Course Overview Introduction to XNA Game Studio Express Game Design Experience Prof. Jim Whitehead January 8, 2008

Administrative If you need a permission code, see me after class ► In most cases I will give you one, the class is not full If you have already taken CS 80K, you cannot receive credit for CS 20 ► If you would like to sit-in to learn about C#, that’s OK ► Game Design majors that took 80K last year can substitute it for the CS 20 degree requirement

Introductions Everyone should stand up and introduce themselves ► Your name ► Game you’re playing right now Or your favorite game

Course People Professor ► Jim Whitehead Associate Professor, Computer Science ► Office hours: Tuesday, 10:30am-12pm, or by appointment Teaching Assistants ► Sheena Marquez ► Ian Rickard Readers/Tutors ► Trevor Prater Take advantage of our expertise!

Goals of Game Design Experience (CS 20) Understand broad issues in game design ► Challenge, conflict, reward structures, rule systems, level design, etc. Develop ability to critically analyze games ► Shift perspective from player to designer Write software to create a simple game ► In an object-oriented language, C# Shared with CMPS 80K Foundations of Interactive Game Design Exclusive to CMPS 20

Relationship Between CS 20 and CS 80K CS 20 is intended for ► Computer Game Design majors ► Students with strong programming skills Students in CS 20 are required to do everything a CS 80K student would do: ► Attend lectures, do assignments, learn Game Maker, take exams, etc...with a few exceptions ► CS 20 project must be a programmed game ► CS 20 students will have a different exam version from CS 80K students ► Extra lecture per week

Topics covered in CS 20 (and not CS 80K) C# programming language Visual C# Express XNA Game Studio Express ► Mostly 2D capabilities Strategy Pattern Collision detection algorithms Students in CS 80K avoid these issues by using a game development tool like Game Maker or RPG Maker

Computer Game Project Work in teams of 2 to create novel computer game ► C# and XNA Game Studio Express will be taught in class ► Very impressive games are possible with this environment ► Created games can run on Xbox 360 Phases ► Game concept document – January 30 ► Game prototype - February 22 ► Final game - March 10

Computer Game Projects Will have two days of peer assessment of games in small groups ► Receive lots of constructive feedback Best games will be demonstrated to entire class Will have external judges, commercial game designers Best game in CS 20 will win a Nintendo DS ► Thanks to 2K games ► One for each team member ► Separate judging for CS 80K games Also possible to enter Microsoft DreamBuildPlay contest ($3,000 prize) ► Deadline is January 27 (

XNA Game Studio Express XNA GSE is a series of libraries for creating 2D and 3D computer games ► Uses C# as the primary programming language ► Integrated with Visual Studio C# Express Also now the full version of Visual Studio ► Games can run under Windows or on Xbox 360 ► It is possible to create professional games using this toolkit ► Quick poll of students with Windows machines Do we need XNA GSE installed in ITS labs? Example games: ►

Course Textbooks XNA Game Studio Express Developing Games for Windows and the Xbox 360 Joseph Hall, Thomson Course Technology, 2008 Programming C# Jesse Liberty, O’Reilly, 4 th Edition, 2005 Rules of Play Game Design Fundamentals Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman ► Primary text for CS 80K Available at bookstore

XNA Game Studio Express Architecture You write your game in C# ► Using features in XNA Framework Runs on top of common language runtime (“Managed Code”) Windows APIs, DirectX Common Language Runtime (CLR) XNA Framework Game code (C#) & content You provide Provided for you

XNA Features 2D & 3D graphics support ► Access to HLSL (High level shader language) Pixel and vertex shaders Audio support ► XACT cross-platform audio tool Controller and keyboard input ► Xbox 360 controller Font support Content Pipeline Game save storage Networking … and much more

Installing XNA Game Studio Express Follow instructions at: ► Install Visual Studio ► Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (editor/debugger/compiler) ► Unless you currently use Visual Studio, you want “Visual C# 2005 Express” ► Two step process Install “Visual C# Express” Install “Visual C# Express Editions Service Pack 1” Both are necessary Install XNA Game Studio 2.0 ► You want version 2.0, the latest version ► This was recently released, so textbook covers only 1.x version ► Versions are mostly the same: big new feature is networking

XNA Creator’s Club XNA Creator’s Club Website ► ► Community website for XNA GSE ► Multiple complete games with source code ► Many tutorials, and code examples ► Very active discussion forums Creator’s Club Subscriptions ► Necessary to put game on Xbox 360 ► Access to premium content ► Costs $99/year, but Microsoft will offer free memberships for educational use in January No details yet, recommend wait-and-see I will get everyone a subscription if possible, once this program starts

XNA Community Web Sites XNA Team Blog ► blogs.msdn.com/xna/ ► Announcements from the XNA dev. Team Ziggyware ► ► Developer-oriented XNA news XNA Development ► ► XNA tutorials. See also the Links page for links to other quality XNA websites

Instructional DVD Beginners Guide to XNA Game Studio Express ► I have 11 copies, to lend to students ► See me to check out and return ► Very good tutorial guide, aimed at people with no knowledge of C# ► Recommended

Controllers XNA Game Studio Express allows you to use Xbox 360 controllers ► Normal Xbox 360 controller is Bluetooth wireless, and is not recognized by the Windows Bluetooth manager ► Hence, when developing game under Windows, won’t be able to test control scheme (bad) To create a game using Xbox 360 controller, need to buy a corded Windows Xbox 360 controller (~$35 + shipping) ► Should buy now, so you have it ready for when you start programming ► Google for “xbox 360 controller windows” for multiple online vendors Can also create a game that uses keyboard input ► Will need to change control scheme to port to Xbox 360

Demonstration of Visual C# Express & XNA Demonstration of loading, compiling, and running one of the sample games for XNA Game Studio Express

Homework Visit Creators Club website Download and install XNA Game Studio Express Compile and run one of the sample games Read Chapters 1-3 of XNA GSE text