Books, Books, and more Books..

For me personally, it's great to see a number of books coming out using Managed DirectX (even if I am the one writing some of them).  Like Dave already mentioned in his blog he has a book on .NET gaming coming out around the same time as this years GDC (Game Developers Conference).  It has a lot of useful information regarding using C# in gaming situations, which isn't something my first book covered (outside of the simplistic 'Dodger' game).  It takes you from basic 2D 'sprite' based games on through a simple implementation of the Space Wars game in 3D. 

In all honesty, i hope the book does well, even if he went with a different publisher than I did.. =)  Aside from the fact that i think the ManagedDX technology is 'top notch', i believe his book leads directly to the start of my second book, which also covers 'beginning' game programming, but it's strictly 3D game programing, and is probably more of an 'intermediate' book.  I don't have any firm dates on the release of that one right now (editing, etc), but it looks like early summer..

So, what do i recommend if you're a C# developer looking to become the next big game developer, but you've never written a line of game code in your life?  Well, first, pick up my KickStart MDX book, then pick up Dave's book on beginning game programming.  Once you've mastered the skills in those, move on to my second book which has a wide breadth of coverage for fully 3D games (including a puzzle game, a tank wars game, and a kart racers game).  If you're still instatiable for more knowledge after that, well then you'll have to wait until late this year when my last book (for now) comes out. =)

It's an exciting time to be a game developer.  Especially if you're ready to start writing managed code..