I was on this boat last December, to continue working with XNA/C# or to go into C++. XNA isn't really dead as many have mentioned. For me, the main reason for using XNA was that the kind of projects that I was interested in is good in the console and porting over to XBox is really easy (from what I heard) with XNA. Now that it is not an option anymore, using XNA become less relevant.
I think the tool is not important, but how you good you are with the tool. If you are not deep into XNA yet, I would suggest SFML for C++ if you want to try C++.
However, if you are already very comfortable with XNA, then stick with it.
I caught this kind of late, but I wanted to say something. I've seen this question asked once or twice a week on this forum for as long as I can remember. The answers are always the same: "It's all the same. Just go with what you like. It'll be viable in the future." Well my answers to that are no it's not, no you shouldn't, and no it won't. There are some very good XNA games coming out that have been in development for a couple of years. However, if you’re going to start a game from scratch right now it would severely limit you to go with XNA. One big reason is because XNA will have no future support. Yes there will be support from the community to keep it alive, but you can do much better with an alternative. If you already have a game you've created with XNA and your deep into development then I can understand staying with it.
Also, yes C++ is a pain to program with and learn, but there is a ridiculous amount of support for it out there and it will always be viable. There will always be support for it, there will always be a highly active community developing it, and most importantly, you have direct control over your game! How many times have you had to find some crazy workaround in XNA to get something to work that is akin to duct tape because you couldn't get into the code and make it work the right way? Anyway, it's a great language to learn in order to get into game design, especially 3D. However, I can't say it's a very good framework to stick with.
Before anyone says anything about XNA being a framework, not a language, I think C# itself is a good language to program business apps with. But the level of control is not there for game development unless you are just going to keep it as simple as possible.
Just my opinion. I know it goes against a lot of the devs here. But I have a question to you guys. Do you program in XNA? If not, would you start? If you were going to start developing with no knowledge of XNA or C++ would you choose XNA/C# or C++? I’m guessing the majority wouldn’t with good reason.
Thanks that’s all I’ll say. Like I said this has been in my Google news for years and I just had to say something after all this time.
Thanks,
Chris
Note that not everyone is saying 'Stick with XNA'. A lot of us (about half) are saying, 'Stick with C#'. C# is not XNA, XNA is not C#.
If the headlight on your car breaks, you replace the headlight, not the car. C# is supported. C# is not dying.
Even if XNA is dying, there are other APIs for C# to use.
It's only when people think, "Use C#? Okay, I'll use XNA.", or "XNA is dying? I should abandon C#.", that good advice accidentally turns into bad advice.
And if I'd like to proffesionally work with game programming, I need C++, from what I've read.
It depends what you call proffesional. If you mean console games then yes. However there are many games studios these days using all kinds of wierd and wonderful languages. Flash, HTML5, Objective C, Java, Python are all used in several large studios that I know of. Also C# is still the language of choice for writing windows based tools.
