.NET for Game Programming

[Fant4stic]

Hi folks!

Due most modern commercial games are only running on Windows OS, i was wondering whether the .NET - Framework and the Visual Studio IDE are used to programm the core features of the game (like game mechanics, physics, AI etc.) or you use an other development environment. Or to put it in a question, with which programming tools (editor, compiler etc.) should you be familiar with ?

Thanks and greetings
Phil