You can open the Assembly Information dialog box from the Application page in the Project Designer.

Use this dialog box to change the assembly information for the current project. This information includes the game title, company name, copyright, and trademark, plus a brief description. When the game is installed on the target device (such as an Xbox 360 console or Zune), some of this information will be displayed in the game selection interface for that device.

The assembly information specified here only affects the values seen in the Xbox 360 Dashboard's Game Library if the project is a game project. Assembly information of library projects is not used when deploying or displaying information about a game.

Title

This field specifies a title for the assembly manifest, and is required to deploy a game to a game device. On most game devices, only the first 25 characters of this field are visible.

On the Xbox 360 console, the title appears in the Game Library.

On Zune, the title appears in the Games list.

Description

This field specifies an optional description for the assembly manifest. Only the first 300 characters of this field are visible.

On the Xbox 360 console, the description appears in the Game Library.

On Zune, the description appears after you select the game from the Games list.

Company

Specifies a company name for the assembly manifest.

Product

Specifies a product name for the assembly manifest.

Copyright

Specifies a copyright notice for the assembly manifest.

Trademark

Specifies a trademark for the assembly manifest.

Assembly Version

Specifies the version of the assembly.

File Version

Specifies a version number that instructs the compiler to use a specific version for the Win32 file version resource (Windows projects only).

GUID

Specifies a unique GUID that identifies the assembly. When you create a project, Visual Studio generates a GUID for the assembly.

Neutral Language

Specifies which culture the assembly supports.

Make Assembly COM-Visible

Specifies whether types within the assembly will be accessible to COM (Windows projects only).

Platform Differences Summary

You can use the XNA Game Studio Device Management toolbar to maintain a list of one or more external game devices (such as Xbox 360 consoles or Zunes) available for deployment. It is available when you load a game project or game library project in supported versions of Visual Studio tools.

For more information, see:

• Using XNA Game Studio Device Center
• "Managing Several Xbox 360 Consoles with XNA Game Studio Device Center" in Deploying an Xbox 360 Game
• "Managing Several Zunes with XNA Game Studio Device Center" in Deploying a Zune Game

Platform Differences Summary

Use the Add Reference dialog box to add component references required by your project. Because the Xbox 360 and Zune platforms do not have the same feature set as the Windows platform, the COM tab is hidden and the .NET tab contains only Xbox 360 or Zune-specific assemblies. These assemblies include:

• Microsoft.Xna.Framework
• Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game
• mscorlib
• system
• system.core
• system.xml
• system.xml.linq

These assemblies are added automatically to an Xbox 360 or Zune project.

To open the Add References dialog box, right-click the References item in Solution Explorer, and then click Add Reference.

Caution

The Projects tab lists all projects in the solution, regardless of platform. The assemblies in the Browse and Recent tabs may also include references to assemblies that are not for the project's platform. Projects must only reference assemblies that are intended for their platform. For example, Xbox 360 projects do not support references to assemblies that target platforms other than Xbox 360, nor do Zune projects support assemblies that do not target Zune.

Platform Differences Summary

You can open the Add New Item dialog box by right-clicking the solution in Solution Explorer, or by selecting it from the Project menu. Use this dialog box to add new Xbox 360 or Zune–supported items. This list contains the following items.

• C# Class
• C# Interface
• C# Code File
• XML File
• XML Schema

  Note
  This option is available only in Microsoft Visual Studio.

• Text File
• Assembly Information File

• Resources File

  Caution
  The string resource type is the only built-in resource type supported by Xbox 360 or Zune projects. Adding other resource types such as bitmaps or icons to a resource file may result in compilation errors.

• Class Diagram

  Note
  This option is available only in Microsoft Visual Studio.

• Game Component
• Content Type Reader

The Assembly Information File template for Xbox 360 or Zune projects excludes the AssemblyFileVersion attribute. Neither the Xbox 360 platform nor the Zune platform support this attribute.

Project properties are grouped into pages in the Project Designer. You can access the Project Designer in the Project menu by clicking Properties, or by double-clicking the Properties item in Solution Explorer. The Project Designer property pages are located in the same middle pane used by the code editor.

• On the Application page, the Target Framework drop-down list box is disabled for Xbox 360 and Zune projects.
• On the Build page:
  1. The Platform target drop-down menu has been disabled in supported versions of Microsoft Visual Studio tools.
  2. The Allow unsafe code property is disabled for Zune.
• On the Content Build page, the Compress content pipeline output files check box is disabled for Zune projects.
• The Debug page has been modified for Xbox 360 and Zune game projects. The Start Action and Enable Debuggers options have been disabled. The Working Directory, Use Remote Machine, and Enable the Visual Studio hosting process controls have also been disabled.
• The Settings project property page allows you to add a settings file to your Xbox 360 or Zune project. However, note that the settings file is not supported for Xbox 360 or Zune projects.
• The Security and Publishing pages are hidden.