Michael Klucher's Blog

Phew! We finally launched XNA Game Studio 2.0! I don’t think our team could be happier with some of the stuff we accomplished in this release. We’ve still got plenty more feature requests and ideas to keep us going for several years though If you haven’t taken some time to add your most wanted feature to Microsoft Connect yet, now would be a great time so we see it when we start planning our next release.

Shipping software and games is always such a weird feeling for me, kind of like going 100MPH and then slamming into a brick wall. You spend all these late nights working, fixing issues making sure that everything is coordinated for the release. Things get really crazy the day of the release I’m in panic mode, trying to make sure everything is working and wrangling things together then it doesn’t. Then all of a sudden everyone is downloading, everything is running and that’s it, you’re done. There always tend to be small issues like the ones you see on the forums and such, but overall the release is over. So naturally I crash and get a day’s worth of sleep, and then the next day I come into work and it feels awkward. There’s no rush, no panic, no pressing issues all in about a day. Don’t get me wrong I’m thankful nobody is having serious issues. (Hopefully your not anyway, if you are check our forums) but I come into work and ask “Okay what do I do know?”.

The answer boils down to thinking and planning. This is where most of the team goes off and starts thinking about features, fixes, and enhancements to the next version of XNA Game Studio. It’s a great thing because you get to start of thinking big, where time or resources aren’t a concern. Once you get that list you can start thinking about what fits in a given timeframe, what do customers want, and ask the question “Is what we’ve come up with something worth upgrading to?” if not you start changing all the variables till you have a compelling release.

That’s why as you’re having fun with XNA Game Studio 2.0 it’s important to keep in mind what you want to see next. We constantly go through our Microsoft Connect suggestions and use that as data points when we talk about features.  The fact that supporting all versions of Visual Studio 2005 was the highest rated XNA Game Studio suggestion and that it showed up in 2.0 wasn’t a coincidence, so please keep that feedback coming!