Kodu is a new visual programming language made specifically for creating games. It's designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone. The visual nature of the language allows for rapid design iteration using only an Xbox game controller for input (mouse/keyboard input is also supported).
"We're experimenting with new approach to making Kodu feel more responsive on lower end machines. If you've Kodu configured for Shader Model 2 and Effects turned off then this feature will be activated when your frame rate gets low. The only indication is that "frame per second" text (if turned on in configuration) will turn red. What we're doing is updating UI elements more frequently than we're updating the world. Hopefully this'll make UI feel more responsive even though the overall frame rate is still the same," revealed