So eh...yeah...hobbyist game programmers...

[Blorx]

Definitely look into XNA Game Studio.

http://creators.xna.com/

It's all done in C# but the classes make it incredibly easy to pick up and learn. The only thing you'll end up having trouble with are booleans and mathematics (and that's only if you don't have much prior experience, like me). Porting games b/t the supported systems, Xbox 360, PC and Zune is as easy as adding a variable for the system's controls (NO CODE REMOVAL) and creating a copy of the project so that the compiler knows to build one. Seriously, it's that easy. I'm really at home with this.

I'm thinking about picking up some old projects even, namely that old 2D Lugaru RPG idea, Dotagu, lmao. I don't know why I'd do such a thing but, I kinda want to see it iterated. No real reason except that it would be fun to make descriptions for when you hit an enemy in a turn-based karate environment. Oh the laughs to be had...
xD

The only questionable things are that there seems to be no way to release freeware community games and MS only pays you if your game(s) revenue is over $150 for the quarter. So if you're at $148, you're not getting paid.

[Skofo]

Hah, that's pretty neat. I didn't know Microsoft paid you at all for this. What if you gather up more than $150 in two quarters?

[BunnyWithStick]

Then you don't get paid? It seems pretty clear to me.

[Skofo]

Online things that pay you for your work (ads, pyramid scams) usually only pay you after you gather up at least a specified amount, no matter how long it takes. It's hard to believe that Microsoft would just pocket all of your revenue if you fell short one time.

[BunnyWithStick]

*all your revenue for the quarter.

At least that's what it sounds like to me.

[Blorx]

Online things that pay you for your work (ads, pyramid scams) usually only pay you after you gather up at least a specified amount, no matter how long it takes. It's hard to believe that Microsoft would just pocket all of your revenue if you fell short one time.

It transfers over til next quarter, but you only get paid per quarter for revenues OVER $150, transferred or not.

However, there IS a $100-ish a year subscription fee to use 360 and Zune services, such as being able to play finished games on the 360 (makes you use an XNA enabled Gold Membership Live Account for transfers via XNA Studio Connect [the 360 program]) and Zune, and being able to review and playtest others' unfinished or supposedly finished games for what I'm going to refer to as free, not that it really is.

Either way, I just finished my first real game in C# and XNA via the 2D tutorial on the site and I've got to say it's one hell of a sense of achievement...especially since section 9.1 of the tutorial was missing and I had to go back and figure out what was wrong when I got a null value error for font during compilation (took me about 2 minutes). So yeah, right now I'm pretty proud of myself for actually finishing it and not giving up out of boredom.

[Skofo]

Woo Blorx!

Show it to us, eh?

[Blorx]

Haha
It was a tutorial, nothing original. I'm just proud of finishing it.
xD

[Lotus Wolf]

we'd still be interested in seeing it, even if it wasn't original, its something to be proud of, let us see and we'll give you props for finishing it.