XNA 2.0 Game Programming Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach

Join the game development revolution today! XNA greatly simplifies the development of your own games, lowering the barrier for programmers to get into game development. In XNA, you can start coding your games from the very start, a true revelation compared to other game programming environments. XNA doesn't sacrifice power for this ease of use - it is built entirely on DirectX technology.

XNA expert Riemer Grootjans brings together a selection of the hottest recipes in XNA programming for the Windows PC and Xbox360 console. Advanced XNA programmers, experienced coders new to games development, and even complete beginners will find XNA 2.0 Game Programming Recipes an invaluable companion when building games for fun or as commercial products.

XNA 2.0 Game Programming Recipes covers virtually every feature of the XNA 2.0 framework. It focuses primarily on 2D and 3D graphics programming, but other game programming features such as Audio playback and Networking are also discussed in detail.

These are some of the topics that are being covered in-depth:

• How to create 2D graphics
• 3D rendering techniques at various levels of difficulty
• Loading, rendering and animating 3D Models
• To read input devices: Keyboard, Mouse, Xbox360 Controller
• Use Audio to spice up your game
• Add Networking to your game to challenge your friends
• Learn about the architectural XNA features, such as GameComponents
• The Content pipeline: one of the 3 major components in XNA Game Development
• A whole list of HLSL techniques!

Who this book is for

This book is for everyone! Whatever your experience, you will find a recipe to suit your need and skill. Great care has been taken to ensure the easier recipes provide a great deal of detail so they can be followed by readers without a great deal of programming experience. Each chapter gradually builds in difficulty so you will be able to progress through it as your XNA coding improves and you want to move on to more sophisticated techniques.