1. Introduction to C++ / DirectX Game Development Jump Start
Michael “Mickey” MacDonald | Indie Game Developer
Bryan Griffiths | Software Engineer/Game Developer

2. Meet Mickey MacDonald| ‏@scruffyfurn
Indie Game Developer and Technical Evangelist with Microsoft
Creator of numerous games examples and templates
Worked with many different platforms including; Windows 8/8.1, Windows Phone 7/8, and Xbox 360
Guru of industry knowledge
Frequent speaker at industry conferences and events on a variety of game development and design topics
Featured speaker on Channel 9 and writer on Microsoft blog sites

3. Meet Bryan Griffiths Software Engineer and Game Developer
Worked with Activision/Blizzard, Sega, THQ and others on multiple AAA game projects in his career.
Has developed and shipped titles on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, Mac, Mobile platforms and the web. (Even two board games.)
Most recently served as the Lead Software Engineer on the indie title Rollers of the Realm, produced by Phantom Compass.
Video Game Design and Development Instructor at triOS College
Dedicates a good portion of each day to educating the next generation of video game developers.

4. Course Topics Introduction to C++/DirectX Game Development
01 | Introduction / Getting Started
06 | Physics and Collision Detection
02 | What DirectX Can Do and Creating the Main Game Loop
07 | Adding AI and Other Extras to the Game
03 | Creating, Texturing and Moving Objects
04 | State Management
05 | Capturing User Input

5. Setting Expectations Target Audience
Student, beginner and indie developers with a desire to venture forth into the world of DirectX game programming.
Suggested Prerequisites/Supporting Material
Basic knowledge of C++ and Visual Studios.
Basic knowledge of the Windows 8/8.1 interface.
Basic knowledge of linear algebra and 3-D coordinate systems.
Requirements
The drive to make your own game.
Snacks and beverages!

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7. 01 | Introduction / Getting Started
Michael “Mickey” MacDonald | Indie Game Developer
Bryan Griffiths | Software Engineer/Game Developer

8. Module Overview Goals for the Day Preparing to Make a Game
Knowing Your Audience
Picking the Right Tools
What is Needed to Start
Verifying You Have Everything
Navigating Windows 8.1
What’s New in Visual Studios 2013

9. Goals for the Day Examine the process of preparing to make a game.
Create a C++ game for the Windows Store using DirectX.
Discuss common structures, patterns and implementations used when developing video games.
Increase your technical knowledge about threads, state machines, polymorphism and other topics that will be mentioned through out the day.
Point you towards other resources to continue your learning.
Have some fun while we are at it!

10. Preparing to Make a Game
Two Main Approaches:
Detail and lay it all out, paper prototype it, and then create it.
Pick a main mechanic and theme, develop around that, experiment with it and keep all the fun bits you discover. Now polish it into a game.
Other Approaches:
Satire a well known game.
Revive an old genre.
Learn from others, by keeping everything they did well and then dropping the rest.
Make a Story/Art game.

11. Preparing to Make a Game
Gather Your Team:
Don’t be afraid to share your game ideas with others!
First, look for others whose strengths cover your weaknesses.
Then find others whose talents lie within the area where your game will require the most amount of work. (Art, Tech, Level Design, etc.)
Don’t forget someone who knows business/marketing. You will need them if your game is as amazing as you want it to be!
Fly Solo:
No meetings, but no direct support either.
No pressure, but the game will likely take much longer to complete.

12. Preparing to Make a Game
Consider your Audience:
Create one or more profiles/persona that fit your target audience.
Be detail oriented.
What genres do they like.
What games do they currently play.
Age, gender, habits, playtime per day / week.
Do they prefer Co-op / Single Player / Multiplayer / MMOs.
Whenever you have a question about your game you will have these persona’s to fall back on to help you decide what to do.
This helps you to maintain your focus on your goals as the years pass.
Generally speaking, few people get to make games for themselves.

13. Preparing to Make a Game
Platforms…
Which platform(s) are you making this game for?
What differences are there between the selected platforms that you need to consider while developing your game?
Are the control schemes different?
Is the screen format different?
Is there a large performance difference?
Are there different monetization strategies available?
What hoops do you have to jump through to release on those platforms?
What will those platforms be like when your projected release date occurs?

14. Picking the Right Tools
Should you use a game engine, middleware, or outsourcing?
Pick what fits your specific game’s needs and goals.
Can a certain tool fill an area or skill that your team is lacking?
Using someone else’s system means you will likely have to tailor your game to it, or make concessions down the road. Are you fine with that?
Is their a tool that your whole team is comfortable or familiar with that would assist in the development of your game?
How are you going to manage your code and assets with multiple people working on them?
Finally, what are your deployment strategies?

15. What Is Needed to Start
Windows 8/8.1
Visual Studios 2013
That’s it!

16. Verifying You Have Everything
Open Visual Studios
Create a new project.
Go to Templates->Visual C++
Select the Windows Phone Direct3D App (Native Only) sample.
Press OK.
Now compile and run the code.
If the emulator opens up and the app loads a spinning multi-colored cube then you are ready to roll!

17. Taking a look at your first ever DirectX app!

18. Navigating Windows 8.1
Windows 8 introduced a lot of amazing new features, Windows 8.1 improves these new features even more.
Some of these cool features include:
Search: Search once, go anywhere. Bing smart search gives you results from your PC, your apps, and the web. Results are in a clean, graphic view so you can quickly get to what you're looking for.
Resizable App Windows: Windows 8.1 lets you work the way you want, and flow smoothly from one thing to another. Pull up a Wikipedia article during a chat with a friend to settle a debate. Play a music video while polishing your resume. Depending on the size of your screen, you can see up to four apps at once.

19. Navigating Windows 8.1 Lets Take a quick tour!
Start Screen: Start is the heart of your PC—it’s where you open apps and desktop programs, see what your friends are doing, and get to your favorite websites and files.
The tiles on Start can show updates from your friends, new , app notifications, and the next appointment on your calendar at a glance, even without opening an app.
Lets Take a quick tour!

20. What’s New in Visual Studio 2013
Some really cool new features have been added to Visual Studios Let’s take a look at a couple ones that we really found helpful.

21. What’s New in Visual Studio 2013
Just My Code (JMC) for C++ - The JMC feature is to help the user focus on their code when viewing call stacks without getting lost in library code, Windows code, etc.
Let’s start with the most basic example.  If you create a new Win32 Console application in VS2013 with JMC turned off and set a breakpoint on the first line, you will get the following call stack:

22. What’s New in Visual Studio 2013
To most users, the only part that is interesting to them is the top frame.  The Just My Code feature reduces the call stack to this:
Just My Code does not just apply to the Call Stack window, but to anywhere call stacks are shown.  For example, you get these same benefits in the Threads window:

23. What’s New in Visual Studio 2013
Turning JMC off and on If you want to see the external code, you can use the context menu in the call stack window to toggle between showing and hiding it.

24. What’s New in Visual Studio 2013
Turning JMC off and on When you turn this off, Just My Code will display the external call stack frames in a lighter gray color.

25. What’s New in Visual Studio 2013
If you want to turn Just My Code on/off completely, you can change the setting in Tools->Options.

26. What’s New in Visual Studio 2013
Energy Consumption Tool
The Energy Consumption tool is one of the tools in the new Performance and Diagnostics hub available from “Debug -> Performance and Diagnostics”
The Energy Consumption tool that helps examine where energy is consumed in your application.

27. What’s New in Visual Studio 2013
Energy Consumption Tool
To get started, in the Diagnostics Hub page, select “Energy Consumption” and press “Start”. This starts the application along with the profiling session.
Go to your application and use it as you would normally, taking the application through the scenario that you wish to profile.
To run a profiling session on a tablet device, Configure remote profiling on the remote device and then select “Remote Machine” as the target in the target selection drop down box.

28. What’s New in Visual Studio 2013
Energy Consumption Tool
Once done, press “Stop collection” to stop the profiling session and show the Energy Consumption report.
The report presents the application power/energy consumption for the given scenario.

29. What’s New in Visual Studio 2013
Visual Studio Online
Visual Studio Online, formerly Team Foundation Service, is the home for your project data in the Cloud.
Get up and running in minutes on our cloud infrastructure without having to install or configure a single server.
Works with Git repos and includes project tracking tools.
Visual Studio Online Basic is completely free for up to 5 users.

30. A quick preview of the demo game, VS 2013 and working in Windows 8.1.