How To Finish a Game With XNA Joel

How To Finish a Game With XNA Joel Martinez

Experimentation VS Finishing a Game

How To Make Games a. Design a. Inspiration • Prototype • Play Testing • Do It! • Polish • Release!

Some Motivations 1 I MAED A GAM 3 W 1 TH Z 0 MB 1 ES!!!1 160 k 2 Avatar Drop 117 k 3 RC-Air. Sim 74 k Top 20 Games "they all do one thing and do it very, very well: They fulfill the desire of gamers for something which they can't get on XBLA and would never see on a disc-based game. They're like a sugary snack and a can of pop - an instant hit of fun and refreshment. " Dr. Mistry

The Spark a. Find Inspiration in everyday life b. Make a Statement, or Focus on an Interesting Mechanic

Don't Follow the Masses

Don't Follow the Masses

Don't Follow the Masses

The Prototype a. Single Focus Prototypes b. Make more than one prototype c. Be prepared to throw away code d. Don't be afraid to Suck!

Tech

Play. Test a. Free Testing, use it! b. No Penalty for Uploading unfinished game concepts c. Community Based a. Play. Test other games b. Be nice to reviewers

The Design a. Put together different prototypes b. Avoid "The Game Design Document" http: //theoryoffun. com c. Find "The X" http: //ecorner. stanford. edu/author. Material. Info. html? mid=717

Be Prepared to Cut Features

The Grind a. Plan out your work b. Agile in Stages c. Don't Give Up!

You Can't Finish Them All

Plan Early for the Check List a. No "Official" TCR Process b. Best Practices for Indie Games http: //creators. xna. com/en-us/education/bestpractices c. The Evil Check. List: http: //forums. xna. com/forums/t/19525. aspx

Technical Issues a. Avoid Crashes at All Costs b. Avoid excessive allocations http: //codecube. net/2010/01/xna-resource-pool/ c. Profile to avoid GC Problems XNA Framework Remote Performance Monitor for XBox 360 b. CLR Profiler a.

Layout/Design a. Choose 1280 x 720 on the XBox b. XBox and Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series will automatically scale up or down if necessary. c. On Windows, must handle different resolutions http: //www. david-amador. com/2010/03/xna-2 d-independentresolution-rendering/

Safe Area a. Don't be the "Works on My Machine!" guy b. Title Safe Area: 20% Gutter c. graphics. Graphics. Device. Viewport. Title. Safe. Area d. http: //blogs. msdn. com/manders/archive/2006/11/28/helper-class-to -show-video-safe-areas. aspx

Input Considerations a. Use Standard Input conventions a. A to accept b. B to go back or cancel b. Use "Press Start" to determine what controller the player is using http: //creators. xna. com/en-US/contentpack/controller

The Final Stretch a. Keep Polishing b. More Play. Tests as you add levels a. Take the feedback seriously, these are game players too b. But be careful not to burn out the testeres c. Peer review. . . if you fail, fix the issue and resubmit d. Don't give up! e. Marketing!

Chop More Features!!!

Thank You! joelmartinez@gmail. com @joelmartinez http: //codecube. net