Professional Windows Phone 7 Game Development: Creating Games using XNA Game Studio 4 [Paperback]

Chris G. Williams (Author), George W. Clingerman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2011

Create the next generation of gaming titles for Windows Phone 7!

Providing an overview of developing games for Windows Phone 7 while working within XNA Game Studio 4, this comprehensive resource covers such essential topics as device/emulator, development tools, device orientation, tilt and accelerometer sensors, multi-touch, working with Cloud and Web services, and more. Three complete games are included within the book plus hands-on explanations and clear example codes help you gain a deeper understanding of the Windows Phone 7 features so that you can start building a game right away.

• Serves as a comprehensive reference on Windows Phone 7 game development with XNA Game Studio 4
• Includes real-world examples and anecdotes, making this book a popular choice for those taking their first steps into the game development industry
• Demonstrates how to program for device orientation, incorporate Touch Input, add music to a game, work with 3D, and take your game to the marketplace

Put your game face on and start designing games for Windows Phone 7 with Professional Windows Phone 7 Game Development!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Create the next generation of games for Windows Phone 7

If you're eager to make your entrance into the gaming world of Windows Phone 7, then look no further than this comprehensive book. Packed with real-world examples and anecdotes, this must-have resource dives into developing games for Windows Phone 7. After an introduction to the features of Windows Phone 7, you'll discover the tools you need to start developing games. Clear explanations and examples with code help you gain a deeper understanding of the Windows Phone 7 device so that you can put your game face on and start building games right away.

Professional Windows Phone 7 Game Development:

• Includes three complete games and helpful guidance on how to get your game published to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace

• Shares invaluable advice for working within XNA Game Studio 4.0

• Walks you through detecting touch input and gestures, and takes you to the next level by teaching you how to build and use a complete input management system

• Explains how to use the Microsoft Push Notifications Service

• Teaches you how to manage game and screen state with a full state management system that you can use in your own game

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

wrox.com

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About the Author

Chris G. Williams is a Principal Consultant for Magenic, delivering custom-built .NET solutions to clients. He founded Reality Check Games as a studio for his various XNA projects on Windows, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone 7.

In addition to writing games, Williams is a Microsoft MVP in XNA/DirectX (for six years running). He is an active contributor to the XNA Indie Games community, and founded
an XNA Developers Group in Minneapolis, MN.

He speaks regularly at user groups, code camps, and professional conferences around the country, lecturing on XNA Game Development, Windows Phone 7, and other topics.

He has also authored articles for CODE Magazine and Flagship Magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (February 21, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470922443
• ISBN-13: 978-0470922446
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,132,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Resource for Learning XNA on WP7 May 8, 2011

By Michael McLaughlin

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As they explain at the outset, this book is intended for programmers with some experience with C# and .NET (VB.NET experience should suffice, too) and who have worked with XNA before. You don't need to be an XNA expert or a .NET guru, but if you try to dive into this book without some .NET programming experience and some familiarity with what XNA is, how it works, and what the basic flow of an XNA game is (from the Game-derived class's constructor to Initialize and LoadContent to the main game loop's Update and Draw cycle), you will likely find yourself struggling to understand what's going on. Microsoft's App Hub site contains a lot of great, free educational materials that will help you get started if you are new to XNA and there are other great resources out there if you are new to C# and .NET.

What this book does, and does very well, is introduce you to all of the features of XNA programming on Windows Phone 7, including all of the phone-centric features like accelerometer-based controls, multi-touch input, using notifications, and connecting to web services. You are introduced to much of the material through three, fully-functional sample games, each making use of different functionality and features so that you can see everything come together into an actual game and see how it is integrated. I think that's one of the central values of this book. A sample showing how touch input works and how you get data from it is useful to understand touch input. To make a game, though, you need to see and understand the extra steps of connecting that input to your game, using it to update objects that then interact with the game world (perhaps colliding with an obstacle in the road or sliding out of the way just in time), and then bringing that all together on the screen while playing sounds effects and music. The examples in this book show you how to build the components and how to integrate those with each other to form actual games.

I know George and Chris (if you look closely, you'll notice my name in the dedication section). I think they wrote a really great book. It has helped me at times and I hope it helps you should you choose to purchase it. I definitely encourage you to explore XNA either way. Making your own games is a lot of fun and XNA is a great way to get started doing it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Must have XNA developer book March 15, 2011

By BigDaddio

Format:Paperback

This book is one of my favorite XNA books much less my favorite WP7 programming book. Let me explain, I have been coding for too many years, never a systems back end guy. Always production, games, interface, flash etc. Half of what I do is artwork and IA. Over the years I have had learn not only everything from 6502 machine code to C++, actionscipt etc, but also the capabilities of how many platforms. A guys head get full of stuff.

These guys don't expect that you are already all up to speed on XNA, WP7 or even structuring a game. They step you through everything you need to make a quality (read better than most) WP7 game. It really hit me in chapter eight where after building a simple game they show you how to build this into a template for other games. Too many books gloss over interface and the real structure of the game in order to show you some animation techniques etc. The other books expect that you are already familiar enough with the framework, the platform, the language to extrapolate from their partials to a full game.

I work on Flash, iOS, Android, XBLIG and now WP7, I have too much stuff to know and too many things to cover to know the intricacies of each and every platform. I want someone else to show me what I need to know to get the job done.

Another example of how great this is they explain the notifications and how to consume services with XNA. Then like everything else in the book they take the concepts and help you create a full game, scores, multiplayer, interface the works. they don't just show you how to consume services they put it in context.

@theBigDaddio

5.0 out of 5 stars Great development resource July 7, 2011

By elybob

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Chris does a great job of setting up the developer for a mindset to work with the code in a way that makes it more reusable, as well as covering many salient points which are not frequently covered in other XNA books.