Profit will then allow them to buy more buildings. The Rise of HTML5. While social isometric game systems were improving, the technologies available to build them were also changing. That you have at least a basic knowledge of how to work with all of those languages. Instead, throughout the different. Sep 22, 2011. HTML5 Game Development – Lesson 1. HTML5 tutorial. Starting today we begin a series of articles on game development in HTML5. In our first article we will cover the basics – working with the canvas, creating simple objects, fill, and some linked event handlers by mouse. Also, pay attention at this stage,.
Welcome to the Windows 10 game development guide! This guide provides an end-to-end collection of the resources and information you'll need to develop a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) game. An English (US) version of this guide is available in format. Introduction to game development for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) When you create a Windows 10 game, you have the opportunity to reach millions of players worldwide across phone, PC, and Xbox One. With Xbox on Windows, Xbox Live, cross-device multiplayer, an amazing gaming community, and powerful new features like the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and DirectX 12, Windows 10 games thrill players of all ages and genres. The new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) delivers compatibility for your game across Windows 10 devices with a common API for phone, PC, and Xbox One, along with tools and options to tailor your game to each device experience.
This guide provides an end-to-end collection of information and resources that will help you as you develop your game. The sections are organized according to the stages of game development, so you'll know where to look for information when you need it. To get started, the section provides a high-level survey of documentation, programs, and other resources that are helpful when creating a game. If you want to start by looking at some UWP code, see.
This guide will be updated as additional Windows 10 game development resources and material become available. Game development resources From documentation to developer programs, forums, blogs, and samples, there are many resources available to help you on your game development journey. Here's a roundup of resources to know about as you begin developing your Windows 10 game. Note Some features are managed through various programs. This guide covers a broad range of resources, so you may find that some resources are inaccessible depending on the program you are in or your specific development role. Examples are links that resolve to developer.xboxlive.com, forums.xboxlive.com, xdi.xboxlive.com, or the Game Developer Network (GDN). For information about partnering with Microsoft, see.
Game development documentation Throughout this guide, you'll find deep links to relevant documentation—organized by task, technology, and stage of game development. To give you a broad view of what's available, here are the main documentation portals for Windows 10 game development. Windows Dev Center main portal Developing Windows apps Universal Windows Platform app development How-to guides for UWP games DirectX reference and overviews Azure for gaming UWP on Xbox One UWP on HoloLens Xbox Live documentation Xbox One developer documentation (GDN) Xbox One developer whitepapers (GDN) Mixer Interactive documentation Windows Dev Center Registering a developer account on the Windows Dev Center is the first step towards publishing your Windows game.
A developer account lets you reserve your game's name and submit free or paid games to the Microsoft Store for all Windows devices. Use your developer account to manage your game and in-game products, get detailed analytics, and enable services that create great experiences for your players around the world. Microsoft also offers several developer programs to help you develop and publish Windows games. We recommend seeing if any are right for you before registering for a Dev Center account. For more info, go to Register a developer account Developer programs Microsoft offers several developer programs to help you develop and publish Windows games. Consider joining a developer program if you want to develop games for Xbox One and integrate Xbox Live features in your game. To publish a game in the Microsoft Store, you'll also need to create a developer account on Windows Dev Center.
Xbox Live Creators Program The Xbox Live Creators Program allows anyone to integrate Xbox Live into their title and publish to Xbox One and Windows 10. There is a simplified certification process and no concept approval is required outside of the standard. You can deploy, design, and publish your game in the Creators Program without a dedicated dev kit, using only retail hardware.
To get started, download the on your Xbox One. If you want access to even more Xbox Live capabilities, dedicated marketing and development support, and the chance to be featured in the main Xbox One store, apply to the program. Xbox Live Creators Program ID@Xbox The ID@Xbox program helps qualified game developers self-publish on Windows and Xbox One. If you want to develop for Xbox One, or add Xbox Live features like Gamerscore, achievements, and leaderboards to your Windows 10 game, sign up with ID@Xbox. Become an ID@Xbox developer to get the tools and support you need to unleash your creativity and maximize your success. We recommend that you apply to ID@Xbox first before registering for a developer account on Windows Dev Center. ID@Xbox developer program ID@Xbox consumer site Xbox tools and middleware The Xbox Tools and Middleware Program licenses Xbox development kits to professional developers of game tools and middleware.
Developers accepted into the program can share and distribute their Xbox XDK technologies to other licensed Xbox developers. Contact the tools and middleware program Game samples There are many Windows 10 game and app samples available to help you understand Windows 10 gaming features and get a quick start on game development.
More samples are developed and published regularly, so don't forget to occasionally check back at sample portals to see what's new. You can also GitHub repos to be notified of changes and additions. Universal Windows Platform app samples Direct3D 12 graphics samples Direct3D 11 graphics samples Direct3D 11 first-person game sample Direct2D custom image effects sample Direct2D gradient mesh sample Direct2D photo adjustment sample Xbox Advanced Technology Group public samples Xbox Live samples Xbox One game samples (GDN) Windows game samples (MSDN Code Gallery) JavaScript and HTML5 game sample Developer forums Developer forums are a great place to ask and answer game development questions and connect with the game development community.
Forums can also be fantastic resources for finding existing answers to difficult issues that developers have faced and solved in the past. Windows apps developer forums UWP apps developer forum Desktop applications developer forums DirectX Microsoft Store games (archived forum posts) Windows 10 managed partner developer forums DirectX forums Azure platform forums Xbox Live forum Developer blogs Developer blogs are another great resource for the latest information about game development.
You'll find posts about new features, implementation details, best practices, architecture background, and more. Building apps for Windows blog Windows 10 (blog posts) Visual Studio engineering team blog Visual Studio developer tools blogs Somasegar's developer tools blog DirectX developer blog DirectX 12 introduction (blog post) Visual C tools team blog PIX team blog Universal Windows App Deployment team blog Concept and planning In the concept and planning stage, you're deciding what your game is going to be like and the technologies and tools you'll use to bring it to life. Overview of game development technologies When you start developing a game for the UWP you have multiple options available for graphics, input, audio, networking, utilities, and libraries. If you've already decided on all the technologies you'll be using in your game, great! If not, the guide is an excellent overview of many of the technologies available, and is highly recommended reading to help you understand the options and how they fit together.
Survey of UWP game technologies These three GDC 2015 videos give a good overview of Windows 10 game development and the Windows 10 gaming experience. Overview of Windows 10 game development (video) Windows 10 gaming experience (video) Gaming across the Microsoft ecosystem (video) Game planning These are some high level concept and planning topics to consider when planning for your game. Make your game accessible Build games using cloud Monetize your game Choosing your graphics technology and programming language There are several programming languages and graphics technologies available for use in Windows 10 games.
The path you take depends on the type of game you’re developing, the experience and preferences of your development studio, and specific feature requirements of your game. Will you use C#, C, or JavaScript? DirectX, XAML, or HTML5? DirectX Microsoft DirectX is the choice to make for the highest-performance 2D and 3D graphics and multimedia. Direct3D 12, new in Windows 10, brings the power of a console-like API and is faster and more efficient than ever before.
Your game can fully utilize modern graphics hardware and feature more objects, richer scenes, and enhanced effects. Direct3D 12 delivers optimized graphics on Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One. If you want to use the familiar graphics pipeline of Direct3D 11, you’ll still benefit from the new rendering and optimization features added to Direct3D 11.3. And, if you’re a tried-and-true desktop Windows API developer with roots in Win32, you’ll still have that option in Windows 10.
The extensive features and deep platform integration of DirectX provide the power and performance needed by the most demanding games. DirectX for UWP development Tutorial: How to create a UWP DirectX game DirectX overviews and reference Direct3D 12 programming guide and reference Graphics and DirectX 12 development videos (YouTube channel) XAML XAML is an easy-to-use declarative UI language with convenient features like animations, storyboards, data binding, scalable vector-based graphics, dynamic resizing, and scene graphs. XAML works great for game UI, menus, sprites, and 2D graphics. To make UI layout easy, XAML is compatible with design and development tools like Expression Blend and Microsoft Visual Studio.
XAML is commonly used with C#, but C is also a good choice if that’s your preferred language or if your game has high CPU demands. XAML platform overview XAML UI and controls HTML 5 HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a common UI markup language used for web pages, apps, and rich clients. Windows games can use HTML5 as a full-featured presentation layer with the familiar features of HTML, access to the Universal Windows Platform, and support for modern web features like AppCache, Web Workers, canvas, drag-and-drop, asynchronous programming, and SVG. Behind the scenes, HTML rendering takes advantage of the power of DirectX hardware acceleration, so you can still get the performance benefits of DirectX without writing any extra code. HTML5 is a good choice if you are proficient with web development, porting a web game, or want to use language and graphics layers that can be easier to approach than the other choices. HTML5 is used with JavaScript, but can also call into components created with C# or C/CX.
HTML5 and Document Object Model information The HTML5 W3C Recommendation Combining presentation technologies The Microsoft DirectX Graphics Infrastructure (DXGI) provides interop and compatibility across multiple graphics technologies. For high-performance graphics, you can combine XAML and DirectX, using XAML for menus and other simple UI, and DirectX for rendering complex 2D and 3D scenes. DXGI also provides compatibility between Direct2D, Direct3D, DirectWrite, DirectCompute, and the Microsoft Media Foundation. DirectX Graphics Infrastructure programming guide and reference Combining DirectX and XAML C C/CX is a high-performance, low overhead language that provides the powerful combination of speed, compatibility, and platform access. C/CX makes it easy to use all of the great gaming features in Windows 10, including DirectX and Xbox Live. You can also reuse existing C code and libraries.
C/CX creates fast, native code that doesn’t incur the overhead of garbage collection, so your game can have great performance and low power consumption, which leads to longer battery life. Use C/CX with DirectX or XAML, or create a game that uses a combination of both. C/CX reference and overviews Visual C programming guide and reference C# C# (pronounced 'C sharp') is a modern, innovative language that is simple, powerful, type-safe, and object-oriented.
C# enables rapid development while retaining the familiarity and expressiveness of C-style languages. Though easy to use, C# has numerous advanced language features like polymorphism, delegates, lambdas, closures, iterator methods, covariance, and Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) expressions.
C# is an excellent choice if you are targeting XAML, want to get a quick start developing your game, or have previous C# experience. C# is used primarily with XAML, so if you want to use DirectX, choose C instead, or write part of your game as a C component that interacts with DirectX. Or, consider, an immediate mode Direct2D graphics libary for C# and C. C# programming guide and reference JavaScript JavaScript is a dynamic scripting language widely used for modern web and rich client applications. Windows JavaScript apps can access the powerful features of the Universal Windows Platform in an easy, intuitive way—as methods and properties of object-oriented JavaScript classes.
JavaScript is a good choice for your game if you’re coming from a web development environment, are already familiar with JavaScript, or want to use HTML5, CSS, WinJS, or JavaScript libraries. If you’re targeting DirectX or XAML, choose C# or C/CX instead. JavaScript and Windows Runtime reference Use Windows Runtime Components to combine languages With the Universal Windows Platform, it’s easy to combine components written in different languages. Create Windows Runtime Components in C, C#, or Visual Basic, and then call into them from JavaScript, C#, C, or Visual Basic. This is a great way to program portions of your game in the language of your choice. Components also let you consume external libraries that are only available in a particular language, as well as use legacy code you’ve already written. How to create Windows Runtime Components Which version of DirectX should your game use?
If you are choosing DirectX for your game, you'll need to decide which version to use: Microsoft Direct3D 12 or Microsoft Direct3D 11. Direct3D 12, new in Windows 10, brings the power of a console-like API and is faster and more efficient than ever before. Your game can fully utilize modern graphics hardware and feature more objects, richer scenes, and enhanced effects. Direct3D 12 delivers optimized graphics on Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One. Since Direct3D 12 works at a very low level, it is able to give an expert graphics development team or an experienced DirectX 11 development team all the control they need to maximize graphics optimization.
Direct3D 11.3 is a low level graphics API that uses the familiar Direct3D programming model and handles for you more of the complexity involved in GPU rendering. It is also supported in Windows 10 and Xbox One.
If you have an existing engine written in Direct3D 11, and you're not quite ready to make the jump to Direct3D 12, you can use Direct3D 11 on 12 to achieve some performance improvements. Versions 11.3+ contain the new rendering and optimization features enabled also in Direct3D 12.
Choosing Direct3D 12 or Direct3D 11 Overview of Direct3D 11 Overview of Direct3D 11 on 12 Bridges, game engines, and middleware Depending on the needs of your game, using bridges, game engines, or middleware can save development and testing time and resources. Here are some overview and resources for bridges, game engines, and middleware to help you decide if any are right for you. Game Development with Middleware (video) Introduction to game middleware (blog post) Universal Windows Platform Bridges Universal Windows Platform Bridges are technologies that bring your existing app or game over to the UWP. Bridges are a great way to get a quick start on UWP game development. UWP bridges Windows Bridge for iOS Windows Bridge for desktop applications (.NET and Win32) Unity Unity offers a platform for creating beautiful and engaging 2D, 3D, VR, and AR games and apps. It enables you to realize your creative vision fast and delivers your content to virtually any media or device. Beginning with Unity 5.4, Unity supports Direct3D 12 development.
Note If you would like to develop Xbox Live enabled titles, there are several options are available to you. For info about the various programs, see.