Initial Impressions of Professional XNA Game Programming by Benjamin Nitschke

My refresher to programming and intro to XNA is this book by publisher Wrox. It used to be that the best way to really understand programming was to write a game. That's still true. I'm only thru chapter one. I tried chapter two, and it lost me immediately. Why? because it didn't explain how to add graphics resources. Chapter one was a really good intro with a take on the XNA example, "Hello, World."

Overall, I can tell you'll learn enough about XNA to be dangerous. The best advice I can give is to download the chapter examples from the Wrox website. It's the only way to get the graphics, sounds and other resources used by the programs. You should attack the chapters in order. Most importantly, type in the examples yourself. Find a comfortable desk and do this. If you don't, the nuances of syntax and compiler errors will be missed.

As for content, I think the book seems a little rushed. You can still learn from it. My only other criticism is that the programming seems sloppy. Still, that's probably more of a criticism of XNA than the author. You can structure your programming better when you write your own programs.

The best part? In less than a year, there's a book that will walk you thru XNA programming. A great start for beginners, this book will help you decide if you want to make a game in XNA. It's pricey for a book at $39.99, but trust me, it's cheap for a college-level book.