Learning XNA 3.0: XNA 3.0 Game Development for the PC, Xbox 360, and Zune
- ISBN13: 9780596521950
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Do you have what it takes to become a game developer? With this hands-on book, you’ll learn quickly and easily how to develop computer games with Microsoft’s XNA 3.0 framework-not just for your PC, but for Xbox 360 and the Microsoft Zune as well.
Written by an experienced university-level game development instructor, Learning XNA 3.0 walks you through the framework in a clear and understandable step-by-step format. Each chapter offers a self-contained less… More >>
Learning XNA 3.0: XNA 3.0 Game Development for the PC, Xbox 360, and Zune
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Thomas Z. Moore said :
February 5, 2010 at 7:40 pm
this book covers all the basics you need to get started with XNA 3 and includes an example for Windows, Xbox360, and the Zune.
Rating: 4 / 5
Kris Lamb said :
February 5, 2010 at 9:30 pm
This book delivers exactly what it promises, to learn XNA. It’s well written compared to internet tutorials (I suppose the fact that there’s an editor and such involved helps). I pretty much just skimmed the first three chapters due to how basic they were, but I found myself having some fun after that. It really is just a starting point that exposes the basics on all of what XNA has to offer. If you already know a bit of XNA I’d probably recommend a more advanced book. Either way I still enjoyed reading it.
Rating: 4 / 5
Brandon K. Martini said :
February 5, 2010 at 11:54 pm
I have read several XNA books and none of them have been as easy to understand as Learning XNA 3.0. Aaron Reed has done a superb job organizing the material in a friendly easy-to-learn fashion for those who are beginner programmers and have never scratched the surface of XNA.
I would highly recommend this book for a first time XNA programmer who has a basic understanding of C#.
Rating: 5 / 5
David Hall said :
February 6, 2010 at 12:13 am
This book is definitely for beginners who have absolutely no programming experience of any kind in any language. It’s extremely wordy, which makes it difficult to find any actually useful information. Most of the activities amount to little more than copy code from the book and are accompanied by grossly inadequate explanations of why that code functions. All in all, it’s a woefully mediocre book that could have been vastly improved with the addition of a language reference.
Rating: 3 / 5
Spencer Grey said :
February 6, 2010 at 12:20 am
I have a shelf of XNA books and bookcases full of other books on game programming. This book deserves to be there. It is well written and particularly suited for the intermediate-level game programmer. I would suggest that you have at least a small amount of programming and/or 3D knowledge before diving into this one.
It gives explicit details of how to use the code in the book (as opposed to some books where the authors do a lot of hand-waving), and it builds logically from beginning to end–resulting in a plausible 3D space shooter that you can build on.
It covers platform-specific issues for PC, Xbox 360 and Zune (including networked & split-screen games), and does so with fun little touches of humor.
Rating: 4 / 5