In this session we'll explore building cross platform indie games quickly and easily using Xamarin tools. We'll look at deploying to iOS, Android and even Raspberry Pi. Expect a splattering of practical game design tips and a segment where you get to adapt a popular arcade game on your laptop. Example code will be primarily in F#, but no prior experience of game development or F# is required.

1. BUILDING CROSS PLATFORM
GAMES WITH XAMARIN
Phillip Trelford, @ptrelford
Birmingham Xamarin Meetup 2015

2. F#UNCTIONAL LONDONERS
• Founded Feb 2010
• 1000+ Members
• Meets every 2 weeks
• Topics include
• Machine Learning
• Finance
• Games
• Web
http://meetup.com/fsharplondon

3. DON’T GAME CODERS USE C++?
YES
• Engines
• Graphics
• Sound
• Physics
NO
• Scripts
• AI
• Interaction
• Tools

4. DO THEY REGRET IT?
Veteran Games Programmer John
Carmack extolling the virtues of
functional programming at QuakeCon

5. THE F IN F# STANDS FOR FUN!
Phillip Trelford, @ptrelford
Birmingham Xamarin Meetup 2015

6. QUAKE 3 – F# SCRIPT
Will Smith @TIHanTime6h
@brandewinder @7sharp9 Finally got something going in #FSharp #Quake3. Messing
around with the weapon position. :) pic.twitter.com/zAZ439Kdch

7. F# FOR PROFIT
Functional-first programming for:
• Time to Market
• Efficiency
• Correctness
• Complexity

8. F# TESTIMONIALS
order of magnitude increase in productivity, GameSys
performance is 10× better than the C++ that it replaces, Insurance Co.
Units of measure reduced the chance of errors dramatically, Bing
F# is the night vision goggles I need when I go into the dark and attempt to
solve previously unsolved problems, Microsoft

9. MOBILE?
Phillip Trelford, @ptrelford
Birmingham Xamarin Meetup 2015

10. PORTABLE IS DEAD…
LONG LIVE MOBILE
• Android games now out-selling games for Sony and Nintendo handhelds
• IDC and App Annie's study suggests that iOS and Android combined now
generate four times the revenues of dedicated gaming handhelds
- Guardian

11. CROSS PLATFORM GAME ENGINES
Designer-orientated
• Unity (C#, F#, JavaScript, Boo)
• PhoneGap (JavaScript, F#, …)
• Marmalade
• …
Code-orientated
• XNA/MonoGame (C#, F#)
• PyGame (Python)
• Love (Lua)
• DirectX (C++)

12. F# FOR GAMES
Phillip Trelford, @ptrelford
Birmingham Xamarin Meetup 2015

13. EXAMPLE APPS
Path to Go | XBLA Pissed off Owls| iOS Pool | WebGL

14. FRAMEWORKS FOR GAMES
•.Net
•WPF/Silverlight/WinRTXAML
•.Net/Mono
•XNA/MonoGameXNA
•F# to JS Compilation
•WebSharper/FunScriptHTML5

15. XNA IS DEAD
Phillip Trelford, @ptrelford
Birmingham Xamarin Meetup 2015

16. LONG LIVE MONOGAME
• Develop in Visual Studio (PC) or Xamarin Studio (Mac & PC)
• Cross Platform
• iOS
• Android
• Windows
• Mac OSX
• Linux
• Playstation Mobile
• Ouya

17. BUT WAIT…

18. PROTOTYPE PROTOTYPE PROTOTYPE!
10 WRITE Prototype
20 PLAY Prototype
30 IF fun THEN GOTO 20
40 GOTO 10

19. THE GAME LOOP
User Input
Logic
Collision
Detection
Score
Render

20. TASKS: FLAPPY BIRD

21. RESOURCES
Phillip Trelford, @ptrelford
Birmingham Xamarin Meetup 2015

22. CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

23. TOOLING
MonoGame
Paint.Net / Gimp
MusicMaker Jam
Bxfr.Net (Sound effects)
Google

24. F# KOANS
//---------------------------------------------------------------
// About Let
//
// The let keyword is one of the most fundamental parts of F#.
// You'll use it in almost every line of F# code you write, so
// let's get to know it well! (no pun intended)
//---------------------------------------------------------------
[<Koan(Sort = 2)>]
module ``about let`` =
[<Koan>]
let LetBindsANameToAValue() =
let x = 50
AssertEquality x __

25. TRYFSHARP.ORG

26. BUY THE BOOK

27. Steps:
1. Enter game jams
2. Join 1 game a month
3. Publish your indie game
4. Make $$$
5. Go to 1