{"id":21,"date":"2010-10-24T10:00:35","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T10:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deadcodersociety.org\/?p=21"},"modified":"2010-10-27T13:40:34","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T17:40:34","slug":"xna-game-development-brian-okeefe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deadcodersociety.org\/blog\/xna-game-development-brian-okeefe\/","title":{"rendered":"XNA Game Development: Brian O’Keefe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian O’Keefe gave the first Dead Coder Society presentation on his experience developing games using XNA and releasing on the Xbox 360. His first release is “Flipside<\/a>“, and he’s working on another game right now. You can follow his recent developments at his website, Bokstuff.com<\/a>. Feel free to read the collected notes from his presentation below:<\/p>\n

XNA – Review and testing<\/strong>
\nMicrosoft XNA is a set of development tools for developing on Xbox 360 (as well as for Windows, and Zune.) Visual Studio Express (the IDE) and XNA are free downloads. It’s easy to port and simple to hook up to debug on Xbox. The starter version of XNA only works for PC; pro version is ~$100\/year (or free with MSDNAA, available through Stockton.) You can debug directly on Xbox360 via Ethernet cable. $1\/$2.50\/$5.00 are price-points for released indie games. You receive 70% of revenue (~67% after taxes. 30% goes to Microsoft.)<\/p>\n

Once game is posted, there\u2019s a peer-review process (no Microsoft employees, done through a forum.) If you release on Xbox Live, you can still release the PC version via other means (Steam). XNA redistributable package exists for Windows release.<\/p>\n

Forums<\/strong>
\nThere are two forums for testing on forums.xna.com<\/a>: Playtest Feedback forum is just a general purpose feedback forum. Peer Review forum is specifically for game review prior to release. If you are going to test or peer review a game, you need to install a program onto your Xbox360 called XNA Game Studio Connect.
\nPeer review is primarily for crashes, not for \u201cthis isn\u2019t fun\u201d etc. A few people need to review it. If you have crashes, you cannot re-submit your game for a week, and when you do finally re-upload it, it goes to the end of the peer-review queue.<\/p>\n

Gotchas to look out for in 360 development:<\/strong>
\nIf you\u2019re running the game and someone yanks the memory card out, things like that can\u2019t cause a crash. If someone hits the \u201cguide\u201d button (button in the middle of the controller), the game should pause in the background. All controllers should work, etc. Must account for controller \u201cdead zones\u201d on analog sticks \u2013 the amount of throw the controller has when it gets old.
\nSo-called \u201cEvil checklist\u201d for game acceptance (game needs to have these working), and \u201cnot-so-evil checklist\u201d (not a release killer; left to the discretion of the testers (e.g. the text doesn\u2019t render clearly on certain monitors)). If you fail, you need to wait a week to resubmit your game for retesting, but you can test as many times as you want. Incentive for the game-testers include a free game (release candidate, but still,) and you can get your game to the top of the queue. An interesting side note, Brian’s passed on the first try!<\/p>\n

You can patch your games \u2013 it goes through the acceptance queue again. All existing customers get prompted for the new patched release.<\/p>\n

XNA Framework and Game Development<\/strong>
\nBasic libraries for creating a game on Xbox: rendering, input from controller, sounds and networking. There’s no gamestate management and no particle effects. Another note: people develop libraries on top of XNA for network play and other things (p2p high score list was discussed.) No collision Detection built in to XNA default package.<\/p>\n

Basic methods created when you create a new project:
\nInitialize, Load\/Unload Content, Update, Draw For every frame, it calls Update, then Draw.
\nBrian\u2019s State Management system:
\nLoading State, How to Play State, GamePlay State, etc\u2026 States for all major sections of gameplay, all being controlled by a State Manager class.<\/p>\n

Programming for XBOX specific notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n