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Zune Game Development using XNA 3.0 (Expert's Voice in XNA)
 
 
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Zune Game Development using XNA 3.0 (Expert's Voice in XNA) [Paperback]

Dan Waters (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Book Description

March 16, 2009 1430218614 978-1430218616 1

XNA 3.0 brings you the ability to create games that will run not just on the PC and Xbox 360, but also on the Zune mobile device. While creating games for Zune is, in many ways, similar to working on the other platforms, it also presents its own unique set of challenges and opportunities. Smaller screens, limited storage, and less processing power all affect the way you need to think about designing and implementing your games.

Zune Game Development Using XNA 3.0 is a comprehensive book that will guide you through the many aspects of XNA game development and their specific implementations on the Zune platform. The book addresses Zune game development concepts in detail and shows you how to apply them in practical, step–by–step examples, building complete, working XNA 3.0 examples along the way that you can download and play.

What you’ll learn

  • Design practical games for the Zune.
  • Discover the ways in which you can develop content for the Zune.
  • Understand what makes the development of Zune games different from the development of PC and console games.
  • Create Zune games, from the simple to the complex, with complete working examples for you to play and learn from.
  • Use the XNA 3.0 Framework to play music from Zune’s library and your own custom sounds to enrich your games.
  • Understand how to take advantage of Zune’s wireless system to create multi-player games.

Who this book is for

This book is aimed at gaming enthusiasts with a good understanding of basic C# (the language underlying XNA) who want to create games for the Zune media player. Some knowledge of common game elements such as sprites, game loops, and animation would be helpful but is not required. (Readers looking for such a foundation can consult Beginning XNA 3.0 Game Programming for a comprehensive primer.)


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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dan Waters is an academic developer evangelist at Microsoft. He has served as a developer and architect, both professionally and for fun, for over 10 years in a variety of industries. He resides in Tampa, Florida with his wife and daughter. He enjoys gaming, golf, web design, and writing music for guitar, piano, bass, and drums.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (March 16, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1430218614
  • ISBN-13: 978-1430218616
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,898,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For someone that did not know much about C# and XNA before this, I felt that this was a great learning experience. Not only did the author explore game development concepts, but he explained C# and XNA to the reader, ensuring that they understood all topics.

One of my pet peeves with this book, amongst other programming books I've read, is that the author will give you their code to copy. To really understand how a language works, or how the algorithms are structured, I feel you need to figure it out on your own. Everyone learns differently, and unfortunately that learning style was not for me. To make up for the code given to you, the author does include questions that cover the chapter just finished, to ensure that you understand what is going on. He also thoroughly breaks down each line of code to explain exactly what it does. The concepts he provides in the code are described before the code is shown.

Some exercises that were included were making a card game and writing break-out for the Zune. The problem with many books on learning a language is having a really boring end-goal, like writing an accounting program, or looking at a simple calculator. This book teaches the user to make cool games, which is generally more interest to the average reader. While that was the point for the book, it still was a good way to learn.

If you are looking for something to teach you Zune Game Development, I am sad to say this book is out-of-date. The new ZuneHD has a multitouch display, instead of the buttons on the bottom of the device. Luckily, the book does go through making Zune games for Windows as well. While the book is out of date for the device it was intended, it still teaches how C# and XNA work together as well as basic Game Development concepts.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
game studio, public methods, event handlers, utility methods, press enter, helper methods, game state management, sprite batch, state management sample, input state class, using render targets, drawable game components, new sprite font, input handler class, drawable components, sprite sheet, main game class, same blend mode, middle button press, local gamer, game over screen, packet writer, sprite fonts, content pipeline, lobby screen
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Visual Studio, Monkey Feeder, Private Methods, Express Edition, Solution Explorer, Right-click the Content, Add Existing Item, Creators Club, Cancel Figure, New Project, Public Virtual Methods, Media Library, Cornflower Blue, Robot Tag, Microsoft Visual, Add the Draw, Private Fields, Windows Game, Hello Zune, Content Pipeline Extension Library, Game Libr, Click Next, Setup Wizard, Card Lib, Toss Arrow
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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wonder if this covers the Zune HD and accelerometer? 1 Feb 21, 2010
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