Any good XNA Game Studio tutorials out there for beginners?

[yoda313]

Well after several downloads (and downloading the wrong program of course) I got XNA Game Studio 2.0 installed. Now I have absolutely ZERO programming experience. Unless you count a simple .bat file I made for the old XWING dos floppy game for overwritting pilotfiles after dying.

I would like to learn about compiling and stuff like that. TAKE IT EASY on me I would like to know if there is a point in click gui like Tmpeng Dvd Author for this XNA setup. What I would like is if you could build the game graphically. Kind of like those build it yoursel website programs that are self intuitive grahical types with no coding needed.

Or am I being too ambitious with this project of building a game from scratch? What kind of programming tasks can I start with to get a feel for it? I have installed Microsoft Visual 2005 C# Express Edition for the basis for XNA. Are there simple programs I can create with Visual C# before jumping into game design?

Would building a simple clock program or minimal screensaver be the way to start? What are the basic building steps for a programmer? I need a-b-c routines since I really don't know this stuff. Now I did do a teeny little bit with my now defunct yoda313.com website. BUt that was just really cut and pasting php code that other people set up. I still screwed it up occasionally.

So if you have suggestions for this project I'd like to know. Are there dummy books for XNA or perhaps Visual C# in general? Thanks in advance.

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Please note this is strictly for personal use on my part. I am not planning on going into IT as a profession or anything like this. I just think it would be fun to create my own TETRIS clone or something like that. This is a tinkering around idea. Now that I have a dual core pc I figure this should be easily doable once I get the process figured out.

EDIT - I went to barnes and noble.com and found several XNA developer guides. I think I'll pick one up.

Are there good free alternatives to PHOTOSHOP? I have Serif Applications but that is quite old now. Also are there any decent or half decent free 3d model creation programs? I guess i'm looking for ways to generate game objects. I might also end up picking up one of those 10,000 sound effect scds for use in the project. I'm looking to spend less than a 100.00 on this. I figure 30-50 on the book, probably 10 on the sound effects and maybe another 40 or 50 on some kine of graphics program if need be.

SUggestiona are welcome. Thanks.

EDIT 2 - http://mashable.com/2007/10/27/graphics-toolbox/
This is a link for free graphics programs. I am currently downloading google sketchup 6 for making 3d models (35mb). I have no idea what formats are needed to plug into xna. I also don't know anything about map creaition or anything like that. I'm taking this one step at a time.

[Nelson37]

Definitely start with something simple, then gradually start modifying it.

You might want to pick up something like FreeBasic just to start with some simple concepts, starting from scratch with C might be a bit intimidating.

Keep multiple, dated copies of projects.

When you hit a roadblock, step back and take a break for a while. Often the problem is something simple you've overlooked.

It's a heck of a lot of fun writing a bunch of code and then watching it work.

The most important part of the development environment is a way to monitor the active lines of code, check variables in real-time, and either emulate or quickly and easily compile. You'll know when it breaks, you need to know what's going on when it does.

Most anything really complicated quickly grows beyond what a single person can get done in a reasonably short period of time.

[yoda313]

Thanks nelson.

Actually I just got started last night. I bought the book LEARN PROGRAMMING NOW XNA GAME STUDIO 2.0 by Rob Miles.

It's very straightforward and relatively easy to follow. Fortunately I did have experience using php on my old website so I have a little familiarity with editing lines in a code sheet.

I got started with a basic project to show a screen with the solid color blue. Then he showed how to change it to black and yellow. Then we put in a fading and brightiening pattern. The last project I completed was making a color changing program to go from blue to red to greeen, etc.

My only complaint so far is that it isn't always clear where you are supposed to start editing the code. The sdk has a basic layout setup that I am editing through out the book. I am only up to chapter 3 so it will take a little while.

The book was only 30.00 so that was acceptable.