XDSK – Nelxon Studio

The purpose of the XDSK (XNA Developer’s Survival Kit) is to provide XNA Xbox indie game developers a list of resources to assist them with creating better games, custom engines and most of all to help them raise the bar for titles existing in the XBLIG Library. This list is aimed at developers who are already familiar with Object Oriented programming and game development. It is not a list for beginners, but it may help them get started if they have a little programming experience.

All of the resources listed below were discovered on my quest to develop the Nelxon XNA Game Engine which will be built on top of a stack of modified open-source libraries and designed for rapid game development. The XDSK will provide you with valuable libraries, engines, techniques, articles to broaden your understanding of the XNA 3.1 Framework and more.

This version of the XDSK will no longer be updated. For updated XNA 4.0 libraries and tutorials, Visit the XDSK2.

Rendering and Graphics

Synapse Gaming SunBurn – nice Rendering Engine with the Best Support Ever
Xen Graphics API for XNA – rendering tools and much more
Hilva XNA Graphics Engine – Rendering Engine, Animation, and more
dhpoware XNA Demo Series – check out his XNA examples
The Danger Zone – great samples for rendering
XNA Shader Programming Tutorials – need help with HLSL? (Lots of shader examples)
Screen-Space Ambient Occlusion SSAO – useful next-gen technique
XNA Procedural LTrees – creates natural-looking tree models in real-time

Animation XNA 3.1

SGMotion Animation Library – XNAnimation Library integrated with SunBurn (xna 4.0)
XNAnimation Library – tested and approved…
XNA Animation Component Library – one of the first animation engines
XNA Animation Component Library for XNA3.1 – Nelxon’s Updated version
Xna Multiplatform Animation System – similar to Unreal Animation Editor…
KiloWatt Animation – nice system, fast and save room on file size
Skinned Model with Extensions – learn something from this tutorial
Inverse Kinematics Sample – learn to create dynamic animation

3D Physics XNA 3.1

Oops! Framework - fast on the PC and Xbox360, (good, but needs more features)
JibLibX – most used engine, loaded with features, (slow on Xbox360)
Henge3D Physics – new engine faster than JibLibX, (slow on Xbox360)
Bullet for XNA - loaded with features, (slow on PC and Xbox 360)
Icarus Physics – great to starter to build your own physics engine
XNA 3D Physics - starter to build a physics engine (Fastest, very basic features)
Soft Body Physics in XNA – cloth, chains, slinky (awesome tutorial and samples)

2d Physics

JellyPhysics – a 2D soft body physics Engine.
Farseer Physics Engine – a 2D Physics Engine
Box2D.XNA – C#/XNA port of Box2D

Audio

Advanced Sound Manager for XNA GS 3.1 – this is a great solution
Creators Club Audio Examples - this is all you need for audio in XNA

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

SharpSteer – I found a million and 1 uses for this…
Simple AI Engine for XNA – great algorithms, including pathfinding
State machine-based behavior models - nice Example
Robot Game from Creators Club -basic AI functions (XNA 3.1)
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
Xen Graphics API for XNA – has an awesome particle system (how do I use it?)
XML Particle Sample for XNA Creator Club – still one of my favorites

Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) / Level Editor Tools

Neoforce Controls - my Favorite tool for Interfaces (now open source)
Xna Interface Elements – Second Favorite
XNA Simple GUI – the name says it all
XNA Level EDitor(LED)- has lots of potential
Nuclex Framework- skinnable interface included
3D XNA Gizmo- you may need this for level editing…
XNAViewer - integrate XNA Games in a Winform Easier
XNA and Windows Forms – this article explains the best

GameState Management

Xna Screen Manager – clean, simple and easy to use
Oops! Framework – has game state manager included
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

2D Level Editors

Gleed2D – Generic 2D Level Editor (highly recommended)
tIDE -Tilemap Integrated Development Environment
IceCream – Engine and Editor

XNA Game Engines

Synapse Gaming SunBurn Engine 2.0 – Game Engine with nice features (XNA 4.0 Ready)
Engine Nine – animation, ai, shaders, cameras, and more. Good all around engine. (XNA 4.0 Ready)
Ox Game Engine for XNA – free Open Source Engine
QuickStart Engine – start your own from this library
Phoenix XNA 3D Engine – has lots of potential
Titanium XNA Game Engine – a work in progress
FlatRedBall Engine – this engine will help you make 2.5D Games
DEngine -2D Game Engine, with an easy to use interface
Tomahawk XNA Game Engine -too many features to list (Nice Engine)
Innovative Games – simple open-source engine to start with
Torque X 3D – commercial engine, Free for Premium CC Members (Dying…)

Useful Extras

EasyStorage – easiest way to save games, store data, etc
Xna Input – nice library to handle input controls
XNA Input Handlers – library to handle mouse and keyboard input
Handling Multiple Controllers – this may help you pass peer review
XNA Camera – helped me understand how the XNA camera works
interpolators and timers – I found a million and two uses…
XNA 4.0 Class Diagrams – extremely useful for programmers