Product Description

This engaging, learn-by-doing guide combines fun and games with the fundamentals of computer programming. Computer programming often has a reputation as being mired in details and short on fun. Now Xbox gamers and aspiring developers can have fun while learning hands-on how to create and customize Xbox 360 games! With XNA Game Studio and Visual C# 2005, beginning programmers can easily modify existing Xbox games—and even learn how to build their own! 

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90025 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
This engaging, learn-by-doing guide combines fun and games with the fundamentals of computer programming. Computer programming often has a reputation as being mired in details and short on fun. Now Xbox gamers and aspiring developers can have fun while learning hands-on how to create and customize Xbox 360 games! With XNA Game Studio and Visual C# 2005, beginning programmers can easily modify existing Xbox games and even learn how to build their own!

About the Author
Rob Miles is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for Device Application Development. He is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hull in the U.K. where he lectures on Visual C# programming, software development, and virtual machine architectures. He has consulted on numerous industrial projects, including developing toll management software for the Humber Bridge. He has also been an active blogger for many years.

Customer Reviews

Highly Recommended Book.
"Learn Programming Now" is a great book which, not only introduces XNA, but also introduces programming and can be picked up by people who have no programming experience whatsoever. The downside to introducing programming concepts whilst explaining XNA is that more experienced readers may find certain parts too slow. However, these parts can easily be skipped and the reader can focus on the XNA and game development aspects. Although the book does not come with a CD, it does have a website where you can download the code samples. Personally, I didn't find the lack of CD a problem as the best way to learn what you read is by typing the code anyway, and with the clear explanations and code displayed in the book, it was a straightforward process. If you are new to programming, then I wouldn't rely on this book to teach you how to program and you are better off with a book dedicated to programming, but it's a very nice introduction.

As an XNA book, it has great analogies and explanations to give a good understanding as to how XNA works and how the developer can start making use of it. As an introductory book, advance concepts of XNA and game development are not discussed, which is by no means a bad thing as it ensures the author can focus on what the book sets out to do. If you are new to XNA or game development, this is a highly recommended book regardless of whether or not you have any programming experience.

Amazing XNA Book
'Learn Programming Now' is a brilliant introductory book to programming, XNA and game development. It introduces many of the complex ideas and concepts in programming through game development, and teaches the XNA framework in an easy to understand manner, introducing themes gradually, expecting no previous knowledge of programming.
It is well presented, and as well as being interesting and informative, it is a humorous and entertaining read with many analogies and funny stories.
It also makes you aware of not just XNA, but programming in a broader sense, making you think about how to approach a problem, and work out a way to solve it.

It is the perfect book for anyone interested in making games, and learning about Programming. I own many, many books on programming, and four on XNA, and I definitely recommend this to anyone starting out in programming or game development