Game Development for Xbox 360, Windows and the Zune

Microsoft XNA Unleashed

The errata for the book can be found on the errata page.

The book is broken down into eight parts:

  • Part I: Get Up and Running with XNA on Your PC and Xbox 360

    1 Introducing XNA and XNA Game Studio Express

    2 XNA and the Xbox 360

    3 Performance Considerations

  • Part II: Understanding XNA Basics

    4 Creating 3D Objects

    5 Input Devices and Cameras

  • Part III: Content Pipeline

    6 Loading and Texturing 3D Objects

    7 Sound and Music

    8 Extending the Content Pipeline

  • Part IV: 2D in XNA

    9 2D Basics

    10 2D Effects

    11 Creating a 2D Game

  • Part V: High Level Shader Language

    12 HLSL Basics

    13 Advanced HLSL

  • Part VI: Physics and Artificial Intelligence

    14 Physics Basics

    15 Finite State Machines and Game State Management

    16 AI Algorithms

  • Part VII: 3D Effects

    17 Advanced Texturing Techniques

    18 Special Effects

    19 Particle System

  • Part VIII: Putting It Into Practice

    20 Creating a 3D Game

    21 Improving the Game

    22 Finishing Touches

 XNA Unleashed Book Cover

Microsoft XNA Unleashed provides comprehensive coverage and solid instruction on how to leverage the XNA Framework to create high quality games for Windows and the Xbox 360.

  • Learn how to install and use XNA Game Studio Express
  • Discover how to build, deploy, and debug games for the Xbox 360 and Windows
  • Examine the XNA Framework in depth: 2D, 3D, sound, input, and HLSL
  • Learn how to create game components and game services
  • Delve into performance tuning techniques
  • Discover how to extend the Content Pipeline
  • Learn how to use the Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) to add sound and music to games
  • Create a full 2D parallax side-scroller game
  • Discover how to use sprite batches
  • Learn to make the most of sprite fonts
  • Create 2D components such as splash screens and progress bars
  • Examine the different sprite batch blending modes
  • Discover 2D cel animation
  • Examine the High Level Shader Language (HLSL) in detail covering basic HLSL as well as vertex deformations and post-processing effects
  • Create a full 3D game that includes a 2D radar in the Heads Up Display (HUD), and much, much more

CD-ROM includes

  • All C# examples and source code presented in this book.
  • Explosion Generator tool for generating explosion animations.
© 2009 Chad Carter. All rights reserved.