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

 

 

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)

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Since I've not read any other programing books except microsoft visual c# 2008 by john sharp I don't have that much to recomend except the fact that this book is great! I'm a rookie to programing however this book teaches you the basics of the language and .net framework. This book covers parts of c# from learning how to write out and code variables, to querying information in a data base, then this is the book for you! The only set back is the fact its 666 pages of bordom. However it's done it for me!

James Silva's book is also very good for a 2D approach. I have it and recommend it

Building XNA 2.0 Games: A Practical Guide for Independent Game Development

A good website is www.functionx.com/csharp/. Really good tutorials and explains the basic concepts of programming in general.

Thank you for all of the resources.  ^_^

You can copy the links from my link page.
http://forums.xna.com/forums/p/35782/206405.aspx#206405

Coming from VB .NET, I learned C# when I wanted to use XNA. I just followed the 2D and 3D Getting Started tutorials (here), and it was through these that I learned the C# language. Now I won't go back to VB =)

I have also learned a lot from the 2D and 3D tutorials. They are a lot of fun. After learning the basics you can go into more detailed projects under the extra credit section of the tutorials.

I learned from CampElmXNA. It teaches both C# and XNA.

Gingerprince:

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 would like to say that I am reading this right now, and it is the most helpful guide/tutorial/book I have read yet. It tells you everything you need to know to make a program in C#, and is a good book for any beginners to read before they look into XNA.
I am still looking into buying a book on XNA 3.0 sometime soon to get the full experience, but so far this free ebook by Rob Miles has helped me understand and learn the C# language.