\Managed DirectX and XNA Framework news
Release date: July 1st
Written by Stephen Cawood and Pat McGee who I have to admit are unknowns to me in the XNA world. Stephen has several books published and is a former Program Manager in the office team. Right now he's an enthusiastic amateur game developer like many of us. Pat teaches game development at BCIT and self published a book called 'Games Programming in C++ and DirectX: 3D Graphics, Animation, Modeling, and Audio' (no longer available).
Buy from Amazon through the link - you know you want to!
New release date: July 30th 2007
Joseph has confirmed the book is in post production and so the new July 30th date is looking good
You can read more from Joseph on his blog - Cornflower Too
As always, if you were going to buy from amazon anyway I'd love you to follow the above link and help support TheZBuffer
Another book due in December 2007. This one is written by José Antonio Leal de Farias, Bruno Pereira Evangelista and Alexandre Santos Lobao (Author). Alexandre has been involved in other managed gaming books and the other names feel very familiar to me but all my google searches are finding Portuguese language sites that I can't read.
Like what you see on this website? Give back by buying a book through Amazon
The author of this book should come as no surprise Riemer Grootjans from Riemers.net one of the best XNA and Managed DirectX tutorial sites out there. This one is due on December 17th.
If you love The Zman - buy a book from Amazon and make him smile :-)
The new XNA books continue to show up on Amazon. This one due November 15th written by Jack Brzezinski
According to Amazon:
"Jack Brzezinski holds a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence. He is one of the founders of the Game Development degree program at DePaul University, where he teaches game development courses that involve programming and level design. He is currently teaching a game software engineering course using XNA Game Studio Express. His research areas include game design and artificial intelligence."
Sounds like a quailified guy to write a book and in general Charles River do release good books
Support your favourite XNA community site and buy the book through the amazon link above...
Release date changed to November 9th
Seems the date has slipped out a couple of months to November the 9th. I never did hear from any of the authors and no sign of any blog or information on the book.
I've not heard of either author within the XNA scene, but David Franson has authored several books on game art including a favourite of mine The Dark Side of Game Texturing and it looks like Joshua Smith has authored a couple of Dark Basic books. I can't find out too much about the authors otherwise so guys if you want to let me know more about the books then drop me an email.
Remember - buying the book through the above link helps keep TheZMan in Ramen noodles
Looks like these updates are coming in pretty regularly now. That's 3 months in a row - all around the 26th of the month... is there a schedule here?
No point in repeating the team blog - check it out for yourself
Now available on safari
The second of the new XNA books that have just been announced - this one due a little earlier than the others - July 18th. However if you like ebooks you can get it now on Safari.
Chad has been around since the Managed DirectX days, though you may know him as 'kewlniss'
The book has a forward by Tom Miller and was tech reviewed by Shawn Hargreaves - both from the XNA Framework team. So if names count for anything it should be a good book. It looks like the early e-release has caught Chad unawares - the books website http://www.xnaessentials.com/ isn't working at the moment. Hopefully Chad will fix that soon.
This month is 'Save the Zman' month - so buy your books through the Amazon link and send me some love
Rom over at Rom's Rants has noticed a .Net game programmer job in Dundee, Scotland working for RealTimeWorlds (known for Crackdown).
Interesting reading... it doesn't mention Managed DirectX or XNA though they want experience in 3d games. It does mention SQL and databases as 'a plus'. So is this a tools job, a back end job or an actual game being written in .Net? If you work for RealTimeWorlds and you want to tell me more then drop me a line.
Gamefest 2007 - registration is open. Only $450 if you register before July 19th. There's no real details on the tracks at the moment but XNA Game Studio express is mentioned and remember it was at this even last year that things were previewed.
Other bonuses for attendees:
- "Buy The Zman a beer night"*
- Meet David Weller and give him your opinion on the new forums**
- Ask the XNA GSE team questions which are already answered in the FAQ***
I will be there for sure and I know of a couple of other XNA Framework community members who will be there. Let me know if you will be coming. No you can't stay at my house - well unless you are female, swedish and looking for a nice English guy.
* - very likely to happen
** - who knows. David is typically busy at Gamefest
*** - I can't promise who will be there from the XNA team
