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What our customer's say!

""XNA Unleashed" is nothing of the sort", I have two main issues with XNA Unleashed: it has a misleading name, and it provides bad advice on how to program a game. Since I am a professional game developer with 12 years of industry experience making several blockbuster titles, I feel qualified in making my critique.

Despite its name, XNA Unleashed is actually a primer of how to make a very basic game engine and a sample game (using just a few elements from the XNA platform). It does not actually "unleash" XNA in any form. As a reader, you are tied to the author's linear recipe for how to make *his* game engine. By the time you're done reading the book, you won't have any fundamental understanding of XNA, nor will you be provided with a comprehensive survey of its features, and you certainly won't be able to unleash any hidden potential that XNA may have. The author just scratches the surface of XNA. Consequently, much of the power of XNA is still leashed away from the reader.

I read the 2008 first edition of XNA Unleashed. Its content is full of mistakes and bad advice. Strangely, the author often admits in his book that what he just described in many preceding paragraphs of code and text is actually bad for a game's performance and/or it is poor software design. So, if he knew it was bad, why did he bother writing such junk in his book? For example, in chapter 16 he writes a page of code that implements a "chase algorithm", and in the next section he states, "Although that gets the job done effectively, it is a little unrealistic because the enemies are moving in a very precise manner." (by "precise" he means stupid-looking). Then he writes a simple function with 4 lines of code that implements a much better "chase algorithm". So, why didn't the author (or editor) remove that preceeding page of crud? Because without all the crud there'd be very little left of the book.

I would have given this book only one star had it not been for the fact that it does at least provide some worthwhile information relating to frequently used components of XNA, HLSL, and game development in general. But these nuggets of good information could have filled a meager 20 pages, or so. Most of the book is merely muck through which the reader is required to march, until they stumble into the next nugget of goodness. There's no good way to find these worthwhile nuggets just by skimming or searching the contents or index.

Caveat emptor!


"Good XNA book. Can't wait for the updated XNA 3.0 version!!", When i started to get serious about XNA i started looking for a good book to begin learning. Like most people (IMHO) i learn better through books and then self training than reading everything online.

The Microsoft XNA Unleashed by Chad Carter is a great book as it is not merely a skim through from the top for XNA but is very detailed. I have just started and i dont think i will be done with the book very soon.

I like his presentation style as well as the detail. I read all the reviews and sure some folks think it is a good book whereas some folks think otherwise. For me when i started reading through it i immediately liked the presentation style. I think (IMHO) that a good presentation style with good material leads to better learning.

I will post an update to my blog as and when i complete this book. Based on my initial 80 or so pages, i like it a lot.

See my blog http://ilovethexbox.blogspot.com/2008/06/microsoft-xna-unleashed.html for updates to the review.

"More a tutorial than a reference", The book assumes you know C#, and basically takes you through the development of a 2D game and a basic 3D FPS style game. As new functionality is added, the book explains the code pretty much line by line. It therefore shows you two sets of simple game design patterns in some detail.

It also makes the book very linear - as new functions are shown in the context of what has been built already, you can't easily just experiment with the different classes on their own. You really have to follow it through as a sequential tutorial.

What I was more hoping for was a more systematic treatment of the various XNA classes, and more of the underlying theory particularly with respect to using transformations. Matrix and vector maths is barely discussed directly at all.

The linear structure and practical focus also means that I didn't find myself able to "dip into" the book and learn more about XNA whilst watching TV for example.

So if you want an extended tutorial on XNA game programming its fine. If you want to really "get inside" XNA and graphics programming, then its not the right book for you.



"Excellent Text for Intermediate Level Students", This is a very well planned book with game development students in mind. Readers who complain that the writer takes off too quickly should keep in mind that the book is categorized as "Intermediate-Advanced" and quite accurately so.

I'm using this as a recommended text for a module I am teaching to diploma students and it brings them up to speed on programming with XNA.

You should get this if you have programmed in DirectX and/or C++; you'll find it a breeze and be amazed by how many things have been taken care / made much easier by the XNA framework and using a managed language such as C#.

The author, Chad Carter, also actively responds to the questions in the book's discussion forums. This is especially important for a technical book such as this as technology is constantly evolving (we're at XNA 2.0 currently), and it helps to know which parts of the book need to be updated (or not).

The only improvements I can recommend for the next edition (XNA 3.0) are:
1. Consolidated list of errata on the author's website (xnaessentials.com) to make it easier to find and update my own copy / students' copies of the book.
2. Teaching / supporting materials. However, I must admit that going through the exercises in the book will give you a good deal of ideas and inspirations already.

In short, thanks Chad, please keep up the excellent work.

"Wow! Excellent Book ... Even for 2.0!", At first I was hesitant to get this book since it based on the 1.0 refresh. However, I wanted to get started right away and seeing how this technology will simply continue to grow, there is no better time than the present to start learning.

I have all of the current XNA Books available and this one is by far the best. I love this guy's coding style ... it is nice when an author using .NET is actually using .NET styled code. If there is only one XNA book you can buy -- get this one.

I really enjoyed his perspective on performance. It helped me in my day job as well ... can you say Garbage Collector? I bought this book to do 3D and I have been happy with my results. I am using 2D to supplement my 3D game, but it seems the community is obsessed with 2D games at this point. The physics chapter is great. I also enjoyed the chapter on Artificial Intelligence. Both are short, but to the point and helped me know where I need to look for more information. The particle system is excellent. I liked the force field created by particles ... cool.

I am a programmer by trade and have dabbled in computer graphics in the past, but it was just too much work to get anything valuable. With XNA and this book as a guide, I was able to go so much farther than I ever did with DirectX and the books I bought on that subject. I have created a full 3D game that I plan to put out on Xbox LIVE Community Games when it is available. There is no way I would have a completed game without this book -- sound, game states, input, polish -- it is all in here!

I liked how the author didn't waste time on rendering a single triangle ... he did a rectangle (two triangles) ... and then later used that code to create a skybox. The chapter on the content pipeline was excellent. I enjoyed the advanced topics he has as well like Render Targets, Parallax and Relief Mapping.

In regards to changes with 2.0, he has updated the code on his site and it runs with no issues at all! Fortunately, the code is about identical to what it is in the book even with new code. I guess it just proves that not too much had to change between 1.0 refresh and 2.0.
I would buy this book again. In fact, I will when the author comes out with the 3.0 book.

Get this book ... and don't waste any more time ... make a great game -- it really is within grasp!

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Excellent. How about another one for XNA 2.0?", I enjoy reading the book (almost done). Stuff related to performance is really helpful, not for just XNA programming. One thing I'd love to see is another book from this author (second edition?) - covering XNA 2.0 and adding a few more features to existing tutorials (sample games) in this book. Recommended.

"Worth the effort!", After deciding to start programming again after many years, I have found this book to not only be a great introduction into XNA, but also help with learning C# and the Visual dev process and environment.

Many times the best way to learn is by doing, and this book provides a well thought out guide to "doing" just that!

Future revisions might include a little more background/depth on concepts/definitions: such as 3D terminology, the math involved, more of an overview of the XNA framework etc.

The author at times makes assumptions (i think appropriate ones) that the user knows how to perform certain tasks without those tasks always being spelled out. This is a good thing.

Also, I think it is great that in order to build the examples the author describes you have to read and follow along with the text, rather than just copying a program listing at the end of the chapter.

Overall i have enjoyed my time with this book and it has been worth every penny!

"The is easy book about XNA to understand", I own almost all books about XNA and this is the one that explain in a very easy way. I just love this book.

Just like the other review, I wish the the autor make a new one about XNA 2.

5 stars!!!

"Excellent examples", Each chapter has several code examples illustrating basic concepts and developing simple games. They all work which makes this book a pleasure to use. Code is available on a CD included with the book. The text is clearly written showing how to use XNA(TM) Game Studio to develop either 2D or 3D games. It would be impossible to go into depth on all the background graphics and mathematics that one would need if not using XNA. The book rightly focuses on XNA methods which do most of the work. More information can easily be found online to supplement the text which might be helpful to those new to game programming.

The author starts with performance and integrates performance measuring into the code. He covers both Windows and the Xbox 360 with each project set up for both. The advanced topics are really useful for 3D games. In all it is very enjoyable to use.


"The best XNA book I found", This is a great book. It assumes you are familiar with C# and OOP but if you are familiar with Java or C++ you can easily catch up since they are very alike.

The author explains in good details without being superficial. If you know how to program and want to get into game development, this is the book for you.