XNA Confusion

XNA Confusion

• Mixe

  To clarify, yes- C# Express is a free download. And as far as not needing to write code, it is a longer term XNA Game Studio Express goal to lower the bar such that very little code will be required to be written but for at least the first version users are going to need some coding skills.

  Amy

  
  

• RTS4ME

  And it will not be a long time till sites spring up with walkthroughs. It may be a good idea to download Visual Studios Express C# and start programming now. I would also suggest Tom Millers book on Managed Direct X
  
  

• scottmonte

  I have been thinking of getting the managed DirectX kickstart book for a long time. I am wondering how well this would help us when we get to XNA Should we just try and wait for the documentation, or would these books show us the overall steps, and we would then just need to chage some bits of format
  
  
  

• eman1975

  I would imagine the core ideas will be the same although the implementation might be different. Any knowledge you can pick up will be a good thing though. The Kickstart book is a good start IMO.
  
  

• C NOOB

  There will be starter kits with the _free_ XNA Game Studio Express product. However, we can't help you very much with the details like the necessary math background.

  There are some books out (like the one I wrote, or the ones Tom Miller wrote here and here), but none exist right now specifically aimed at the XNA Framework.

  
  
  

• Dmitry Pavlov

  Hi XNAConfused!
  
  Grats on your interest in learning to develop on your own! David suggested the book Beginning .NET Game Programming in C#. I suggest you read the comments on Amazon before buying the book. It contains great info on general game design, but the code offered in the book will give you a massive headache trying to get it to compile or even make sense. It also assumes you are familiar with concepts like event wireup. Pretty heady stuff to throw at a beginner.
  
  I suggest the book Learning C# 2005. It doesn't deal with game development, but gives you a firm beginners look at C#, the .NET framework and Object Oriented Programming.
  
  Either way, have fun and good luck.
  
  

• DriverEntry

  I was reading an article at Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060813-7490.html), though, that made it sound like coding was optional. That if you wanted you could build a game completely without any code. Is this true If true, how does that work, and how much freedom and flexibility does that actually allow
  
  Thanks!
  
  

• tasleemarif

  Interesting, I guess I am just used to the Wrox Beginner format, you know 1000 pages of hand holding and excruciating detail... 8)
  
  Maybe when I get back to it, I will approach the book from a different way.
  
  

• WolfgangEngel

  NotMyself wrote:

  Hi XNAConfused! I suggest you read the comments on Amazon before buying the book. It contains great info on general game design, but the code offered in the book will give you a massive headache trying to get it to compile or even make sense. It also assumes you are familiar with concepts like event wireup. Pretty heady stuff to throw at a beginner.

  Yup. Just wanted to add my two cents here, since I'm the author I wrote the book with an explicit assumption that you knew C#, so you will defiitely have a challenge if you don't know it. In addition, the code snippets in the book aren't meant to be used in a stand-alone sense. It was intended to be snippets from the code that you were supposed to download on the Apress website (for free). I did that to keep down the page size in the book, but I've had sooo many negative comments about that. I assure you I won't make that mistake for my next book

  
  
  
• XNA Confusion