Beginning C# Game Programming (Premier Press Game Development) [Paperback]

Ron Penton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1592005179 | ISBN-13: 978-1592005178 | Publication Date: October 22, 2004 | Edition: 1

"Beginning C# Game Programming" approaches the topic of programming with C# for a total beginner, first easing the reader into the techniques of C#, and then slowly combining all of the information together enabling the reader to create a complete computer game. Divided into two comprehensive sections, this book first provides readers with the techniques and skills that they need to program with C#, including the basics of .NET and computer programming. The second section concentrates on programming for games. Readers will learn how to use C# to interface with DirectX 9 and will cover the basics of graphics, input, and sound.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ron Penton is an independent programmer with a primary interest in computer games. He began using GW-BASIC in 1989, moved on to Visual Basic 4 in 1995, QBasic in 1996, and learned C++ in 1997. Ron began working on his degree in 1998 at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and is working on completing his Bachelors in Computer Science at the University of Buffalo. Ron contributed a chapter in the book titled "Game Programming All in One" published by Premier Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (October 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592005179
• ISBN-13: 978-1592005178
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #304,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good intro to C# game programming, January 18, 2005

By 

John Hattan (Southlake, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning C# Game Programming (Premier Press Game Development) (Paperback)

"Beginning C# Game Programming" is Ron Penton's third effort in game book-authorship. It's a ground-up tutorial on the C# programming language, starting from the obligatory "Hello World" program and ending with a pretty rudimentary "spaceship at the bottom of the screen shooting at things coming down at you" game called "Generic Space Shooter 3000".

If you're already an old hand at similar languages like Java or C++, then the first half of the book won't be much more than a refresher for you. The first half of the book covers simple screen output, followed by primitive types, operators, looping, classes, arrays and file streams. It covers these topics fairly quickly (all in about 120 pages), so you won't be spending much time on each topic. Apart from one significant exception, the language tutorial is well-organized.

The "significant exception" raises its head with chapter 6 (creating a project). After spending 120 pages learning how to write, compile, and execute small bits of C# code, chapter 6 shows you how to set up a project in SharpDevelop (a free C# programming environment). If you need help compiling your code in chapters 1-5, the only help you'll get is a brief mention of Visual Studio.NET, SharpDevelop, or the C# command-line compiler. If you invest in a copy of "Beginning C# Game Programming", I recommend that you read chapter 6 first. Then go back to chapters 1-5. Finally, head over to chapter 7 and build yourself a space-shooter for the rest of the book.

The space shooter chapters are well-done, with good coverage of doing directX graphics in C#. The topics covered are a bit large for such a simple example game (alpha-blending, force-feedback, direct3D), but this is done with the understanding that you'll be wanting to write a more significant game than "Generic Space Shooter 3000" by the time you're done with the book.

If you want a good "ground-up" start with C# game programming, "Beginning C# Game Programming" is a good start. It takes you from the very beginning to a complete arcade game.

Just don't read it in order.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great 1st book for learning C# and DirectX, February 25, 2005

By 

C. Sander (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning C# Game Programming (Premier Press Game Development) (Paperback)

You will probably want some prior programming experience to make the first 5 chapters easier to digest. I'm a seasoned C/C++ programmer, and I was able to learn C# quickly with the help of this book (although admittedly C# is very much like C++). I knew a little about DirectX, but even if I didn't this book did a great job of starting basic and building on that foundation. What I like most about this book is the author goes step by step through a simple framework which gets Direct3D up and running. In about 150 lines of code, the author manages to make a Direct3D Windows application that does something. For Windows and Direct3D this is no small accomplishment given their complexity. Other books I have seen stick the Direct3D initialization into a helper library and never bother to explain it. Not here. Each line is explained well. This book will not, however, teach you advanced Direct3D topics. Only 1 chapter describes Direct3D, but it does a good job. You will want to get another book after this one to learn more advanced topics.

If you know nothing about C# or DirectX, but have some programming experience, this book is for you. The title is very fitting of the contents. Highly recommended.

37 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Someone Kick These People, June 25, 2006

By 

Travis Parks (Howard, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beginning C# Game Programming (Premier Press Game Development) (Paperback)

I have read a lot of Premier books in my days. One thing is constant through all of their books: they are riddled with errors. They are not complex errors that only an advanced programmer would catch - they are stupid mistakes that an author who reviewed his work would catch. What's worse, most of the authors of these game programming books have about as much experience as I do - and I haven't even worked in the field yet! For a book that spends the first 5 chapters talking about the C# language, you would think the author would realize you can't have drop-through in switch-statments and that you can't have multiple type specifiers in a for-loop header. I read these books hoping for some entertainment and to learn some new skills. I definitely get a laugh! I will say that there are some decent programming books by this joke of a publisher, but it is like navigating a mine-field. My only suggestion to beginners is to go to a site like gamedev and see what they recommend. And for the experienced programmer, I don't recommend Premier books at all. Go for a book that is not split between the language and the gaming library. If you really want, I will give you some definite reads for anyone serious about getting a head-start. For such a large, growing industry, you would think there would be better books out there. All in all, I would not put this book down entirely - it does try to present the language and still has time to cover direct3D at some point. The reality is, though, the world is not ready for C# gaming yet and anyone serious about beginning game programming should find a book using C/C++. I hope this review has not aroused too much spite on my behalf.