The C# Player's Guide (5th Edition)

I wanted to find my way into programming and C# so badly, but I just wasn't finding my way with the Microsoft Learn courses, or Codecademy, or any of the other methods I tried. Everything was either extremely dull, or felt incomplete. My copy of The C# Player's Guide arrived about 2 months ago, and I kid you not, I have spent between 30 minutes to 2+ hours every single day working through it (I think I spent a solid 6 hours on a lazy Sunday once). I wake up thinking about this book, and I go to bed thinking about it. The content and challenges are constantly running through my mind, and I can actually see the improvement happening day by day. The book has a ton of challenges that require you to use the knowledge you gained from each chapter, and each chapter builds upon previous ones. There is no hand-holding here, as seen with many of the courses you find online. These challenges require you to actually learn and understand the content, and by doing each challenge, you are doing what matters most: actually programming something. It will be hard, and you will struggle, but that's okay because that's where the real learning happens. If you have the ability to do so, I highly recommend you join the community. The author has gathered a wonderful community of people, primarily on Discord, who are constantly providing feedback and assistance to others. They don't just give you the answer and move on, however, they work with you to make sure you move forward with confidence, as long as you're willing to put in the work. I've seen these people spend hours of their time, for free by the way, helping people understand a concept they were stuck on. The author himself responds to many of the questions, and often goes WAY out of his way to help people get through things they're struggling with. This isn't just a book, either. The author has also created a website that has plenty of additional content, and he has a YouTube channel with detailed videos going through many of the book's challenges. And, if you join the Discord, you will find tons of additional context and reference material in there. All of that said, if you like TTRPGs or RPGs in general, you're going to love this book that much more. The story and the "leveling up" concept really add another layer to the learning process that helps keep things fun, and they have given me something to hold onto during the more difficult parts of the book.

This is the ultimage book for begginers path to C# if you have no background in programming. Every other book might be more complete / in deep, but this one is the one that will take you there. Only caveat, everything is terminal ("consolas") based, but at least you will handle nicely other books about windows GUIS and unity engine.

Over the years I have bought a lot of different programming books in an attempt to quickly pick up a language that I needed to know for work or for a personal project. Many times, I will get about 40-60% through these books and put them down, never to pick them back up. Sometimes I learned enough to get going from just that amount of reading; other times I have to seek out additional resources to supplement the book's lessons. The C# Player's Guide is the first programming book I completed cover to cover. The content is organized into a series of "Levels" in the form of something akin to a role playing game; each level has one or more challenges and knowledge checks for you to test what you learned in that level. Completing these awards you experience points (XP) that you can track on a page in the front of the book to gamify your progress. This feature by itself helps encourage you to stick with the content. However, even if that gamification was missing, the content here is so good that I felt compelled to keep going, even when the rest of life and work caused interruptions and disruptions to my schedule. The challenges will measure your comprehension as it continues to layer new concepts over previously introduced ones, but in a way that is never frustrating. Instead, for each challenge you'll feel like you have an idea of how to get started and will just need a bit of tinkering around to get the result you need. From this tinkering comes the real lessons and insights that make the language stick. The author also has an active presence in the Discord server that accompanies this book, offering reviews of your code as you work on the challenges and answering any questions you have with detailed, thoughtful responses. If you are looking to learn C# from scratch (or if you are looking to break into object-oriented programming and thinking about using this as your first resource), you would be hard pressed to find a better book than this.

I've been making my way through this book for a month now, and I can confidently say that I've learning and retaining all of the information that I learn. The book is written in a very friendly manner. Every subject is clearly explained, and with a lot of different examples. Every "level" or chapter covers a specific topic, or subject in C#. Every level has challenges part way, and/or at the end of the level. These challenges are laid out to build upon what you've learned in the level, as well as reinforcing skills you learn in previous levels. The book's challenges take you through a very well crafted narrative adventure through a fictional land, where you use your 'powers of programming' to solve the troubles of its citizens, it's very engaging, and for those who are into fantasy games, or fantasy settings, it's a very fun additive to learning. The book encourages learning and engagement by suppling an 'XP tracker' which you can start checking off as you complete challenges, thus 'leveling up' your programming skills, it is a very fun way to keep motivated.

I do not like the exercises (Damn modular learning). However, I am benefiting from reading it. The chapter on memory management alone is worth buying this text. There are others who enjoy the pain of being given tools and told to go make some random, loosely directed thing. NOT ME!!! Just show me a few examples, then, let me attempt to make something myself, please.

I've been using the Unity game engine and C# for a few years now. I don't have a CS degree of any kind and I've really started to feel like I had some holes in my knowledge. I've used use an interface, I kinda knew what a garbage collector was, and I've even used different types of delegates and generics in different ways. Hell, I even have my first Steam game out that I released last year with a couple of thousand copies sold. But I just felt like I didn't quite grasp some of the concepts. I didn't go through all of the challenges, I skipped a couple of chapters that I felt like I already had a decent understanding of. But I binged about 80% of the book in less than a week. I've been reading and studying the book for about 4-5 every day all week, and I've felt a huge level up in my understanding with dozens of different light-bulb "ohhhhh that's how it works moments". Huge thank you RB. Can't recommend this book enough for anyone brand-spanking new up to someone trying to further their knowledge to a more intermediate/advanced level.

If you are at all considering entering the world of programming or are just curious on how programming works, the C# Player's Guide is the deepest, most fun instructive work I have ever read. Even if you don't intend to make C# your primary programming language, the foundations laid in this work are astoundingly streamlined and simplified for even the absolute beginner. It's also one of those guides where you pick up new details every time you re-read it. Simply the best "how to program" book there is. At $100, it would be a steal. It's regularly under $30, and represents the highest value per page in its category. A must buy - can't recommend it any more highly.

I have purchased many school books on Amazon and this is another one I would recommend for your tech savvy student. Another great purchase.

Been a programmer for almost a decade, but this really walks through basic concepts to advanced levels as a nice and handy reference when I need it with very good examples (especially for game development).

Ich habe tatsächlich nichts negatives über das Buch zu berichten. Von Anfang an wird alles klar und verständlich erklärt und gut strukturiert mit vielen Praxisbeispielen beigebracht. Es werden absolut keine Vorkenntnisse mit Programmieren oder wirklich detailliertes Computerwissen vorrausgesetzt, und man kann relativ schnell von "Hab noch nie auch nur eine Zeile Code geschrieben" zu einem Punkt kommen, wo man seine eigenen kleinen Spiele und Anwendungen von 0 mit sehr wenig Hilfestellung schreibt. Auch ausserhalb der Seiten selbst ist das Buch top: es gibt eine zugehörige Website mit zusätzlichen, kostenlosen Resourcen, Beispiellösungen für jede Übung im Buch, und einen zugehörigen Discord Server in dem der Author selbst, sowie viele andere Mitlernende ständig Fragen beantworten, Lösungen reviewen, mit Problemen helfen und allgemein über alles was mit Programmieren und C# zu tun hat reden. Super bonus. Einziges "Manko" (nicht wirklich, aber für manche sicherlich): Das Buch gibt es nur auf Englisch, eine deutsche Übersetzung gibt es nicht und wird es vorraussichtlich auch nicht geben. Aber wer programmieren möchte sollte ohnehin keine Probleme mit der englischen Sprache haben ;)

J'ai découvert le code avec ce livre. Le livre m'a servi de base. Mais pour faire mes jeux android 2D assez simples il m'a fallu apprendre de moi même, et m'aider des IA. J'ai eu des difficultés sur certaines parties et j'ai trouvé que beaucoup ne m'ont pas servi à mes objectifs personnels.

The book is very good. I am far from completing it but so far it has been very helpful. The challenges are very well implemented.

Solide boek. Progtammeren is als het spelen van een game. Programmeren is niet alleen uitdagend maar ook fun. Vergeet dat niet.