XNA Game Studio Express: Developing Games for Windows and the Xbox 360

I'm sorry to go against the grain here and write a review that doesn't praise this book like the bible, but really, it doesn't deserve the reviews it has gotten thus far.

The first few chapters are easy going enough, no problems there. But then when you get to the actual code, you're in for one hell of a ride.

- The code isn't highlighted in any way, making it hard to read.

- The author doesn't even explain the code- just gives brief summaries on what to expect.

- More irritating (and the reason I rated it a 3/5) is the fact that you won't know where the code goes. At all. The author just gives you the code and expects you to know XNA well enough to know where it should go. (It doesn't even show you where the code should go in correlation with other bits of code). The solution? The CD has the code on it. If you get this book, you will NEED the CD if you want to learn anything at all.

- The CD barely functions under my installation of Vista. The auto-install feature for XNA/C# didn't work, leaving me to find the downloads on my own (which wasn't so bad, really)

- The author's sense of humor is really stale. I pictured the author as one of those dungeons and dragons geeks. If you read this book, you'll know what I mean.

- This book puts a heavy emphasis on math. And guess what: it isn't explained. Be prepared to learn more about trigonometry from Google, because you won't learn it here. (Sine waves functions, radians, functions for degrees, angles, etc etc)

- The author states that the code isn't optimized, since he wants the reader to understand the concepts. This is just an easy way out for him! Not only does he use TRIGONOMETRY where it DOESN'T need to be used, but he does it in a fashion that isn't, in his words, "optimized."

But what I can say about the book is the examples are nice. The code compiles cleanly. I did learn a lot, albeit I needed Google to help explain it.

Overall I'd say I've had more success learning from examples on the Microsoft Knowledgebase and user-created sites. I only look at this book when I need to.

Caveat: I have known and worked professionally with the author, Joe Hall, for a few years, and found him to be highly qualified, extremely sharp, laser-focused, and very well-spoken. So naturally I had very high expectations for this book.

I was not disappointed... in fact I was pleasantly surprised!

Joe gives enough information so that those new to game programming can follow along and figure it out, but he does so without boring the more experienced reader. Buy it, read it, do it - it's fun!

Para o pessoal ai do Brasil, vale a pena comprar.

O livro é bem didático e explica muito bem tanto conceitos de XNA como de matematica.

Aborda desde 2D até 3D, além de entradas e som.
Sempre compro livros aqui, e este é um dos melhores que já adquiri, por isso to deixando aqui meu comentário.

and he presents it in an approachable way.

It isn't dumbed down -- but at the same time it gives an idea of what one is getting into when programming games. Most definitely, a decent understanding of object oriented programming is a huge plus, and of the C# flavor is even better, however, don't throw in the towel if you have neither one...especially if you really love games -- that's the reason Microsoft created this tool. It's worth the effort to learn.

Another good thing about this book, IMHO, is the sense of humor the author displays -- although he still doesn't reveal who Will is. :)

This book is something you'd WANT to read, not like when you HAD to read a novel's CliffNotes, or when you HAD to eat that dry turkey during the holidays to be polite.

Do yourself a favor and at LEAST thumb through it in your local Bookstore.

I originally bought the book because it was one of two that I was thinking about buying that came with a CD. I've dabbled in C# over the last two or so years (C++ guy turned Java guy - turning C# guy - turning older...) and became curious about the whole XNA hype, so I settled on this book.

I am simply amazed at how easy it is to read, how clear the code base is, and I can't help thinking that the author is sitting next to me eager to show me something new. This is an author who thinks like a reader.

It is my intent to purchase further books by this author. I'm sure they will find a home near my laptop and sit next to the greats like Andre Lamothe.