My latest article for CoDe Magazine, titled “Microsoft XNA: Ready for Prime Time?”, was recently published online.

About the Article
The XNA Framework and Game Studio Express form Microsoft’s new offering to open the doors of game development for Windows and the Xbox 360 using managed code with .NET and C#. Following a trip to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) last March, I approached a number of subject matter experts from the gaming industry to assess whether or not XNA holds any interest for professional game development. This is primarily an editorial piece where I explore XNA from all angles using testimonials from Michael Austin, Chief Technology Officer, and Mark Terrano, Design Director, both founders of Hidden Path Entertainment, Jamie Fristrom, Technical Director of Torpex Games, Raph Koster, President of Areae and industry expert on virtual worlds and MMORPGs, Dave Mitchell, Director of XNA Game Platform Marketing in the Game Developer Group at Microsoft, Benjamin Nitschke, Founder of exDream Entertainment and XNA book author, and Josh Williams, CEO of GarageGames, developers of the new Torque X game engine for XNA.

The article is the main feature for the September/October 2007 issue of CoDe Magazine. Since the article was so long (approx 25 printed pages), the first 8 pages were printed in the magazine, and the full version of the article is available online. You can read the full online version here. The issue also features a technical introduction to writing games with XNA Game Studio Express by George Clingerman, who is an XNA MVP, and an excerpt of the XNA interview on the .NET Rocks! Internet podcast with Frank Savage from Microsoft. I also invite you to read the MVP Corner column in this issue, which I wrote as well, titled “Perspectives from a .NET Guy at GDC”.

I hope you enjoy this article and I welcome any comments you might have about it. Feel free to pass the link around to anyone you feel might be interested in reading it.