Programming Guide
When developing games in XNA Game Studio Express, you use the XNA Framework, a set of managed libraries for Windows and the Xbox 360. These libraries enable you to be more productive developing C# games using a set of unified class libraries.
The Basics
To get started writing games in XNA Game Studio Express, you may wish to review these key how-to topics.
How to: Add a Resource to the Content Pipeline
How to: Make a First-Person Camera
How to: Detect Whether a Controller Button Is Pressed
Other great how-to topics are provided in each of the sections below.
In This Section
- Content Pipeline
The XNA Game Studio Express Content Pipeline builds art assets that you have included in your project into a form your game can load at run time on either Windows or the Xbox 360 by calling ContentManager.Load. - Application Model
The application model provides functionality to accomplish common game development tasks. - Graphics
The XNA Framework Graphics libraries provide low-level resource loading and rendering capabilities. - Math
The XNA Framework provides classes and methods for manipulating vectors and matrices. - Input
The XNA Framework Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input namespace provides classes and methods for retrieving user input for keyboard, mouse, and Xbox 360 controller devices. - Audio
The XNA Framework Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio namespace provides classes and methods for playing audio files. - Storage
The Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Storage namespace provides classes that allow reading and writing of files. - Xbox 360 Programming Guide
Provides detailed information about the capabilities of the Xbox 360 hardware, and considerations that should be taken when programming games for the Xbox 360 platform. Includes a reference for Xbox 360–specific HLSL attributes and inline microcode. - .NET Compact Framework for Xbox 360
Provides information on developing XNA Game Studio Express applications using the C# language and the .NET Compact Framework for Xbox 360.