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So long XNA...where to now?

jaja1313jaja1313
edited in Questions and Answers
Hello everyone!

I'm JH and I'm a hobbyist game developer, well, actually more of a game snippet developer. I mostly code in C# and will soon (maybe next week) start teaching myself Java( wonders of youtube!).

I only recently saw that Microsoft isn't supporting XNA anymore... which is quite a bummer seeing as I used it exclusively.

What would you suggest I move to? I mainly focus on 2D games, especially top down and tile based. Strategy, management etc.

Regards
JH

Comments

  • EvanGreenwoodEvanGreenwood
    C# works in Unity 3D just fine. We use it for our 2D game (http://www.makegamessa.com/discussion/118/bro-force-prototype)

    I'd think that'd be a fairly easy transition for you... Unity has a bit more complete development toolkit than working with XNA (so there will be a bit of figuring out what the ideal "Unity way" to solve a problem is at first). There are a ton of tutorials for doing 2D in Unity online, though it's really not much of a challenge if you've been making games in XNA (I'd expect).
  • D3zmodosD3zmodos
    If you like the way XNA does things theres still Monogame which is basically a port of the XNA libraries into Mono (which is what Unity uses anyways afaik). Monogame uses the exact same API (so the namespaces are still Microsoft.Xna.Framework etc) so your code doesnt even really need to change.

    The only major issue with Monogame at the moment (that I am aware of) is that they don't have much of a content pipeline so you still need to use the XNA content projects for that.

    But if you're up for switching then as @BlackShips says...get yourself some unity 2D tutorials and go for it :)
  • EvanGreenwoodEvanGreenwood
    edited
    Unity is free (there are some "Pro" features that cost a license fee, but for 2D games you won't need any of them really), so if you think it might work then you can download it and try a tutorial or two and decide for yourself.
  • jaja1313jaja1313
    Thanks guys! I downloaded Unity and had a quick poke around. I then realized that I smelt something burning and felt the gears in my head seizing up... feeling a bit overwhelmed! But I'll just search around until I find a nice tutorial to ease me into it.

    D3zmodos, I checked out monogame too. I'm going to play around with it too. I like the cross platform capabilities it provides.
  • mattbenicmattbenic
    @jaja1313 be sure to oil those gears :)
    MonoGame will probably be easier for you to jump into straight from XNA, and I suspect the content pipeline issue will be sorted out in time. As far as multiplatform goes though, I doubt any solution will be as effective as Unity, the rate at which they port to new platforms is just scary (they already support Windows Phone 8 and Blackberry 10, for example).
  • FanieGFanieG
    check out "cooking with unity" tutorials. Each episode is about 60 minutes and all coding is done in C#, so you should feel right at home
  • TipTopPoetTipTopPoet
    I've been working through the following tutorial: http://www.rocket5studios.com/tutorials/make-a-2d-game-in-unity3d-using-only-free-tools-part-1/

    It uses only free assets to make a very basic 2d platformer in unity. Might be worth a look.
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