Visual Express vs. Visual Studio

Question

I am planning to design a video game by myself as a hobby. I probably sound like some overconfident idiot, but I am a C++ programmer for a living, and I believe I have the patience, time, and skills to do this.

However, my company does not allow us to use their license of Visual Studio for anything other than work, and I don't have the money right now to buy myself a copy of Visual Studio. What features does Visual Studio offer that Visual Express does not that may be of interest to me as I program this game? (I am primarily interesting in C++)

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: BTW, this game will use OpenGL 3D graphics, and will run primarily on Windows, although I may port it to Mac or Linux.

Answer 1

VS Express is designed for the hobby developer.

You can program the same software in Express the difference is in the tooling that makes you more productive and allows you to work as part of a team.

For a comparison of the editions see: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions

You should be fine with the express edition

Answer 2

You can find a table with the differences between versions here .