I'm happier than I've ever been :)

Thank you everyone for all of your reply's, they have all been very helpful :)
Still, I'd love ot hear more. Don't think you have to choose which of the categories I've listed, feel free to make up more if you feel there are more of them.
Loving hearing other peoples stories.

Myself? I'm in it to learn programming as best as I can, before getting a job as a professional programmer/engineer. The ultimate dream which I will always be working towards is create my own projects for XBLA and iPhone (Of whatever platform happens to be around at that time)
I greatly like the idea of easy distribution, and it's always impressive to have your work showing on a 360 console. One uni assignment I had running on the 360 come presentation day, threw around some wireless controllers and the class got to play it. Felt great seeing them all smile as they were playing something that *I* had created.

I went to a games dev uni, where the teachers were un-enthusiastic programmers, err. programmer (the other one bailed for a higher paying job, boy did he deserve it.). Here, I learnt the aggrevation of C++ programming. It is powerful, and virtually no limits, and pointers are a wonderful, wonderful thing. But for an end of year project, I tried XNA and C# after messing with Gamebryo and PhysX.

Everything here magically works, intellisense, include directories or lack therof and more. Admittadly, I am a rather aggressive person when programming, because I am terrible at it, but I like being a code monkey programmer. So until I acheive some sort of Zen via xna, I'm sticking with it, and the education I score from these forums that absolutely trumps my formal education.

Personally I've chosen XNA because it just works. You start a new project, add in a bit of code (and maybe a few helper classes) and you have a simple game there on your TV screen working on your 360, how cool is that!?

The whole system is very well designed and speeds up the workflow, without XNA coding for 360 would be a long and boring process, XNA lets you dive straight into what matters, working on your gameplay and not needing to worry about device management and the inner workings of how the xbox is handling data etc..

I also believe XNA is capable of much more than we have currently seen, as we are all learning it's limits and how to optimize it we are seeing better games coming out all the time.