Product Description
For the first time in history, Microsoft has opened up its exclusive gaming platform to anyone who is interested in creating console games. Now, anyone can create a game for the Xbox 360 console without a publishing contract or expensive and hard-to-get developer versions of the console. The Torque X Framework makes game development even easier, with a rich game engine framework and a robust set of design tools. The Complete Guide to Torque X unravels the Torque X F… More >>
The Complete Guide to Torque X
Tags: Complete, design tools, developer versions, game development, game engine, games, gaming platform, Guide, microsoft, rich game, time in history, Torque, xbox, xbox 360
#1 by Midwest Book Review on April 13, 2010 - 1:25 pm
The Xbox 360 is one of the major players in today’s console gaming market, and many people leap at the chance to develop for it. “The Complete Guide to Torque X for XNA” is a guide to using the Torque X framework for creating games for the powerful home console. A framework with many powerful and flexible tools for developers, mastering them is key to making an excellent game for Microsoft’s video game juggernaut. With samples of code and finished work, “The Complete Guide to Torque X for XNA” is a must for any would be Xbox 360 programmer.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by S. Monahan on April 13, 2010 - 3:45 pm
“The Complete Guide to Torque X” has been an invaluable resource for me. I certainly would not be as far along with my XNA game if it were not for this book. The book is divided into chapters covering all aspects of developing a game with XNA from inception up to packing the game for distribution on the Xbox 360.
Each chapter explains the theory behind the Torque X engine and then puts the theory into practice with concrete examples. The example are where the book gets a little sloppy though. The first thing I noticed was that the book lacks a companion CD loaded with code examples. This isn’t such a problem since all the examples can be easily downloaded from the book’s companion website.
There are two main problems with the examples. First, most computer book have a practice of setting code in a different type than the book’s text. This allows for code examples to easily stand out from the rest of the book. “The Complete Guide to Torque X” shuns this practice and the examples run into the book’s text as a result. I’ve had to highlight the examples just so I can see them at a glance. This sort of oversight is unacceptable for a book of this price.
The second problem with the code examples is that some of them are just plain wrong. In particular, anyone using the GUI examples from the book will be sorely disappointed. To be fair, the downloadable code examples from the book’s companion site are correct and work, but it’s still adds to the feeling that this book was a bit rushed.
Flaws aside, “The Complete Guide to Torque X” is a good resource for anyone using Torque X with XNA. It’s definitely sped me along with my own development and dealing with the errors in some of the example code has helped me learn to troubleshoot problems with Torque X.
Rating: 4 / 5