[casual_games] XNA Vs Dark GDK

[Charles Parcell]

Bradley Mclain wrote:

> Well the main attraction of the Dark GDK was the free Dark Matter 

> content (models, sounds etc) that come with it, but in terms of power 

> I think XNA is the better choice and on thinking about it further all 

> of the models can probably be still used in XNA anyway.

>

> The idea I have for the game I wish to make is certainly not the 

> easiest to begin with, do you think I should start with some small 

> simple ones first to build up my skills?


Yes, absolutely!

More complex games have many different facets and you would have to 
overcome the learning curve for each one. It is more rewarding to over 
come a handful of challenges and complete a game than trying to over 
come dozens of challenges and not having a finished product in the end. 
In addition, a lot of the things you will discover as you work through 
new aspects of game development, will impact the parts you had already 
built an thought done.

So, do yourself a favor and start with smaller (less glamorous) games to 
build your chops within the framework.
- Hangman (text manipulation and basic sprite use)(then add function to 
allow word list to be loaded from XML)
- Top-down race track game (more advanced sprite use and collision 
detection)
- 3D Maze (basic 3D management, collision detection)

etc etc.

Charles P.