Hmmm all good points. Thanks for your feedback. I guess when C# devs think game development they think XNA, and so that's what they go and do. For me personally, something like SDL.NET is far more exciting because nothing is done for you, you've basically got a blank canvas. It's just like writing a game in C++ but with all of the productivity and simplicity of C# and .NET.

Monogame looks interesting ... although I'm still not convinced using a framework like XNA is for me. Maybe it's just they way I like to do things, but personally I like to learn something from the ground up, understanding the inner workings of a system before moving on to the higher level concepts. Thats why I choose to write all my own code for my game projects, and I believe I'll be a better game developer as a result.

XNA seems fine if you're an experienced developer or team trying to make actual published games, but personally I think it is more beneficial at the early stages to understand how to implement your own systems (not by focussing on the systems themselves, but by making simple games from scratch yourself), and surely this results in a more complete understanding of how game engines work.

I know, I know ... "make games not engines" ... but seriously, that advice is always taken out of context IMO, and often thrown around as an off-the-cuff answer to any new game developer asking how to do [insert_game_engine_feature_here].

Hmmm all good points. Thanks for your feedback. I guess when C# devs think game development they think XNA, and so that's what they go and do. For me personally, something like SDL.NET is far more exciting because nothing is done for you, you've basically got a blank canvas. It's just like writing a game in C++ but with all of the productivity and simplicity of C# and .NET.

Monogame looks interesting ... although I'm still not convinced using a framework like XNA is for me. Maybe it's just they way I like to do things, but personally I like to learn something from the ground up, understanding the inner workings of a system before moving on to the higher level concepts. Thats why I choose to write all my own code for my game projects, and I believe I'll be a better game developer as a result.

XNA seems fine if you're an experience developer or team trying to make actual published games, but personally I think it is more beneficial at the early stages to understand how to implement your own systems (not by focussing on the systems themselves, but by making simple games from scratch yourself), and surely this results in a more complete understanding of how game engines work.

I know I know ... "make games not engines" ... but seriously, that advice is always taken out of context IMO, and often thrown around as an off-the-cuff answer to any new game developer asking how to do [insert_game_engine_feature_here].