Free XNA Curriculum Materials Now Live

If you have been wondering about what all the “Today I have Been Mostly Writing” posts last month were all about you can find out as the courseware is now available on Microsoft Faculty Connection:

• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 1: Computers, C#, XNA and You
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 2: Programs and Colors
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 3: Getting Player Input
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 4: Displaying Images
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 5: Writing Text
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 6: Creating a Multi-Player Game
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 7: Playing Sounds
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 8: Creating a Timer
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 9: Reading Text Input
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 10: Using Methods
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 11: A Game as a Program
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 12: Games, Objects and State
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 13: Making a Complete Game
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 14: Classes, Objects and Games
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 15: Creating Game Components
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Chapter 16: Creating Multi-Player Networked Games
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Instructor Preparation Guide
• Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio - Text Sample Code

This is a complete programming course which is designed to be taught over 10 weeks at a rate of 6 sessions a week (although you can pull individual sections out and use them if you wish).  There is a course matrix that sets out how to sequence this.

The course teaches programming from first principles, using XNA games as the basis of all the sample code.  There are extensive tutor notes on the slide decks and a sequence of step-through labs for students to follow. There are even revision tests for each section.  It is based on the chapters in my textbook, which is the first link in the above list.

You can download the material without signing in, by selecting the “Skip this Step” option on the download page.

If you are going to use the material in any way I’d love to hear how you got on.

Comments

[John]

Hi Rob, I tried to download these but I couldn't see a 'Skip this Step' link anywhere... when I go to the download link and click the item to download I get taken to the Microsoft Faculty Resource Center site and asked to verify my faculty status (and I'm just a normal member of the public...)

:)

[Shawn]

Agree with John, I don't see this option either.

[Rob]

Hmm. I'll find a cookie free machine and have a play. It might be remembering me for some reason, but I definitely see the option.

[Shawn]

I see the option for the first download, tried a couple of others and don't get the option, just my experience so far. Possible to ZIP the whole thing somewhere where bandwidth isnt too big an issue?

[Rob]

You are both right. The courseware is only available to faculty members. Sorry about that. I can actually see why though, it contains setup guides and tests and stuff that are only really relevant to teachers delivering a course.

If you are a faculty member it is well worth joining Faculty Connection, since you can have access to other goodies as well.

[Steven Smith]

Hi ...I'm a faculty member at Orlando Tech and I can get the curriculum materials ....BUT...when I unzip chapter 3 I get "The archive is corrupt" error ...and I get multiple errors with unzipping chapter 12...please look into this...thanks.

[Rob]

I've just tested it on my machine and it works fine for me. (but then it would, wouldn't it)

I think the problem might be that you are unzipping it to a directory which has quite a long path (for example "c:\windows\users\fred\my documents\coursware\"). Some of the paths in the sample projects are also a bit long, and this can result in the file writes failing because the Windows filesystem can only support paths up to 256 characters in length. If this happens the unzip program tends to fall over with the only errors it can think of, which might refer to passwords or a corrupt archive. If you unzip to a directory close to the root of a drive it should work fine.