The XNA framework is a collection of .net libraries that theoretically enables anybody to put together a computer or video game using the C# language. The application XNA Game Studio Express utilises this framework and presents the opportunity for pretty much anybody with the inclination and oodles of patience to create their own games.

The XNA Framework was designed primarily to make game design and development easier and more accessible. As well as homebrew specialists, its aim is to appeal to students, existing developers, and you and I. The XNA Game Studio Express application can be downloaded for free and you can develop games for free but you will need to pay for a license should you finish a game and want to develop it on the Xbox 360.

As with pretty much any application and framework of this kind there is a superb community of developers and experts online as well as a plethora of tutorials and guides to help the first XNA developer learn and develop their skills.

Games that have been developed and created using the XNA Framework will run on a variety of systems but to develop on the Xbox 360 you’ll need to pay for an XNA Developer’s Club membership, which can be purchased through Xbox Live.

On a more personal and less repetitive note you’d be forgiven for thinking that you can only create “retro” (the modern translation of that is “crap”) games using such applications because there are some excellent examples of snippets and bits of game code available freely on the Internet, some of which we’ll attempt to highlight in the future.

XNA is bagging quite a bit of the news at the moment, even though its been around for a while, because the release of Schizoid on Xbox Live Arcade represents the first commercially available XNA developed game – it brings hope to those of us that have thrown away half hearted attempts because we believed it would get us nowhere. It’s rebuilding those hopes just to have them shattered when we realise its not necessarily the software that’s crap, just us.

Until your hopes have been completely shattered though, you can nip along to the XNA Creators Club Online. It’s an awesome site that lets you play and review some of the games that you might just be able to pay for on Arcade some time soon. You can also download the XNA Game Studio software and give it a go yourself to see whether you’ve got what it takes.