I just made a forum post on the creators.xna.com regarding the lack of a serializable attribute on the xna framework Color structure. A copy of the post is provided below. You can goto the actual form post by clicking here.

So I thought I would start a new project called XNAVisies and create a few simple debug visualizers for the xna framework objects. Hah!

Turns out I keep getting errors when I place a breakpoint in my code and bring up my debug visualizer for a xna color structure. I get vcexpress stating that Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.Color is not serializable!

A quick look at the xna assemblies using ildasm shows that almost all objects are marked as serializable like Viewports, predefined vertex structures like VertexPositionColor and VertexPositionColorTexture etc, also Ray, Matrix, Plane, Point, Rectangle, Quaterion,  and all vector structures are marked as serializable EXCEPT for the Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.Color structure! Which just so happens to be the object type I am trying to create a visualizer for! Gargh!

For all that is still sane in this world please microsoft, add the serializable attribute to the xna Color structure by the next release of the xna framework!.

It seems XNA and GSE (Game Studio Express) does not ship with a simple xml importer and/or processors, so you can use xml files as a game asset. So I created the XMLDocContentProcessor library that allows XNA developers to use regular xml files as game assets using the xna content pipeline, and returns a XMLDocument object containing the xml data. A simple example of how to use the library is provided below ...

// declare a XmlDocument that will contain
// the xml data
XmlDocument doc;

// call content.load method and specify the 
// XmlDocument as the return type
doc = content.Load‹XmlDocument›("Test");

// set the title of the window to the 
// content stored in the root node
this.Window.Title = doc.DocumentElement.InnerText;

I just purchased a wired xbox 360 controller so I can test my code using the controller! I also just posted updated code for my two xna example projects ...

• Top down character movement
  Some code that demonstrates top down character movement. View Screenshot
• Guns a blazin
  A small project that demonstrates top down character movement, with the ability to shoot 2 different weapons. View Screenshot

The examples now support the xbox 360 controller as an input device.

I have just made public a new project that I have started called the Zider game engine. The Zider game engine will be a 2D/3D hybrid game engine focusing on 2D side scrolling, and top down game play styles.

Below lists the current status of the various features that are either currently working or on the drawing table.

Working features

1. Load/Save Maps in xml format
2. Edit map blocks with left and right mouse buttons
3. Can pan the map to expose other parts just by moving mouse near edges of screen or use WSAD keys on keyboard
4. Supports full screen and windowed modes
5. Basic, easy to use GUI system with anchoring support like in windows forms
6. Texture selection, and block selection so user can choose specific blocks to use for drawing with

Features on the drawing table

1. Layering. Currently Zider only supports one map layer.
2. Moving platforms (elevators, falling platforms)
3. Particle system using the Mercury Particle Engine
4. Ability to erase blocks
5. Characters, Actors, Items etc
6. Move over all sprite based drawing to full 3D geometry primitives.
7. Animation systems
8. Implement Farseer Physics Engine for physics, or develop custom phisics implementation. I may have come up with a superfast way of doing 2D Collision detection/response in the works.
9. Possibly an in game console. I already have one written but it's in VB.NET and MDX so it will have to be converted to C#.
10. Purchase a XNA creators club subscription and get code working on 360.
11. Keep all data files in xml format for easy of use and ease to editing. Notepad!

I added 2 more simple XNA example projects to the xna page.

• Top down character movement
  Some code that demonstrates top down character movement. View Screenshot
• Guns a blazin
  A small project that demonstrates top down character movement, with the ability to shoot 2 different weapons.. View Screenshot