Overview

This lab introduces you to XNA Game Studio game development on Windows Phones, as well as to the basics of XNA Game Studio game development. During the lab you will build a simple XNA Game Studio game application that introduces key concepts in XNA Game Studio game development and learn how to use Microsoft Visual 2010 Express for Windows Phone to build and design your XNA Game Studio games for Windows Phones.

Objectives

At the end of the lab you will have:

• A high-level understanding of the XNA Game Studio game engine model within a Windows Phone 7 application
• Learned how to use resources (images, fonts, etc.) in your XNA Game Studio game
• Learned how to add game logic
• Learned about the drawing mechanism for Windows Phone XNA Game Studio games

Prerequisites

The following is required in order to complete this hands-on lab:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone or Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• Windows Phone Developer Tools
  Note:

   All of these Tools can be downloaded together in a single package from http://developer.windowsphone.com

Setup

For convenience, much of the code used in this hands-on lab is available as Visual Studio code snippets. To install the code snippets:

1. Run the .vsi installer located in the lab's Source\Setup folder.
   Note:

    If you have issues running the code snippets installer you can install the code snippets manually by copying all the .snippet files located in the Source\Setup\CodeSnippets folder of the lab to the following folder:

   \My Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Code Snippets\Visual C#\My Code Snippets

Using the Code Snippets

With code snippets, you have all the code you need at your fingertips. The lab document will tell you exactly when you can use them. For example,

To add this code snippet in Visual Studio, you simply place the cursor where you would like the code to be inserted, start typing the snippet name (without spaces or hyphens), watch as IntelliSense picks up the snippet name, and then press the Tab key twice when the snippet you want is selected. The code will be inserted at the cursor location.

To insert a code snippet using the mouse rather than the keyboard, right-click where you want to insert the code snippet, select Insert Snippet followed by My Code Snippets and then pick the relevant snippet from the list.

To learn more about Visual Studio IntelliSense Code Snippets, including how to create your own, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165392.aspx.

Tasks

This hands-on lab includes the following tasks:

1. XNA Game Studio Game Basics
2. XNA Framework Resources
3. XNA Game Studio Game Loop
4. XNA Game Studio Game Input
5. Alien Game Specific Logic

Estimated time to complete this lab: 60 minutes.