No there isn't.

Here are some things you should consider, though:

• C++ doesn't have any kind of garbage collection, that means you actually have to care about pointers, allocation and deallocation. (You practically only have what is called "unsafe mode" in C#.)
• The standard library for C++, the STL, is a lot worse than what you'll know from C#. (Not as bad as not having no list<T> class, but still, it makes a lot things harder than they should be.)
• If you want to learn C++ in a less painfull way you should try Qt. It has a insanely good documentation, the SDK comes with a proper IDE (including compiler) and it ships it's own replacment for the STL which is way more comfortable and intuitive. Also it's free, cross-platfrom and open source.

I'm not aware of any guides, but on the other hand, I've never tried doing what you're doing, so I haven't had a need to look for them. :)

That being said, if you want generics in C++, look for the Standard Template Library, which comes with all the major C++ distributions and provides generic container classes like lists and queues and all sorts of other things.

There's nothing wrong with visual studio as an IDE.

Also, if you want to aim to make your game cross-platform, I'd consider using free libraries like SDL and/or OpenGL to handle your graphics and sound, rather than relying on DirectX.  If you must use DirectX, write some wrapper functions so you can swap it out later.

Furthermore, if you want a library that's a bit more intuitive than the STL (but also a somewhat bigger), consider looking into Qt Core, which is Qt without all of the GUI stuff on it.  It provides a bunch of nice template classes and some other stuff (like XML parsing, etc) that are immensely useful.

Feel free to ask any questions.  I don't know XNA, but I do know C++ and I can probably help. :)

Bart

Napoleon, I was into Java before I got into C++.  Since C# is basically Microsoft's clone of Java, I do feel your frustrations. :P

So what I did was, looked into open source 2D game engines that already exists -- obviously, there are lots of them.  One way to choose which, is to have a check list:

• what type of game you want to make?
• what API (SDL/DirectX/OpenGL) you want to use?
• which compiler you want to use? (setting up GCC with MinGW/Cygwin could frustrate you)
• is the project in stable state -- no rapid major changes in source code?

After choosing one, try to make sure it's compilable with the toolchain you have setup.  This way, you can tinker with the source code as it pleases you -- makes learning even more fun; studying the source code could take a while.

Optionally, you have to have the repo edition of the engine's source code -- get it from projects SVN/CVS/BZR/Git/etc -- so any change you made which suddenly broke the code can still be reverted.

learning c++ is never a bad thing. Just make sure you understand each concept before you move on. Eventually you will run out of concepts and basically know it. c++ offers 25 different ways to slice a piece of bread. dont stress out and let people make you think you have to know all 25 ways to be productive. it will come in time.