Building XNA 2.0 Games: A Practical Guide for Independent Game Development (Books for Professionals by Professionals) [Paperback]

John Sedlak (Author), James Silva (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 2008 | ISBN-10: 1430209798 | ISBN-13: 978-1430209799 | Edition: 1

Building XNA 2.0 Games: A Practical Guide for Independent Game Development is written by James Silva, who recently won the prestigious Microsoft Dream Build Play game competition with his award–winning game, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai.

Building XNA 2.0 Games: A Practical Guide for Independent Game Development is an in–depth and exclusive look into the entire XNA game development process and includes the creation of a software game masterpiece. James Silva guides you through the process he took to build his award–winning title, from concept to reality. He reveals tips and techniques for creating a polished, high–quality game with very few resources, while bridging the gap between coding and art.

This title shows software developers the following:

• The creation of a polished game from start to finish
• Design philosophies
• Next–gen 2D graphics, including shaders
• Techniques for fast, fluid game play
• XACT Audio and XInput
• Eye–catching particle effects for visual stimulation

The book is packed full of code, pictures, and valuable insights into XNA game development.

What you’ll learn

• If you are brand new to XNA, you’ll see basic concepts of game development through simple exercises.
• You’ll be able to follow along and see the steps taken to re–create the game that won the Microsoft Dream Build Play competition.
• You’ll learn and enhance artistic skills and artistic design capabilities.
• You’ll learn how to build software games that focus on the same artistic design, game play, and game flow/logic that are also found in commercial games.
• You’ll become more exposed to the exciting world of software games.

Who this book is for

For anyone who has working knowledge of C# and .NET programming and either loves to build software games or is interested in seeing how to create an award–winning game.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Sedlak is a Microsoft "Most Valuable Professional" for his work in the XNA/DirectX community and has created numerous games since first learning Visual Basic 5. Through the development of these games he became to know and love both the .NET and XNA frameworks for empowering programmers to realize their ideas quickly.

James Silva is the creator of The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, winner of the Microsoft Dream Build Play XNA development contest.

Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (September 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430209798
• ISBN-13: 978-1430209799
• Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 7 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,235,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Poor choice of title for an otherwise good book. September 26, 2008

By J. Chounard

Format:Paperback

This book is clearly a series of tutorials on how to build your own game similar to The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. (The author's award winning game.) I think the title is therefore a little misleading. This would be helped a bit if the publisher had included a browsable table of contents here or on their own website.

There's tons of useful information in the book, but it is not a general introduction to building XNA games. For example, there's nothing in this book on 3D programming. So if you're looking for a book that covers that sort of stuff, look elsewhere. If you're looking to learn how The Dishwasher was made, and how you can build your own similar game, this is exactly the book you want and I would recommend you buy it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and Entertaining October 20, 2008

By N. Gravelyn

Format:Paperback

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome February 10, 2013

By Phillip Profitt

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Really really excellent book teaching people how to get started with XNA.

It does have some problems with the code being incorrect, and keep in mind this isn't a book of best practices, just down and dirty how to make a game work.

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource if you know what you're doing. October 14, 2012

By Josh

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Mostly, I bought this book because it was dirt cheap, and I'm glad I spent the money. If you have no knowledge of game design or programming, this probably isn't a great place to start. The book is riddled with errors and they aren't easy to fix if you don't know what you're doing. However, anybody with a little experience can easily overcome this. The book is a GREAT place to start creating a 2D platformer and covers EVERYTHING from start to finish that you could possibly need to know to begin creating a game, including a Character Editor and Map Editor with custom scripting. For anybody unwilling to learn the XNA 2.0 environment, somebody has happily provided a 4.0 conversion (just google for it) to use as a reference. I would give this book 5 stars but for the errors in the book and the fact that some things aren't explained in as much detail as they maybe should be. All that being said, I can't begin to describe how much I've learned from this book. I feel it was a worthwhile purchase.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book From First to Last Page! January 28, 2011

By Alessandro Negri

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am really glad Silva wrote this, it help me fill a lot of gaps I had developing small games. It also taught me a lot on using the XBox 360 networking features, sending data across clients, create my own map and sprite editor. I would say this is one of the best books for my own personal self development that I have bought in the last 10 years.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun and Easy Book for Beginners April 21, 2010

By Adam

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Like others here, I noticed this book doesn't really cover a whole lot of XNA; there are much better books for that. If you want to get into serious Xbox programming you'll need a good sized book collection anyway though; just one book won't make you into a master.

What this book does do is walk you through a big, easy-to-understand tutorial so you can make your own 2D game for Xbox (like a platform game or fighting game). It uses plain and sometimes funny language that anyone can understand and it assumes you know nothing about XNA, C#, or Visual Studio (but a little bit about programming).

This book is also actually very good for learning generic programming principles such as how to create an animated character editor, map editor, AI system, and particle system.

I bought a used copy on Amazon for about two bucks and it was more than worth the price.

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worthy of a spot on your shelf April 14, 2009

By GameMaker VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm finally taking the plunge and getting into xna game development, so I've bought a number of books to supplement a college course I am taking. I'm definitely glad to have this book.

This book is a bit odd in that it isn't a really a book for non-programmers or kids who are looking to write their first computer program, or figure out what a mouse is used for. It also isn't for industry veterans looking to pick up a few advanced tips. And lastly it isn't the kind of book that will serve as a reference on xna, that you'll be referring back to time and again. Instead, the authors take you through some projects, show you lots of code, and have some somewhat brief but nonetheless good descriptions on how things are working.

It's the kind of book that you'll read through once, and will help get you "just started" in your own xna projects. Considering the reasonable price I paid for this book, I am definitely glad that I got it.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book (I agree the title is a little off) October 6, 2008

By J. L. Allen

Format:Paperback

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.