XNA, FlatRedBall, and hundreds of potential new users
The subject pretty much says it all. I'm a contributing member on several other forums that highlight XNA and FlatRedBall, and I've been doing quite a bit of advertising of Compilr on those sites. The one question that I keep getting on those sites is, "Does Compilr offer support for XNA or FlatRedBall?" Unfortunately, I have to keep saying no to those questions, which means that those users aren't showing up here. When I say that I've got several hundred potential users waiting for these features, I'm not kidding. FlatRedBall(FRB) has thousands of users, though only hundreds are active on their forums, XNA has exponentially more. FRB is built off of XNA, so XNA must be installed in order to offer support for FRB. Either way, my point is simple. Though you don't see those folks coming in here requesting for those options, they are there and anxiously waiting for their addition.
I realize that you are using the Feedback site to determine what is most important for you to use, but I caution you, where there is one person asking, there are almost always hundreds that aren't asking. In this particular case, I can practically guarantee more than several hundred new users if those features are added. I can't say how many of those users will be paying users, but I can guarantee the addition of more users. The law of averages says that if I can guarantee several hundred more users, that at least 10% of them will become paying users, so you do the math.
Now, while the majority of the questions about XNA/FRB support that I have recieved are from the FRB community, I can say, without much fear or regret, that providing support for XNA is first and foremost, top priority. Not only because it's a prerequisite for FRB, but also because many FRB users know how to code in XNA already. Thus, even without adding support for FRB, you will still gain users just from XNA.
We just pushed the XNA stuff live. Still testing it before we make an announcement but you can now add XNA to C# and VB. Give it a shot and let us know what you think.
I took a look at the XNA addition, and have to say excellent job adding support for it. I also highly approve of the sample project that you included to get us started with it. Can I also suggest a seperate project that just sets up the minimum requirements for building an XNA game. I mean, a project that compiles and displays an empty game screen with no game logic built in. That would allow veteran XNA developers to have a clean starting point without having to delete existing content.
I would suggest adding support for compiling for the XBox 360, but I know that would be impossible due to the manner in which such projects are compiled and published. :)
Just looking for the FlatRedBall extensions now, though I warn you that FRB is updated on a monthly basis, sometimes more, so I could understand if you decide not to include it. Once you are confident that the XNA extensions are working 100%, let me know, and I'll announce it to the various XNA communities that I deal with.
Once again, thank you very much for adding XNA support, I'm sure that once it's verified complete it'll generate more users for us.
Don't say XBox 360 is impossible :) it may require some packet sniffing and reverse engineering packed into a java applet, but I think it can be done, just not sure when we will get around to it.
I will add an empty game template right now, should be available in a couple hours.
We do realize there is a huge demand for XNA. That's actually why we have been developing it for the last 2 months :)
We are unbelievably close to launching an XNA version shortly. Stay tuned!
Developer - Compilr.com