Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Would you like to create your own games, but never have the time to dig into the details of multimedia programming? Now you don’t have to! XNA makes it simple to create your own games, which will run on your PC and Xbox 360 console. Even if you don’t know how to program at all, Beginning XNA 2.0 Game Programming: From Novice to Professional will teach you the basics of C# 2005 programming along the way. Don’t get overwhelmed with details you don’t need to know— just learn what you need to start creating your own games right now!

The fast–paced introduction to XNA and the C# language provides professional developers a quick-start guide to creating a commercial product using XNA, as well as offering home enthusiasts or hobbyists everything they need to begin putting together games in their spare time. You’ll discover and understand all the key concepts required to create smooth, professional–looking results in a range of gaming genres. Every reader will come away with a firm foundation onto which they can build more advanced ideas.

What you’ll learn

• Game Planning and Programming Basics
• 2-D Graphics, Audio, and Input Basics
• Creating Your First 2-D Game
• Improving Your First 2-D Game
• Basics of Game Networking
• Rock Rain Live!
• 3-D Game Programming Basics
• Rendering Pipeline, Shaders, and Effects
• Lights, Camera, Transformations!
• Generating a Terrain
• Skeletal Animation
• Creating a Third-Person Shooter Game

Who is this book for?

Anyone approaching XNA programming for the Xbox 360 for the first time

About the Apress Beginning Series

The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry-level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional”. You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to knowbut without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real–world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!

Average Customer Rating:

The Worst Game Design Book I Ever Bought

Customer Rating:

This book is absolutely horrible! I've followed the steps to make the first project in chapter 2 five times in both XNA 2.0 and XNA 3.0, and it won't even compile. I'm no slouch in programming either. In fact, I downloaded the source code from the web site, and even THAT has compile errors!!! Even worse, the book doesn't even tell you what code they want you to put in to the editor and what code they are just sampling for you, meaning you have to decipher that to even stand a chance at a working game. (For example, chapter 2 claims that you would have only entered a single line of code, but if you look at the example code, you would have to type almost a full paragraph). This book claims to be for novices, but if you don't already have XNA experience, STAY AWAY.

Great code, not enough explanation

Customer Rating:

I would like to say that the book is good, it covers a lot of material pretty well and the downloadable code is just excellent(the one in the book has errors or is not full). Well structured classes, usage of game components and services, no out-dated name conventions. The code can be downloaded and is up-to-date. The problem is that the book covers a lot and does not explain it fully, the HLSL is really ran over through. There are portions of source that are not explained either. At places the book feels like source code listing rather than book. I think the book should be revised so that it includes better and thorough explanations of everything!. The 2D part I have not read. What I was looking for was the 3D and I have read 4 chapters so far and it is good that I had some background experience with 3D and XNA. Otherwise I would have felt completely lost. I found myself pondering over code (especially the shader code) trying to connect 2 and 2. This is not a good way to teach, by giving source code and explaining here and there.

Good tutorial - short on explanation

Customer Rating:

A fair addition to anyone's XNA library, but far from complete. The first half of the book is a good tutorial on building a 2D game from scratch. The second half makes an attempt to cover 3D programming. Given the steep learning curve behind 3D development (linear algebra, lighting and rendering, the programmable pipeline, etc.) where the subject matter could easily fill more than one book, the authors simply present the source code for each chapter with little explanation over what the average developer could grasp by simply looking at the code. Worse, certain subjects such as HLSL are discussed with such little depth that they should have been left out entirely. Combined with a decent game math book, a book on HLSL and the XNA documentation, this book will at least get you started with XNA development.

Best XNA book, code examples contain errors, where is the Quality Control?

Customer Rating:

I found this book on the web and still decided to buy it. The book is the easiest time I think I have ever had learning XNA, however, like all programming books it seems that only experienced coders who correct errors as they read are the ones in charge of editing and quality control. For example, on page 46 it tells you to include a line of code that doesn't seem to make sense (private SpriteBatch spriteBatch = null;) in the Game1 code. This of course is redundant and cause the game not to compile. And.... naturally, the downloaded source code runs fine. Why? Because this line of code is not in the project. I imagine the XNA guru they had reviewing this book (how come they don't hand the book to a total newbie and say 'here, follow this book exactly and tell us when the code examples dont work') fixed the errors he seen on the fly without thinking ..oh, a total newbie won't know this is an obvious mistake.. But I can honestly say I have NEVER read a 'teach yourself' programming book with flawless code examples. And of course the downloaded source always works and you just have to compare your file with thier file and see what is different. The only positive note I can say about the poor state of quality control with newbie programming books in general is that in a way it teaches you to troubleshoot code. But, for someone who is completely new and doesn't pick up on these things it is very frustrating. I'm lucky now in that I have learned enough that I can fix these errors, but a few years ago I would have just tossed this book out of frustration when I do exactly as instructed and it still doesnt work. To the people who write these books I have a suggestion.... If the person in charge of quality control has ever written a single line of code they are not qualified to review a book targeting newbies. Give the book to your spouse, neighbor, 12 year old, etc. who will quickly hand it back to you 5 times every chapter and say 'hey, I did what it said and got a bunch of errors', or 'hey, it assumes here on page whatever I know where to type this'. Now, all that being said, this is a darn good book. The authors make XNA and XBOX programming about as simple as possible... the examples are explained very well and easy to follow. If you have gone through another C# teach yourself newbie book you should minimal trouble getting a game up and running in just an hour or so!

Great reference guide

Customer Rating:

First off this book is not for a beginning programmer. You must have at least some knowledge of object oriented programming before using this book. A basic knowledge of C, C++, or C# would also help a lot. Along with that, a slightly more-than-basic knowledge of the .NET framework is necessary. If you have all those, this is a great book. The explanations of XNA code and corresponding programs is easy to follow. If you read the code and try to understand it without blindly copying it, you will learn a lot from this book. There are some errors throughout the book, but most of them are minor; if you have a programming background, you can get through most of them with little trouble. Overall, this book is for someone who is a beginner at XNA, not at programming all together.