XNA official sitecreators.xna.comIf you're using XNA, Microsoft's XNA website is a logical place to start. The forum is host to a very active and enthusiastic community, and provides the opportunity to discuss technical XNA and DirectX matters, as well as more general game design issues. There's also a similar sub-forum to the one on Garage Games that allows individuals to find and offer help. Furthermore, the XNA website has an education section that makes available a large collection of samples that demonstrate everything from waypoint navigation to distortion.
XNA Developmenthttp://www.xnadevelopment.com/Still on the topic of XNA, there's this website. It's nowhere near as extensive as the official site, as all the tutorials are produced by one guy, but it's still very good. The guy writes about himself in third person, though. Which is more than a little creepy...
ZiggyWarehttp://www.ziggyware.com/news.phpMicrosoft's XNA sure has spawned a lot of community websites. ZiggyWare is another good one, featuring a lively forum and videos. At the time of writing, there were some 164 XNA tutorials available at ZiggyWare, as well as a few dealing with general game development issues and C++.
Gamasutrahttp://www.gamasutra.com/Another classic website. Gamasutra isn't so much about tutorials - many of their articles are quite complex and targeted at professional developers - but that's not to say it's content is irrelevant to the independent developer. Particularly when it comes to game design, Gamasutra's articles are often brilliant.
GameDevhttp://www.gamedev.net/GameDev has been around for nearly a decade now and, over that time, has managed to earn a lot of respect and recognition. GameDev has articles, reviews and, of course, a forum, but their latest and most exciting addition is a wiki (wiki.gamedev.net). While quite small at the moment, we're certain the wiki will grow and prove to be a very handy resource. Keep an eye on it.
DevMasterhttp://www.devmaster.net/DevMaster is similar to GameDev. It has a decent, although by no means extensive (at least not when compared to, say, Gamasutra or 3D Buzz) collection of articles and tutorials, which unfortunately aren't updated anywhere near as often as other sites we've recommended. News stories are added daily, though. The forum is very active and, like GameDev, DevMaster have brought in a wiki (www.devmaster.net/wiki/Main_Page). DevMaster also has a very good ‘game and graphics engine database', which details the features, cost and quality of some 289 engines.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012