In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, you’ll learn how to build high performance games for Windows Phone 7 with Microsoft’s free XNA 4.0 toolset. Using this book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach, you’ll master all the skills you need to design, develop, test, and publish highly playable games for any WP7 device. You’ll learn how to integrate game logic, touch screen user input, bitmaps, animations, audio, physics effects, GPS location services, and more. Each lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, culminating in the construction of a complete game—and giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success!
Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common Windows Phone 7 game development tasks.
Quizzes and Exercises at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge.
By the Way notes present interesting information related to the discussion.
Did You Know? tips offer advice or show you easier ways to perform tasks.
Watch Out! cautions alert you to possible problems and give you advice on how to avoid them.
Learn how to…
- Develop fast, playable Windows Phone 7 games with XNA 4.0
- Get and manage user touch screen input
- Draw 2D bitmapped images, and bring them to life as sprites
- Transform sprites using rotation, scaling, and velocity calculations
- Detect and handle collisions between game objects
- Create surprisingly realistic animation effects
- Master sophisticated finite state programming techniques
- Integrate GPS Location Services into your game
- Make the most of Windows Phone audio
- Read, write, and save game files
- Create your game’s Graphical User Interface (GUI)
- Implement realistic physics effects, including gravity and acceleration
- Tweak gameplay to make your games more fun
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1
Audience and Organization 1
Conventions Used in This Book 5
Resource Files 5
Part I: Introduction
HOUR 1: Making Games for Windows Phone 7 9
Getting Started with Windows Phone 7 9
Windows Phone 7 as a Game Platform? 10
History of the Platform 11
Hardware Specifications 16
Summary 17
Q&A 18
Workshop 18
HOUR 2: Getting Started with Visual C# 2010 for Windows Phone 21
Visual C# 2010 Express 21
Using Silverlight for WP7 24
XNA Game Studio 30
XNA or Silverlight: What’s the Verdict? 37
Summary 37
Q&A 38
Workshop 38
HOUR 3: Printing Text 39
Creating the Font Demo Project 39
Adding a New Font to the Content Project 41
Learning to Use the SpriteFont Class 45
Printing Text 46
Summary 48
Q&A 48
Workshop 49
HOUR 4: Getting User Input 51
Exploring Windows Phone Touchscreen Input 51
Simulating Touch Input 52
Using Gestures on the Touchscreen 55
Summary 56
Q&A 57
Workshop 57
HOUR 5: Drawing Bitmaps 59
Adding a Bitmap File to an XNA Project 59
Loading a Bitmap File as an Asset 62
Drawing a Bitmap with SpriteBatch 63
Drawing Bitmaps with Transparency 65
Summary 68
Q&A 68
Workshop 69
Part II: Sprite Programming
HOUR 6: Treating Bitmaps as Sprites 73
Bringing Bitmaps to Life 73
Drawing Lots of Bitmaps 74
Running into Limits with Global Variables 76
Creating a Simple Sprite Class 79
Summary 87
Q&A 88
Workshop 88
HOUR 7: Transforming Sprites 89
Translating (Moving) a Sprite 89
Using Velocity as Movement Over Time 91
Moving Sprites in a Circle 94
Summary 98
Q&A 98
Workshop 98
HOUR 8: More Sprite Transforms: Rotation and Scaling 101
Rotating a Sprite 101
Scaling a Sprite 108
Summary 114
Q&A 114
Workshop 115
HOUR 9: Advanced Linear and Angular Velocity 117
Calculating Angular Velocity 117
“Pointing” a Sprite in the Direction of Movement 124
Summary 129
Q&A 129
Workshop 129
HOUR 10: When Objects Collide 131
Boundary Collision Detection 131
Radial Collision Detection 139
Assessing the Damage 141
Summary 147
Q&A 147
Workshop 147
HOUR 11: Managing Lots of Sprites 149
Robot Trash Collectors 149
Summary 160
Q&A 160
Workshop 161
Contents
HOUR 12: Sprite Color Animation 163
Getting Started with Color Animation 163
Color Animation 167
Summary 178
Q&A 178
Workshop 179
HOUR 13: Sprite Transform Animation 181
Adding Transform Support to the Animation Class 181
Combining Multiple Animations 189
Summary 194
Q&A 194
Workshop 195
HOUR 14: Sprite Frame Animation 197
Drawing Animation Frames 198
Creating the Frame Animation Demo 202
Summary 209
Q&A 210
Workshop 210
HOUR 15: Transforming Frame Animations 213
Drawing Frames with Color Mods 213
Drawing Frames with Transform Mods 218
Animation Mods Demo 224
Summary 228
Q&A 228
Workshop 229
HOUR 16: Drawing with Z-Index Ordering 231
Prioritized Drawing 231
Summary 237
Q&A 237
Workshop 238
Part III: Gameplay
HOUR 17: Using Location Services (GPS) 241
GPS 101 241
Windows Phone Location Services 243
Simulating Position Changes 245
Creating the Geo Position Demo 249
Summary 252
Q&A 252
Workshop 253
HOUR 18: Playing Audio 255
Getting Started with Windows Phone Audio 255
Creating the Audio Demo Program 259
Summary 262
Q&A 262
Workshop 263
HOUR 19: Reading and Writing Files Using Storage 265
Using Windows Phone Isolated Storage 265
Creating the Storage Demo Example 270
Summary 274
Q&A 275
Workshop 275
HOUR 20: Creating a Graphical User Interface 277
Creating the GUI Controls 278
Demonstrating the GUI Controls 287
Summary 292
Q&A 292
Workshop 292
HOUR 21: Finite State Gameplay 295
Finite State Gameplay in Theory 295
Testing Game State 299
Summary 308
Q&A 308
Workshop 309
HOUR 22: The Physics of Gravity 311
Simulating Gravity 311
The Gravity Demo 314
Summary 320
Q&A 321
Workshop 321
HOUR 23: Rocket Science: Acceleration 323
Building the Game 323
Summary 334
Q&A 335
Workshop 335
HOUR 24: The Black Hole Game 337
Adding the Finishing Touches 337
Summary 357
Q&A 357
Workshop 357
Index 359
