Create a project for your game for Xbox 360

summary

Create a project for your game for Xbox 360 in XNA.

*Please note that as of 10/01/2010, all systems related to Xbox 360 in XNA Game Studio 4.0 are β versions.

Operating environment

Prerequisites

Operating environment

substance

Let's create a "project" to make a game for Windows. A "project" is a structure that collectively manages resources such as programs and images. Whenever you make a game, you start by creating this project.

When you develop a game for Xbox 360, you need to make sure that your Xbox 360 is ready to accept communications from Windows in order for your game to run on Xbox 360. Here's how to do it.

After launching your Xbox 360, go to the Games page and select Game Library.

Move to the right and open "Types".

Select Indie Games.

Select XNA Game Studio Connect.

Select Get Started to launch XNA Game Studio Connect.

Then, the screen will change to the one shown in the figure. This screen is the standby screen for receiving communication from the computer. When developing a game for the Xbox 360, the Xbox 360 is generally left in this state.

Now, let's create a project for Xbox 360 on the Windows side.

Let's start the development environment "Visual Studio 2010". Creating projects and creating programs is basically done with this software.

If you have a higher version of Visual Studio 2010, start "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 - Microsoft Visual Studio 2010" from the Start menu.

If you have a free version of Visual Studio 2010, start "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express - Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express" or "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone" from the Start menu.

A screen similar to the one shown in the figure will appear. This is "Visual Studio".

Now, let's create a project. From the toolbar at the top right of the screen, press the "New Project" button.

You can also do the same from "File" in the menu.

This will open the "New Project" dialog as shown in the figure.

On the left side of the dialog, select XNA Game Studio 4.0 from Installed Templates. The only programming language is C#.

First of all, select "Template". It's possible to start with a blank project with no files at all, but you can use a pre-made template to generate basic programs, files, etc., so you can start developing your goals right away.

In this case, we will create a game for Xbox 360, so select "Xbox 360 Game (4.0)".

Next, there is an item to enter "Name (project name)" at the bottom of the dialog, but it is a good idea to enter the name of the game you are creating. This project name is also a namespace, so it is preferable to enter it in alphanumeric characters if possible.

This time, we will proceed with "Xbox360Game1" entered from the beginning.

Next, specify the location (folder path) where you want to create the project. You can enter the location directly, or you can specify the folder path from the "Browse" button on the right. If possible, it is better to create a path consisting only of alphanumeric characters.

The "solution" at the bottom is the framework for organizing the project. Typically, you specify the name of the entire project, but for smaller projects, it can be the same as the project name. In XNA Game Studio 4.0, whenever you create a new project, two projects are created, so they are created together in this solution.

When you are done, press the "OK" button.

After a while, the project will be created and you will see the program on the screen. This will be the base template.

If you look at the Solution Explorer on the right side of the screen (which may be in a different location depending on your Visual Studio environment), you'll see that there are two projects under the solution and a few files in them.

By the way, there is a slight difference in the file from when I created the game project for Windows.

This time, I would like to run the program without making any changes to the program. Press the "Start Debugging" button on the toolbar on the screen. The build starts, the build starts, and when it's complete, the program is deployed to Xbox 360 and the game runs.

By the way, "build" refers to a series of tasks that are performed at once, such as automatically checking the program for mistakes, creating resources, and creating an executable file that can be launched by the program.

Also, because the Xbox 360 project has an operation called "Deploy" and the game is not running on Windows, you need to send the data you create to the Xbox 360. That's what "placement" does.

Now, when you run it, the layout of the screen changes, but nothing else happens. So if you look at the TV that's connected to your Xbox 360, you'll see that the screen has switched to a single color fill.

This way, all you have to do is start debugging on Windows, and your game will be deployed to your Xbox 360, and you can easily get your game running on Xbox 360.

Now, press the "BACK" button on the controller connected to your Xbox 360. The default program is set to quit the game.

If you don't have a way to quit the game on Xbox 360 and want to force the game to quit on Visual Studio, press the "Stop Debugging" button in the toolbar.

By the way, the games I put on Xbox 360 are in the "Indie Games" category.

The method of closing the created project and the method of starting production from the continuation are the same as for Windows projects, so please refer to that. You can leave your Xbox 360 alone.

• Creating a project for Windows