Building XNA 2.0 Games: A Practical Guide for Independent Game Development

By John Sedlak and James Silva

Book Overview

XNA is a Microsoft software framework that game developers use to create commercial games for the Xbox hardware, and other hardware that supports XNA. XNA 2.0 is an exploding technology, and on the verge of a large consumer breakout.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1430209798
• ISBN13: 9781430209799
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 450 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

please read this

I am almost done with College with a degree in Computer Science and a minor in Computer Engineering, and this is one of the better computer books i have read (reading right now, but should be done with it within about 4 days). The software engineering principals are terrible, BUT, they talk about how YES yes they are terrible, and it is ment to be a quick mock-up on how to create a decent game. Pros: -They actually make a good level and character editor, while going through scripting systems. ******No where do you find something that has scripting just right ******off the bat and makes it easy to understand. -They dont promise the best, they tell the truth, and i like that. -They show why its important to create tools to create a game, instead of hard coding all the levels in. -There actual coding techniques are good and understandable, they dont weigh you down with how to do everything in XNA, they do expect you to know about programming (Though they have like a 50 page introduction to .NET and XNA.) Cons: -Maybe a 2nd game, one that they have not already made (this is a mock up of another game). I have read about 20 books on programming video games. This is by far one of the best. As a warning, there are a few code errors, just find the source on there website and you can figure it out 5 stars. All the way!

Informative and Entertaining

This book is simply spectacular. Not only was I hooked by the entertaining aspects of the book (kudos to the authors for that), but I was able to extract quite a few great ideas for my own games. I'm no beginner in the realm of XNA, so having a book that really focused on making a game (rather than introducing and teaching XNA like most other books) was really quite a welcome change to the market. If you have some of the basics of XNA and C# down, I'd highly recommend this book if you are ready to really make a game. It has lots of real world advice and lots of great ideas. I know it's going to improve my future games.

Great book (I agree the title is a little off)

As has been mentioned, this book is about creating a 2D platform game complete with map and character editor, particle system and shader effects. If you have seen James' winning game, Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, and would like to learn how to build similar games with all the bells and whistles then this book is definitely for you. The book takes you through the creation of the game and tools used to build the content, from start to completion; the end result is a fully functional game of a very high quality.

Realistic look into our lifestyle

I can understand why a person would get mad if they didn't get pure XNA tutorial goodness, but this book is more of a realistic look into the lifestyle that independent developers live. We strive to get our work out their and even "finished" at times. Being an independent developer is very hard and can at times makes you question whether or not to even continue. James Silva did give up and attempt to get a real job when he won Dream Build Play. Whether we realize it or not, his victory as an independent developer is going to and has already started paving the way for the rest of us. This book is for people who want a look at the real life view of a game developers lifestyle, not a XNA pure tutorial book.