APPENDIX A
Recommended Resources

On the Web, you can find a wealth of information that will help you jump-start, complement, and expand your knowledge of XNA game development. Here, I have compiled a short list of online resources you can check out at your leisure.

Blogs

These bloggers have written about many XNA development topics:

Game Theory, Dan Waters (http://www.danwaters.com): As an academic evangelist, I travel the United States, showing Microsoft technology to students and faculty. My blog often covers gaming-related topics. You can find screencasts, source code, and more.

XNA Team Blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/): The XNA team blog is run by the XNA community evangelist, currently Kathleen Sanders, formerly of 1UP.com fame. This is the place to check for all the official announcements regarding the XNA Framework.

Shawn Hargreaves Blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/shawnhar/): Shawn is a software development engineer on the XNA team. His blog focuses on XNA game development, and it is an excellent resource for some of the more challenging technical topics you may find yourself entrenched in during XNA development.

The ZBuffer, The ZMan (http://www.thezbuffer.com/): The ZMan (or, as I call him, Andy) is an XNA MVP whose blog details his exploits with Managed DirectX and XNA games. His blog also has plenty of XNA tutorials.

Nick on Tech, Nick Gravelyn (http://www.nickontech.com/): Nick and his brother develop games together for the Xbox, Zune, iPhone, and other popular platforms. Nick is well respected in the XNA community, and his blog ranges from the philosophical to the concrete.

Blue Rose Games, Bill Reiss (http://www.bluerosegames.com/brg/): Bill is a good friend of mine from the Florida .NET community. He has been an XNA and a Silverlight MVP, and is currently involved in creating games for the Web, the Zune, the Xbox, and more. Bill is a knowledgeable game developer and presents many tutorials on his web site for all to share.

Microsoft Resources

If you need official information, you can always check out what Microsoft offers online:

XNA Game Studio Documentation (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb200104.aspx): This link will take you to the official XNA Game Studio 3.0 documentation. It can be very helpful if you need to know more about a class, method, or property, or how to accomplish certain tasks. There are also plentiful examples in the documentation.

XNA Creators Club (http://creators.xna.com/): The Creators Club is your one-stop shop for education, resources, samples, and more. As you take your knowledge to the next level, the Creators Club will prove to be a tremendously valuable resource.

XNA Developer Center (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/xna/default.aspx): The XNA Developer Center is a portal site that aggregates many popular XNA RSS feeds and communities, along with updated news, samples, downloads, and more.

Creators Club Samples

There are seemingly limitless samples at the Creators Club. In particular, you should check out these:

Education catalog (http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/catalog/): This is the link for the main list of all education resources available on the Creators Club web site.

Redistributable Font Pack (http://creators.xna.com/en-US/contentpack/fontpack): You can embed various fonts in your game, but many of them require special rights to redistribute. The fonts included in this sample are free and licensed by Microsoft for you to redistribute in your games.

Game State Management (http://creators.xna.com/samples/gamestatemanagement): Referenced heavily throughout this book, the Game State Management sample provides you with a great starting point for any game.

Network Game State Management (http://creators.xna.com/en-US/sample/network_game_state_mgt_sample): The same as the Game State Management sample, with the added benefit of including network support.

Marblets (http://creators.xna.com/starterkit/marblets): This starter kit shows you how to build a puzzle game using XNA. It currently works on the PC and Xbox 360.

Platformer Starter Kit (included with XNA Game Studio 3.0): This starter kit shows you how to build a platformer game, similar to Mario Bros. or Sonic on the XNA platform. It currently runs on the PC and Xbox 360.