With XNA Game Studio 2.0, Microsoft is doing something really special. They are providing an accessible means for people to create programs for the Xbox 360. Now pretty much anyone can take their game ideas and run them on a genuine console.

This book will show you how to make game programs and run them on an Xbox 360 or Windows PC. It will also give you an insight into how software is created and what being a programmer is really like.

Please note that the full product name is XNA Game Studio, but in this book I refer to it as XNA. In the world outside this book, XNA refers to the larger group of game developer technologies from Microsoft.

This engaging, learn-by-doing guide combines fun and games with the fundamentals of computer programming. Computer programming often has a reputation as being mired in details and short on fun. Now Xbox gamers and aspiring developers can have fun while learning hands-on how to create and customize Xbox 360 games! With XNA Game Studio and Visual C# 2005, beginning programmers can easily modify existing Xbox games—and even learn how to build their own!