Sebastopol, CA—Want to develop games for Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7? This hands-on book will get you started with Microsoft's XNA 4.0 development framework right away—even if you have no experience developing games. Although XNA includes several key concepts that can be difficult for beginning web developers to grasp, Learning XNA 4.0 (O'Reilly Media, $39.99 USD) shortens the learning curve by walking you through the framework in a clear and understandable step-by-step format.

"For the first time in history, developers can write games for PC, a next generation console like the Xbox 360 and a next generation smartphone like Windows Phone 7 all with the same code base," says author Aaron Reed. "Amazing! The gaming industry is booming and continues to grow. With hardware advances being made daily and the push toward mobile devices becoming more powerful and interactive, the industry is as exciting as ever."

Each chapter offers a self-contained lesson with illustrations and annotated examples, along with exercises and review questions to help you test your understanding and practice new skills as you go. Once you've finished this book, you'll know how to develop your own sophisticated games from start to finish.

• Learn game development from 2D animation to 3D cameras and effects
• Delve into high-level shader language (HLSL) and introductory artificial intelligence concepts
• Build three complete, exciting games using 2D, 3D, and multiplayer techniques
• Develop for and deploy your games to the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7