The Guildhall at SMU in its newly formed Innovation Laboratory is going to integrate XNA in its general computing and game development academic programs as well as researching new approaches to game design, development and education for students and game developers alike.

“With more than 120 video development graduate students in residence and a faculty of video game industry veterans, technology companies are beginning to realize that The Guildhall at SMU is a living laboratory for the video game industry, That is why we formed our Innovation Laboratory focused on video game development,” said Dr. Peter Raad, founder and executive director for The Guildhall at SMU. “By working with industry technology leaders such as Microsoft, we believe we will be able to help set new standards in video game development and provide new research, case studies and curriculum that drive advances in interactive media educational programs across the country.”

XNA Game Studio Express is a new game development solution aimed at students, hobbyists and independent game developers. It is based on Visual Studio and .NET technologies, allowing developers to code more easily for both Windows and Xbox 360.

“What we are trying to do is open the door a little wider with XNA tools from Microsoft and see how they can fit into video game development not only for students, hobbyist and independent game developers but what role XNA Game Studio Express may have in professional video game development as well,” said Michael McCoy, SMU level design instructor and project lead on the XNA research project. “We have already produced two case studies on 2D game production using XNA Game Studio Express and have a starter kit developed for use in a middle school video game development camp this summer. We also have incorporate a more advance starter kit into our course work for SMU students who starter at our program in July.”

Three SMU faculty members, four post-graduate students and two graduate students are currently working with McCoy on the XNA project; the team hopes to publish results from the research in the near future.