General

Re: XNA Book Dilemma

Beeny95 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:36:32 GMT

JPellet:
I have the same "Learning XNA 3.0" book that Kris and Beeny recommended. I definitely give that one a strong thumbs up for people who want to develop with XNA. It's very complete, and goes into all aspects of a game, including graphics, state management, networking, etc. It's well written with great examples. By the time you're done, the author takes you through a complete game development with all required code.

I also own "Professional XNA Game Programming: For Xbox 360 and Windows" from Wrox publishing. Also a decent book, but I liked the "Learning XNA 3.0" book much better.

This may be a bit offf the subject but you should check out his website. Infact everyone should, he has a forum but it isn't that active at all. It is Here.

Re: XNA Book Dilemma

JPellet — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:32:27 GMT

I have the same "Learning XNA 3.0" book that Kris and Beeny recommended. I definitely give that one a strong thumbs up for people who want to develop with XNA. It's very complete, and goes into all aspects of a game, including graphics, state management, networking, etc. It's well written with great examples. By the time you're done, the author takes you through a complete game development with all required code.

I also own "Professional XNA Game Programming: For Xbox 360 and Windows" from Wrox publishing. Also a decent book, but I liked the "Learning XNA 3.0" book much better.

Re: XNA Book Dilemma

Beeny95 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:21:48 GMT

Kris Steele:
I personally liked this one best for learning the basics of XNA, though I haven't read the Unleased one (I have two others).

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-XNA-3-0-Game-Development/dp/0596521952/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244814927&sr=8-5

I have the 2.0 version of Game Programming Recipes... It's not so much a teaching book as a "here is a problem, here is a solution" book. If you can, i would take a look at this book in a bookstore first and see if any of the problems they go through are things you need help with before making the purchase. I personally didn't find this book all that helpful, not because it was badly written but because the problems they addressed weren't the ones I was having.

I have the same book and am still reding it, I have to say this would be my favourite also.

Re: XNA Book Dilemma

Kris Steele — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:58:39 GMT

I personally liked this one best for learning the basics of XNA, though I haven't read the Unleased one (I have two others).

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-XNA-3-0-Game-Development/dp/0596521952/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244814927&sr=8-5

I have the 2.0 version of Game Programming Recipes... It's not so much a teaching book as a "here is a problem, here is a solution" book. If you can, i would take a look at this book in a bookstore first and see if any of the problems they go through are things you need help with before making the purchase. I personally didn't find this book all that helpful, not because it was badly written but because the problems they addressed weren't the ones I was having.

Re: XNA Book Dilemma

jedrus07 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:33:27 GMT

I am happy to have both of this books so I hope I can make your choice more clear.

XNA 3.0 Game Programming Recipes wont teach you how to make a game. Thats the thing you should really know. Its a great book and gives you advice on many sophisticated topics, but won't tell you how to structure and build your game. If you are going to do 3d graphics then this book is just wonderful.

In the other hand if you have never made any game then Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.0 Unleashed is much better choice, because it teaches you on how to code them and, in my opinion, is doing it very well.

Hope I made it more clear for you.
Good luck!

XNA Book Dilemma

LessThanEdible — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:18:23 GMT

I've been looking for a good book on XNA. I came across two books that seemed to be worth picking up, but they seem to have a lot of overlapping topics, so I'd rather buy just one of them. The books are:

XNA 3.0 Game Programming Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/143021855X/ref=s9_subs_gw_s0_p14_t5?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0YSD8CG6V96R7TXPWE7V&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938131&pf_rd_i=507846

Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.0 Unleashed
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0672330229/ref=s9_subs_gw_s0_p14_t3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0YSD8CG6V96R7TXPWE7V&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938131&pf_rd_i=507846

I have intermediate experience with XNA - I've done a few of Riemers's tutorials and several others. I.e., no need for vector/matrix math introductions, no C# starter guides, and the like.

Which do you think I should buy?