INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING THROUGH GAME
DEVELOPMENT USING MICROSOFT XNA GAME STUDIO
LAB 1.1 GETTING STARTED WITH XNA GAME STUDIO
This lab contains the following exercises and activities:
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
Making an XNA Game Program................................................................ 1
Deploying an XNA Game ............................................................................. 2
Running an XNA Game Stored on an Xbox 360 ................................. 3
Deploying an XNA Game on a Different Device ................................. 3
Managing XNA Game Deployment.......................................................... 4
SCENARIO
You have been employed by a games company as a developer. You will be
responsible for creating games based on the ideas that your boss has had.
Later, you will be expected to come up with game ideas of your own.
The first thing you are required to do is learn how to drive the tools that
you will be using to create the games.
After completing this lab you will be able to:
 start XNA Game Studio and use it to create an initial XNA Game
Studio project
 run an XNA game on a Windows PC
 deploy an XNA game to an Xbox 360 and run it
 run an XNA game stored on an Xbox 360 hard disk
 use XNA Game Studio to deploy a single XNA Game Studio solution
on multiple devices
 configure Microsoft Visual Studio to select particular devices for
program deployment
Estimated lesson time: 50 minutes
1.1
MAKING AN XNA GAME PROGRAM
Estimated completion time: 10 minutes
In the first exercise you will create an initial XNA Game Studio project
and run it on your Windows PC.
1. Start the computer and log on if necessary.
2. Press the Start button and navigate to the "Microsoft XNA Game
Studio 3.0" program group.
3. Open the program group and start the version of Visual Studio
2008 held in this group.
Note
XNA can work with any version of Visual Studio 2008, so the
precise version of Visual Studio that you see in the XNA Game Studio 3.0
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program group will depend on what has been installed on your PC.
However, all versions of Visual Studio are used in exactly the same way to
write XNA games.
4. If you are using Visual Studio 2008 Express edition select File>New Project to open up the New Project dialog.
5. If you are using any other version of Visual Studio select File>New->Project from the Visual Studio menu to open up the
New Project dialog.
6. Select the Windows Game (3.0) template from the XNA Game
Studio 3.0 Project types.
7. Set the location for the project to a sensible folder on your
machine.
8. Give the project the name FirstGame.
9. Ensure that the "Create directory for solution" checkbox is
checked.
10. Click OK to create the project.
11. Select Debug->Start Debugging from the Visual Studio
menu to run the game. The initial game project displays a
cornflower blue background.
12. Stop the game by closing the form that contains it, or by using
Debug->Stop Debugging. You can also stop the game by
pressing the Back button on a gamepad connected to the
Windows PC.
13. Exit from Visual Studio.
1.2
DEPLOYING AN XNA GAME
Estimated completion time: 10 minutes
You now know how to run a game on a Windows PC. Now you are going
to create a game and run it on an Xbox 360.
Note
This activity can only be performed if you have an Xbox 360
available which is connected to the PC and an Xbox Live account which is
linked to at least a Trial XNA Creators Club membership. Both these
systems must be connected to the Internet and the firewall must be open to
allow them to contact the Xbox Live service.
1. Start Visual Studio and create a new XNA solution with the Xbox
360 Game template. Give the solution the name XboxGame.
2. Start the Xbox 360 console and log in to Xbox Live with your
account. This account must be associated with a working Creators
Club membership.
3. Start the XNA Game Studio Connect application on the Xbox 360.
Note
If this is the first time you have used XNA on your Xbox 360 you
will need to download the XNA Game Studio Connect application from
Xbox Live and then use the XNA Game Studio Device Center program from
the XNA Game Studio 3.0 program group to link your PC and your Xbox.
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4. Select Debug->Run from the Visual Studio menu bar to deploy
the program to the Xbox 360 and then run it. When the program
runs it should display a blue screen on the Xbox 360.
5. Stop the game by pressing Back on gamepad 1 connected to the
Xbox 360 or by selecting Debug->Stop Debugging from the
Visual Studio menu bar.
6. Exit from the XNA Game Studio Connect application on the Xbox
360.
7. Exit from Visual Studio on the Windows PC.
1.3
RUNNING AN XNA GAME STORED ON AN XBOX
360
Estimated completion time: 10 minutes
Once an XNA game has been deployed to an Xbox 360 it is stored on the
hard disk of that device. In this exercise you will see how to find and run
such a game.
Note
This activity can only be completed if you have previously
completed Exercises 1.1 and 1.2. It can only be performed if the Xbox 360 to
be used is connected to Xbox Live.
1. Use the gamepad to navigate to the Game Library on the Xbox 360
and locate the game that you previously ran. It will have the same
name as the project that was created, which was XboxGame.
2. Run the game. Note that it just displays a blue screen.
3. Use the Back button on the gamepad to exit the XNA game.
1.4
DEPLOYING AN XNA GAME ON A DIFFERENT
DEVICE
Estimated completion time: 10 minutes
Note
This activity can only be performed if you have an Xbox 360
available which is connected to the PC.
An XNA solution can contain a number of projects which share the same
program files. Each project can be deployed to a different target device.
In this exercise, you will take an existing project and use Visual Studio to
make a copy of the project and deploy it to a different platform.
1. Start XNA Game Studio and open the solution FirstGame that
you created in Exercise 1.1. If this solution is not available,
recreate it using the Windows Game (3.0) template from the XNA
Game Studio 3.0 project types.
2. Select Debug->Start Debugging from the Visual Studio
menu and run the program on your PC.
3. Select Debug->Stop Debugging from the Visual Studio menu
to stop the program.
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4. Now you are going to copy the project and make a version for the
Xbox 360. Right-click on the FirstGame project in the Solution
Explorer on the right of the Visual Studio display. This should
cause a properties menu to appear for the project.
5. Select Create Copy of FirstGame for Xbox 360 from
the properties menu.
6. Select Debug->Start Debugging from the Visual Studio
menu and note what happens.
Question
Was this what you were expecting?
At the moment, the new project is deployed to the Xbox 360 but does not
run. This is because the Startup project for the solution is still the
Windows PC one.
7. Right-click on the Xbox 360 Copy of FirstGame project.
This should cause a properties menu to appear for this project.
8. Select Set as Startup Project from the properties menu.
You should notice that the project Xbox 360 Copy of
FirstGame is now displayed in bold in the Solution Explorer.
9. Select Debug->Start Debugging from the Visual Studio
menu. The program will now be deployed to the Xbox 360 and run
on that device.
10. Select Debug->Stop Debugging from the Visual Studio menu
to stop the program.
1.5
MANAGING XNA GAME DEPLOYMENT
Estimated completion time: 10 minutes
Note
This activity makes use of a project which targets a Zune device.
However, you do not need to have a Zune device to perform the exercise.
You have seen how to create multiple versions of an XNA game which
can be deployed and run on different platforms. However, at the moment
all the versions are built and deployed irrespective of which device you
are actually using.
In this exercise you are going to find out how to configure the solution to
deploy only to particular devices. Some of the actions referred to in these
instructions are described in detail in Exercise 1.1-1.4.
1. Start XNA Game Studio and create a brand new XNA solution
called ZuneGame. The solution should be based on the Zune
Game (3.0) template from the XNA Game Studio 3.0 project types.
Note that you will not be deploying to a Zune, but you will be
investigating how to change the target for a deployment.
2. Make a copy of the ZuneGame project to produce a Windows
Copy of the ZuneGame project.
3. Select Debug->Start Debugging from the Visual Studio
menu. Visual Studio will attempt to deploy the program to a Zune
device and run it. This deployment will fail.
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4. Change the startup project to the Windows Copy of ZuneGame
project.
5. Select Debug->Start Debugging from the Visual Studio
menu. Although the startup project is now your Windows PC,
Visual Studio will attempt to deploy the program to a Zune device.
This deployment will fail.
6. On the top bar of Visual Studio, the Solutions Platforms combobox will be showing "Mixed Platforms.” This means that
when the solution is built Visual Studio will deploy to every
platform in the solution. You want to change this so that only the
Windows PC project is deployed. Open the combo-box and change
the setting to x86 (this is the setting for deployment to Windows
PC).
7. Select Debug->Start Debugging from the Visual Studio
menu. The game will run on the Windows PC and will not deploy
to the Zune.
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