Acknowledgments

I would like to thank David Weller—although he could not help with this book—for being a great buddy and a source of inspiration for me and for many guys from the academic and indie game development communities. And a special thanks to Amintas Neto, from Microsoft Brazil, for his great work fostering XNA development at Brazilian universities.

Alexandre Santos Lobão

I would like to thank God for his countless blessings and for giving me the opportunity to work on this great book; my parents Kathia and Gledson, who always motivated me to do my best; my stepfather Claudio, my stepmother Celida, and my brothers for all their support; and my girlfriend Helenice for all these great years together.

Also a special thanks to Alessandro Silva, a great friend and game developer who studied with me during my university years; Carlos Augusto, who contributed some assets for the XNA TPS game; and Francisco Ardisson, who helped translate some parts of the book.

In this long journey, I had a few mentors and guides who helped me to get here and who I cannot forget to mention: Theldo Franqueira, Marcelo Nery, Fabio Policarpo, Rosilane Mota, Luiz Chaimowicz, Renato Ferreira, Esteban Clua, Fabio Tirelo, and Harlen Batagelo. Thank you for all I have learned from you!

Bruno Evangelista

First, I'd like to thank all the Sharp Games community for the encouragement and suggestions they provided me, and especially my friends Shinji and Amintas Neto for everything they've done for XNA in Brazil.

I also need to say thanks to Microsoft; to its MVP program; to Leonardo Tolomelli, my MVP lead; and to all other MVPs in Brazil who always are a source of inspiration for me.

Also a special thanks to my wife Cecir for having enormous love and patience with me when this book was being planned and written; to my four-year-old son, Leonardo, for his critical sense of what is a good game; and to my parents for continuing to love a son who read books on assembly language when the other boys read Spiderman comics.

José Antonio Leal de Farias

I thank my girlfriend Elisa and my family, for the love and support they've given me while I was working on this book.

I would like to express my appreciation and thankfulness to the skillful group of professionals at Apress that put a lot of work in the organization and guidance during the completion this book. Special thanks to Joohn Choe, for the many useful ideas and additions.

Furthermore, I thank the people on my forum, for their enthusiasm and contributions.

Last, but definitely not least, I would like to thank the other authors for the efforts they put in my parts of the book while I was not available.

Riemer Grootjans