XNA Game Studio (XNA GS) has made game development easier, but to develop in XNA GS you still have to be able to develop with C#. While you don't need to be a C# expert to make a game using XNA GSE, you do need to understand the basics of object oriented development and the general syntax of the C# language.

This is great for game developer hopefuls who already have C# experience but for those just getting their feet wet in the C# language (and maybe development in general) there is definitely some initial training needed before they can begin making their game. This list of development resources has been constructed by the community to help get you started in learning what you'll need to know about development and coding in C# to make that awesome game idea come to life in XNA GS.

Please reply to this thread if you have any recommended sites, books, video tutorials, etc that you think would be helpful to add to this list. (I will then add to the list and delete your post to keep this list current)

 

[Note: Books referring to "Game Programming" do not necessarily use XNA Game Studio, but were most likely recommended because they taught game development concepts that others in the community found useful when they were starting out.]

 

Books

For Beginners:

• Ron Penton - Beginning C# Game Programming
• Donis Marshall - Programming Microsoft Visual C# 2005: The Language
• John Sharp - Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Step by Step
• David Weller - Beginning .NET Game Programming in C#
• Head First C#

 

For the Intermediate (those coming from another language):

• Jesse Liberty, Brian MacDonald - Learning C# 2005: Get Started with C# 2.0 and .NET Programming
• Jesse Libery - Programming C#
• Jay Hilyard, Stephen Teilhet - C# Cookbook
• Andrew Troelsen - Pro C# 2005 and the .NET 2.0 Platform
• Don Box - Essential .NET Volume 1
• Jeffrey Richter - CLR Via C#
• Bill Wagner - Effective C#: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your C#
• Wrox - Professional C# 2005

 

General Game Development

• Tom Miller - Managed DirectX 9 Kick Start
• Daniel Sanchez-Crespo Dalmau - Core Techniques and Algorithms in Game Programming
• Tom Miller - Beginning 3D Game Programming (uses C#) 
• Fletcher Dunn - 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development

 

Videos

• 3DBuzz

Free Resources

E-Book

• Programmer's Heaven C# School Book

Tutorials

• http://www.csharp-station.com/Tutorials/Lesson01.aspx

 

Sites

• VB.NET to C# language comparisons
• Developer Fusion - Converting VB.NET to C#
• GameDev Workshop
• C# Language Specification

 

Videos

• Microsoft's Visual C# Express Edition Video Series
• Joran Omark's C#/XNA Video Tutorials

 

 

Would it be possible to update list of books and other sources? Since this page is mentioned to be a help for beginners it would really help them. Especially new books targeting new wersions C# and Visual Studio 2008
One recommendation:

 

• John Sharp - Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Step by Step

 It may be good also to rewrite text (for example change the term "Game Studio Express" for new one). I have to appologize for not offering to do it myself but my English is not good enough for it.

C# Books I use these days:

C# In Depth, by Jon Skeet
Accelerated C# 2008, by Trey Nash (might need to look it up as "Weldon Nash", but he goes by Trey -- he used to work for me)


XNA Books That I use these days:
XNA 2.0 Game Programming Recipes by Riemer Grootjans.  Don't let the "2.0" title fool you, this is a fantastic book even for 3.0 and beyond.

Books I don't recommend people buy anymore:
Anything referencing Managed DirectX.  That would be, sadly, my book as well as Tom Miller's books.  You can't even get MDX libraries with the DirectX SDK anymore, so the pain of just being able to work through the samples isn't worth it. 

For a beginner, I like "Learning XNA 3.0", but Aaron Reed (Truth in advertising: my name is on the back of the book.  The book definitely has its flaws, but I think it does a great job for beginners)

Nick Gravelyn has the Tile Engine series as well although I don't know what the status of it is anymore.

http://www.nickontech.com/archive/#tileengine

http://www.itsya.com/?page_id=67

Is a good little where to look starter page for aspiring XNA developers.

I've just bought Learning XNA 3.0 and smashed through the first few chapters, very impressed so far. Would be interested to hear Dave's take on the flaws he mentions, I viewed his endorsement on the back as a sign of quality! :) Coming from another language but never having coded any games before my main concern is picking up good code design practice with regard to games programming. I've found loads of good tutorials on the web but I'm also pretty clear most of them are there to show me the language syntax and important objects. That's all brilliant of course, but I'd also like to get into the *right* habits so when I'm getting to my third/forth game and getting a bit more ambitious I've got a bit of a clue how to properly implement OOP and the like. I'm quite interested in James Silva's (of Dishwasher fame) as clearly he's living the dream right now. The XNA 3.0 version is out in March I think.

Well, I am still quite new to programming, only 2 years of experience from college in VB and C++. I have been learning C# along the way also, and have been using XNA since 1.0 Refresh days. Here are the books I have, in no particular order, with a few comments/opinions from someone still new to programming:

Professional XNA Programming by Benjamin Nitschke: The first XNA book I bought. While it is probably a very valuable resource, for me (again this is a new programmer perspective) it was way over my head after the first few chapters (mainly because of using Agile Methodology and Unit Testing to create the games, something that was totally new to me with this book, and even after reading quite a bit about it, I would say I am still very uncomfortable with it).

Learn Programming Now XNA Game Studio 2.0 by Rob Miles: Very great introduction (again for noobs like me) to programming in C# and XNA.

Essential XNA Game Studio 2.0 Programming by Jim Perry and Allen Sherrod: Another great book in my opinion. I do not know that I would recommend it for a total beginner, but after I gained some knowledge and fundamental steps into XNA and C#, this book started to turn into my reference manual when I did not understand something.

Building XNA 2.0 Games by James Silva and John Sedlak: Have not completely read the book as of yet. I have gone through sporadically and read chapters that had information I was looking for. From the point of view of a developer and the steps taken to create his game, I find it a great read for myself. Would I recommend it? That would be a resounding yes, if you only read it for the tools developed (which was quite a good resource to read about) for the game, it is worth it.

XNA 2.0 Game Programming Recipes by Riemer Grootjans: Another I have only slightly started reading (still in the first 3 chapters). However, the very limited knowledge I now have of 3D game development, alot of that was solidified by using some of these recipes and his (Riemer's) tutorials online.

Visual C# 2008 Step by Step by John Sharp: Great book for learning C#.

Code Complete 2 by Steve McConnell: I will just quote what I read quite a bit about online in reference to this book, "A must have for software developers." Even though I am somewhat new to programming, the knowledge gained from reading about planning and refactoring was invaluable.

Those are a few of the books in my library that I though I should recommend to anyone on this site. Again, my comments are from someone still relatively new to programming and game development, so even though all of the books are probably worth their weight in educational value, I thought I would share my thoughts from a noob perspective.

The C# Books I have used are: Head First C# - Very good first book on programming and OOP in general. Written in an easy to read and follow manor, not to mention it steps you through the process of making a few basic games (not XNA based). C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Framework - A little more advanced but goes into details of the .NET Framework and the CIL. I highly recommend both of these, the first can be skipped if you have OOP experience.

Firstly, THANK YOU! As a noob, this is extremely helpful. As for the next couple of questions, I hope they are not redundant as per the knowledge already contained on this website. I just bought XNA GAme Studio Express: Developing Games.... by Joseph Hall. Out of the 6 books or so I saw in the store, this seemed to me the most comprehensize, well explained, example packed and expansive book for a beginner. I was a bit upset to find that the code wasn't compatible with 2.0. However, after visiting codetopia, i downloaded the new code last night and have yet to try the new stuff. Also codetopia seems to be riddled with "We are currently unable to serve your request". Should I keep the book and do my best to follow along with it while using the newer source code i downloaded (it would help if the website was up and running)? Or do you think I will spend more time confused about the changes and less time actually learning. Since I am new, I want to be guided through the process of learning, and not riddled with conversion issues and tackling them? Any advice from any of you, especially those who are in a similar boat to me, are welcome. Thank you!

I was looking for a list and I'm glad that I found one. I'm only in Gr.12 and would really like to broaden my knowledge of C# and OOP in general. I have some programming experience from my programming class this year (and to a much much lesser extent last year... bad teacher, I won't go into details) However I didn't do OOP in this class and just now am transitioning from the learning language turing.

I understand all/most of the general basics of programming like variables, recursions, procedures (in this case methods I guess) or in other words this isn't the first time I've ever programmed, and am fairly competent when it comes to building an actual program versus a block of code that only does one thing. I'm actually almost done my first game in C# using the XNA game studio express (however limited I think it will be) So I was wondering if you read all of those which one or two beginners books would be most useful for my situation. I'm also interested in game programming. I will be studying either software engineering or computer science in university and would really like a solid foundation to keep me ahead of the game.

Also if you could keep in mind I prefer knowing the WHY something works as opposed to the HOW. For this reason I either dislike or have trouble with some of the tutorials as they often tell the HOW of doing something and not so much of the WHY it produces the result that it does and WHY it works that way. I prefer the WHY as it allows you to truly adapt your knowledge across many more situations.

Thanks

http://www.innovativegames.net/blog/game-engine-tutorial

At the time of this posting, it's a 10 part series on game engine development, including physics, terrain, cameras, etc, with more on the way.

Thank you for all the helpful links.

Here`s a link to ROB MILES Free YELLOW C# BOOK in PDF format

This is a legitimate download from his own site.

Aimed at Absolute beginners but anybody should give it a look!

http://www.robmiles.com/c-yellow-book/

Enjoy

Ginge

I'd really like to thank everyone for their contributions to this thread.  It's greatly appreciated.

As someone who learned to program back in high school it's been far too long for me to consider myself an intermediate programmer again.  I have to go back to the beginning and even though a lot of things still make sense there is a lot of fragmentation in my memory.  Having these resources freely available to me is going to help greatly for my development, and I thank everyone for this.

My desires in programming are moreso a start and end type project.  I really like structured lesson type way of learning and a few of these resources are helping.  I think a lot of the development information that's available to everyone isn't structured to the beginner, but someone who understands C# and wishes to learn new concepts.  I like how everyone has given their information on various books at what level you should expect to be at when picking up the book.

With that said I've decided to go with the above posters submission from Mr. Rob Miles.  I managed to print off all 185 pages here at work and looked it over briefly.  I thank both Rob Miles and the above poster for providing the information.

For the future posters to this thread I'd recommend mentioning what level of programming or learning you should be at with each of the books if possible!  Also as many free (great) resources as possible would be a much better sell.  I have no problem purchasing intermediate/advanced level programming resources, but for starting out everything to me must be free.

Does the rob miles book work with XNA 3.0?

FangPursuit:

Does the rob miles book work with XNA 3.0?

I'd assume yes as the book is a C# book and not an XNA book :)

For XNA related books one of the above posters (David Weller...one of the OP's recommended authors) recommended XNA 2.0 Game Programming Recipes.  I'm not sure what level of programmer it is written for, so hopefully he can provide some insight, or anyone else for that matter.

William Decker:

FangPursuit:

Does the rob miles book work with XNA 3.0?

I'd assume yes as the book is a C# book and not an XNA book :)

Some confusion here... the Yellow book linked above is C# only.

Rob's published book is C# and XNA 2.0 book... 

There's nothing in any of the 2.0 books that I have found that won't work in 3.0 so I wouldn't worry about any of them including Robs book.

@Ginerprince

Thank for the link ;-), Ive now downloaded the pdf file of the book.  Ill be able to read it and see if it is any good or not.  I can then eventually buy a hardcopy book later on of another author to get more knowledge.

Fred

Thanks to `Intruder` and `William Decker` .

I`ve downloaded the Rob Miles free C# book and printed off. It is not aimed at XNA specifically but it is a very good introduction to C# (the best I`ve found).
 If your a total beginner in C# I would recommend reading this and keeping it for future reference.

Rob Miles also has a book specifically on XNA programming (again for total beginners) : -

Microsoft Gamestudio 2.0 : Learn Programming Now. (link below at Amazon)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Programming-Microsoft-Studio-Express-PRO-Developer/dp/0735625220/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199897096&sr=8-6

 This is a complete beginners hold your hands book.

You can download the samples from the book from Microsoft (big download 190meg or so) :- 

http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/companion/9780735625228/default.aspx

Robs own website link below :-

http://verysillygames.com/learn-programming-now-book/

You can download the first two chapters from here to get a feel for the book.

Finally,as well as the above I fully recommend the 2D Video Tutorial on this site . Link below : -

http://creators.xna.com/en-GB/education/gettingstarted

It took me a couple of weekends to work through these (at my slow and child disturbed pace) but now I`ve ripped the
code apart and changed it around for my own projects.

And of coarse you can always ask in the forums here - and you usually get a quick reply!

Cheers

Gingerprince

ps. The XNA book is specifically aimed at XNA 2.0. However as far as I`m aware there should be know problems with the samples.They can be converted within XNA 3.0 if there is a problem.And the syntax `should` be the same.

 

I would highly recommend Head First C#. I've been using it for the past couple of weeks, and it is very visually awesome, with cartoons, pictures, and all sorts of fun projects and stuff.