XNATouch: Microsoft XNA Games Running On The iOS Platform
- Synapse Gaming SunBurn Engine 2.0 – Nice Game Engine loaded with features and the Best Support & Community Ever
- Digital Rune Engine – Great Game Engine (physics, animation, math, multi-threading and more)
- Xen Graphics API for XNA – rendering tools and much more
- Ploobs Engine – loaded with shader effects , deferred rendering, lighting, soft shadows, the works.
- XNA Final Engine – rendering, post screen effects, and more
- Engine Nine – includes, animation, post fx, AI, custom materials, scene management, deferred lighting and more
- Hilva XNA Graphics Engine – Rendering Engine, Animation, and more
- Indiefreaks Game Framework - Incredible Addition for SunBurn Engine Users
- Jemgine - An extendable 2d Game Engine with an level editor
- Deferred Rendering – Roy Triesscheijn updated Catalin Zima’s Tutorial to XNA 4.0
- Jcoluna XNA Samples – If you’re trying to make your own engine, start here. (Shadows, SSAO, Lights, culling…)
- Tomato Renderer – Open Source Engine with light pre-pass, ssao, depth of field and more (includes user interface)
Character Animation
- Digital Rune Animation – Support 2D and 3D animation, Incredible skinned animation pipeline (RECOMMENDED)
- SGMotion Animation Library – XNAnimation Library integrated with SunBurn
- Communist Games Animation Library – Animation blending, shared skeletons, and more
- XNAnimation Library – Too many features to list.
- XNA Animation Component Library – one of the first animation engines, still awesome
- Skinned Model with Extensions – learn something from this tutorial
- Engine Nine – has an easy to use animation system, for skinned and non skinned models.
- Merge FBX Animation Files – hate XNA FBX only uses 1 Take? here’s the solution
Physics
- DigitalRune Physics – A module from DigitalRune Engine - Physics with lots of features, (fast & Xbox, $300)
- Bepu Physics – Nice Physics engine with many features, (fast, FREE)
- Jitter Physics – Physics Engine by the author of JigLibX (fast, FREE)
- Matali Physics -fast with lots of potential (fast on PC, average on Xbox 360, $130 – $260)
- Henge 3D Physics – Lot of Features and multi-threaded (okay on PC, slow on Xbox 360, FREE)
- JigLibX – old physics enigine (not multi-threaded) (slow, FREE – use Jitter instead… )
- Farseer Physics Engine – a 2D Physics Engine
- Box2D.XNA – C#/XNA port of Box2D
Audio
- EasyXnaAudio – easy interface to load, play, and manage songs and sounds
- XNA Final Engine – Audio engine included in framework
- Creators Club Audio Examples - this is all you need for audio in XNA
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Engine Nine – has a Path Finding and steering behaviors included
- SharpSteer – I found a million and 1 uses for this…
- State machine-based behavior models - Good Article, sample old..
- Steering Behaviors, Obstacle Avoidance – good Example (in spanish)
Particles
- DPSF (Dynamic Particle System Framework) - tested and approved
- Mercury Particle Engine – great engine, has lots of potential
- Nuclex Framework- multi-threaded particle system
- XML Particle Sample for XNA Creator Club – still one of my favorites
- DigitalRune Particles – Very Nice.…
Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) / Level Editor Tools
- DigitalRune Game UI – Basically Neoforce Controls on steroids, part of the Digital Rune Engine
- Neoforce Controls - my Second Favorite tool for Interfaces (now open source)
- Nuclex Framework- skinnable interface included
- 3D XNA Gizmo- you may need this for level editing…
- XNA and Windows Forms – this article explains the best
GameState Management
- Xna Screen Manager – clean, simple and easy to use
- Nuclex Framework – game manager included (nicely done)
- GameStateManager from Creator’s Club – great starter to build your own
Multi-threading
- ParallelTasks Threading Library- makes it easy to multi-thread your game
- Multi-threading your XNA Game – great article and example
- Designing the Framework of a Parallel Game Engine – just read it
- DigitalRune Engine – Threading Library Included in Engine (RECOMMENDED)
Useful Extras and Services
- DigitalRune Math and Geometry Libraries- This comes with the DigitalRune Engine (RECOMMENDED)
- XBuilder 2.0 – This lets you preview your content assets right in Visual Studio
- NShader 1.1 – Syntax Highlighting for your HLSL files
- StitchUp – Generate Shaders from HLSL Shader Fragments
- Mixamo – need Animation for your Characters?
- CMU Mocap Database - need the largest collection of free Mocap available?
- HyperDuck Music Studios – need custom music for your game?
- Font Squirrel – need Free Commercial-Use Fonts for your game?
Articles, Blogs and Tutorials
- Game Developedia – Nice Beginner XNA 4.0 Tutorials
- Tutorials by Robot Foot Games – nice 2D sprite Tutorials
- XNA 4.0 Class Diagrams – extremely useful for programmers
- RoastedAmoeba Projects – Awesome XNA 4.0 Projects
- TileMap and Camera System Tutorial - good article
- XNA Content Pipeline Debugging – helps you figure old those pipeline problems
- Dot Net Perls – Best resource for looking for c# snippets and samples
- Eliminate Garbage with CLR Profiler – optimize you game…
- Gimbal lock free Arcball camera – nice camera tutorial
- How to use Farseer in platform game – Platform Physics Tutorial
- Parallax Starfield – great example of parallax scrolling
- MVC in Games – Model View Controller advantages
- XNA Questions – You may find your answer here
- Sgt. Conker – Lots of News and Resources for XNA
- Communist Games Blogs – Lots XNA 4.0 Code Snippets and practices
- Shawn Hargreaves Blog- He Knows XNA 4.0 PersonallyNot XNA Exclusive Articles, but Handy
- General Game Networking – learn more building online multiplayer games
- Game User Interfaces – What players wants
- Nucleus High Level Engine Design – Great Design notes
XNA 4.0 Books
- XNA 4.0 Game Development by Example: Beginner’s Guide
- 3D Graphics with XNA Game Studio 4.0
- XNA Game Studio 4.0 Programming: Developing for Windows Phone and Xbox Live
- Learning XNA 4.0
- The Complete XNA Game Studio 4.0: An Exploration into the XNA Framework Library
Are you trying to convert XNA 3.1 projects to XNA 4.0?
- XNA 3.1 to XNA 4.0 Cheat Sheet – Loaded with example of how to convert projects
- Breaking changes in XNA Game Studio 4.0 – things you should know before converting
- 3D XNA 3.1 game to XNA 4.0 – an example -pixel shaders ,xap files, DepthStencilBuffer (fixes)
- XNA 3.1 to XNA 4.0 – RenderTarget2D, renderstate, effectpass, vertexdeclaration (fixes)
- Coverting Between Texture2D and Image – Texture2D FromFile (fix)
- SpriteBatch and custom renderstates – SpriteBatch, SpriteBlendMode, SaveStateMode (fixes)
- Rendertarget changes – RenderTarget2D, GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget (fixes)
- SpriteBatch and custom shaders – SpriteBatch Improvement (update details)
- ResolveBackBuffer and ResolveTexture2D - Where are they?
- Effect API Changes - effect.Begin(), passes.Begin() (fixes)
- Effect Interfaces – BasicEffect updates, Built in Types (fixes)
- SpriteBatch and renderStates – fix 3D graphics drawn incorrectly when 2D objects on Screen
- Vertex Data – VertexDeclaration, VertexElements, SizeInBytes, VertexBuffer (fixes)
- Point Sprites – Where are they?
- State Objects – SaveStateMode, SaveStateBlock, RenderState, BlendFunction, (fixes)
- ElapsedRealTime and TotalRealTime – understanding the time changes (update details)
- DrawIntancedPrimitives – mesh instancing, state batching, shader instancing (update details)
- Rendertarget formats – details on backbuffer formats and rendertarget formats
- Reach vs HiDef – things you should know
- New Effects built-in Content Pipeline – BasicEffect, SkinnedEffect, EnvironMapEffect and more
- Viewport Tweaks – Updates to Viewport Objects and properties
- Color constructors – updates to Color
*Most of the articles above are from Shawn Hargreaves Blog, posted here to make them easier to find.
Sites that promote and review Xbox Indie Games
- Indie Gamer Chick – If she likes your game obviously you did something right. Brutally Honest Indie Game Reviews.
- Kobun’s Xbox Indies Page – Xbox Indie Games Recommendations and Reviews
- Armless Octopus – Xbox Indie Game Reviews
- Indie Nerds – Games worth playing
- GameMarx – A site dedicated to Xbox Indie Games (news, reviews, podcasts and more)
- XboxHornet – Loaded with Reviews and Xbox Indie Game Related Articles
- Writings of Mass Deduction – Everyday A New Game Review (seeking the best games)
- 8 Bit Horse - Where 2D Lives
- Indie Game Uprising – Look for High Quality Xbox Indie Games released every season
- Kotaku XboxIndies – Lots of review and Indie game trailers
- GameTrailers Xbox Indie Games – Lots of Xbox Indie Game Trailers
- SFX-360 – Some Xbox Indie Games reviews (not many)
