If you want to learn how to program games, you’ve come to the right place! In this book you’ll learn the basics of programming using the C# programming language. While we admit we love to program just about anything, developing games is one of the coolest things of all.
Most of the examples in this book are related to game development using XNA Game Studio. XNA Game Studio is a game development framework Microsoft distributes to make it easier for students, hobbyists, and professional game developers to develop games. Even better, with a membership on the App Hub, games developed using the framework can be uploaded and played on the Xbox 360. You can even sell your Xbox 360 games in the Xbox LIVE Indie Games area!
So you’ll learn how to program properly and you’ll learn how to build simple games using XNA. You’ll notice we said “learn how to program properly,” not “whack together games that seem to work.” This is a book that focuses on the correct way to write game software (and software in general), so there’s lots of discussion about our motivations for the particular design and coding decisions we make throughout the book.
The book assumes that you’ve never programmed before, so all the material starts at the most basic level. That means that anyone should be able to pick up the book and work their way through it without any prior knowledge. If you really just want to learn all the nuts and bolts of XNA, there are numerous books available for that, and you should buy one of those instead. If, however, you aspire to be a professional game programmer – whether as an indie game developer or in a large game company – then this book will give you a solid foundation for starting on that path.
