Developing your own game can be a daunting task. In this session, you’ll see how easy it is to get started from scratch with XNA Game Studio 4.0, the latest version of Microsoft’s multi-platform game creation toolkit. You’ll be introduced to the developer-friendly—and free!—community resources available for building games for the PC, Xbox, and Windows Phone and learn more about this industry-changing game development technology.

1. writing games in .net with
xna game studio
Dallas Day of .NET
9 March 2012
Dallas, Texas

2. your presenter
Tim G. Thomas
Senior Consultant
Headspring
tim@timgthomas.com
timgthomas.com
@timgthomas

3. a brief introduction
Game Development Framework
Released by Microsoft in 2006
C# or VisualBasic (Managed code)
Built on components of DirectX
Supports 2D + 3D games

4. game publishing platforms
Windows
Xbox 360 (Indie Games, Arcade)
Windows Phone 7

5. successful xna projects
• Schizoid
• Magicka
• Terraria
• Sol Survivor

6. the xna project structure
• Game project
• Teh codez
• Content project
• Images
• Sounds
• 3D models
• Typefaces

7. typical game structure
Game Initialization
Content Loading
Game Loops
...
Content Unloading
Game Exit

8. game loops
Update() + Draw()
Update() called at 60Hz
Perform autonomous updates
Wait for and respond to user input
Draw() immediately after
Update visible graphics
Be wary of CPU/GPU constraints

9. the Game object
• Initialization
• Content loading/unloading
• Game loops
• Component management
• Mini-games
• Separate Update() and Draw() methods
• Linked to Game calls

10. the content pipeline
• “Compiles” game assets during a build
• Included processors:
• XML » Object
• Textures » textures
• 3D models » vertices, textures, etc.
• Audio (XACT) » audio files
• Typefaces » sprite fonts
• Custom processors

11. demo
“Ping”

12. other considerations
Game complexity
Testing
Windows 8

13. microsoft’s “dream build play”
15 May – 12 June 2012
Windows Phone 7 + Xbox 360
Judged on “fun factor”, innovation, polish
Over $110,000 in prizes

14. educational resources
App Hub create.msdn.com
XNA Team Blog blogs.msdn.com/b/xna
Shawn Hargreaves blogs.msdn.com/shawnhar
Renaud Bédard theinstructionlimit.com

15. presentation resources
Slides slidesha.re/dodn12-xna
Code (GitHub) bit.ly/dodn12-xna-code
Download XNA bit.ly/dodn12-xna-get
Rate Me! spkr8.com/t/9414

16. thanks for your attendance
Tim G. Thomas
Senior Consultant
Headspring
tim@timgthomas.com
timgthomas.com
@timgthomas