1. CS 179.14 PC/Console Game Programming/development
Chapter 1: Introduction to XNA

2. Table of Contents
Syllabus Discussion What is XNA? Tools of the Trade XNA Framework Programming your first XNA Application Game Design Notes: Video Game History

3. Syllabus Discussion

4. Xna game programming
Introduction to xna

5. What is XNA?
XNA  XNA is Not an Acronym It is a Software Development Kit (SDK) that is used in other programs (Visual Studio) to build a specific program… Games. The XNA Framework encompasses all of the features the SDK has.

6. What is XNA?
Why study XNA? - XNA Provides an easy to learn Framework that provides all necessary pieces in order to build a working game. - It uses C#, an easy to pick-up and learn OOP language. - We produce games for multiple platforms in one code!

7. Tools of the Trade
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/2010 with C# development Environment
XNA Game Studio 3.0/4.0
Console Test: an XBOX 360 with Hard Disk and XNA Creators Club Account
Portable Media Player Test: A Zune Media Player or a Windows Phone 7 System

8. Tools of the Trade Installation
Have Visual Studio 2008/2010 installed on your computer
Install the latest XNA SDK from
Configure XNA Game Studio Device Center

9. XNA Framework
The XNA Framework contains the necessary pre-built classes to aid in creating your games.
The link provided gives access to the online library for the XNA Framework.
To know more about other programming techniques in XNA, a website was developed to cater the creation of content for learning and creating games.

10. Programming your first XNA Application
Download the lesson files from: and save it to your computer. Most of the lessons will use the premade codes here.

11. Programming your first XNA Application
In XNA Game Studio, select New Project from the File Menu. (This will create the entire project) (hint: there are starter kits scattered around the Create website)
Select the correct project (template). And no, don’t select any of the game libraries there.
Name the project as “MoodLight”. Click on the Browse Button if you want to save it somewhere else.

12. Programming your first XNA Application
Once created/saved, the familiar Visual Studio IDE will appear.
You can click on the play button to run the app, but there’s nothing happening – except for a blue screen, since there’s no logic yet. (and later I’ll teach how to actually print Hello World there)

13. Programming your first XNA Application
To correctly stop a program, press the Back Button on the Xbox 360 Gamepad or Zune to instruct the program to finish. Or clicking on the Stop button within the XNA Game Studio will stop the program.
It is possible to copy an existing XNA project for other devices.
Click on the Solution file name on the Solution Explorer.
Click on Project from the menu bar and then choose Create Copy of “project name” for <device>

14. Game Design notes
Post Game Programming Topic

15. History of Video Games – 1940 to 1950
Origins: during the 1940s, a device called the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device was patented by Thomas Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. The game involved the player controlling a CRT tube using knobs and direct a ‘missile’ to its targets, paper targets found within the screen. During the early fifties, Charley Adama developed a bouncing ball… which will soon a precursor of future games that will use the bouncing ball. Later, a Tic-Tac-Toe game called OXO created by A.S. Douglas as a thesis on early AI. By the end of the 50’s a game called Tennis for Two by William Higinbotham was created that had trajectories for the ball and the existence of gravity. The trajectory is controlled by knobs and button to simulate a tennis racket.

16. History of Video Games - 1960
During the 60’s, most of the development occurred in Universities having mainframes by student hobbyists.
During this era, programmers began experimenting on the use of other controllers to play their games. Some used light pens, others switches, knobs or whatever they could think of. Most of these were made at MIT.
Games that came out included:
Mouse in the Maze – players using a light pen, created the maze walls, cheese, and then release the mouse to find its way out.
HAX – a control based game that changed lights/colors/sounds with a combination of switches.
Tic-Tac-Toe – now using a light pen to play around with the computer as the opponent.
Spacewar! – a two player game played using switches to move their space craft and shoot each other out.
Ralph Baer restarted his previous idea of a video game machine, and created Chase, that was playable on a TV. Along with his colleagues, they developed an early light gun.

17. History of Video Games - 1970
By the 70’s, Arcade games became the ‘in’ thing among kids, where they play by placing in coins on a slot to let them play. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney ported Spacewar! to the arcades called Computer Space, the first mass produced game in the world… but were not pleased with the way they were earning. This lead to the founding of the first game development company – Atari (Hit! in English) After founding Atari, one of their engineers, Allan Alcorn developed a game called Pong as a training exercise. Pong became one of the most popular games during the time. However, that was also one of the earliest cases of game ideas (or even software ideas) being stolen… and it continues up until today. By 1978, the Japanese company Taito, released the game Space Invaders, which have ushered in the golden era of arcade gaming. Other games such as Asteroids! (Atari) and Pac-Man (Namco) began arriving. By then games were popping up in color, giving more mass appeal to mall patrons, people eating out in restaurants, etc.

18. History of Video Games - 1970
Alongside the arcade machines in the 70’s, a machine called the console began appearing in living rooms. Developed as a prototype by Ralph Baer, the “Brown Box” (Xbox anyone?) was offered to potential licensees and Magnavox (a very known home AV brand way back then) bought the license and made the Magnavox Odyssey. The device utilized cartridges that have jumpers, which enabled/disabled switches inside the console. It was the first console that had quite a big marketing effort made in order to sell, with big Hollywood names to market it.
Mainframes are still being used by hobbyists to create their games, and these games began to increase in complexity. Some examples are:
Baseball video game – the very first game was created by Don Daglow complete with a running season.
Star Trek – one of the games based on a fiction shown on TV during that time.

19. History of Video Games - 1970 to 1980
Maze War – one of the first 3D First-Person shooting games that came out.
Airfight – the first flight simulator where players fly around in a single airspace and having the ability to shoot each other.
Dungeons and Dragons – Role Playing Games, normally played on a table with paper and props were now replaced with a computer showing the map, text for the game’s story and actions.
Aside from Mainframes, the Personal Computer was recently introduced during the era, letting more people outside of Universities to try out making games. This entailed users to port games from the mainframe to their own at home. During this time, people share around their codes in prints and each individual typed in the code to get their own copy. Then, there was a small industry of developers writing code and selling it to others for a fee.

20. History of Video Games – 1970 to 1980
During the late 70’s early 80’s, new models of home consoles appeared. However, there was a slump in the quality of games that have appeared. Atari and Magnavox continued to sell their consoles and these consoles began to use cartridges with Read Only Memory chips (ROM) to store the programmed game information and the console translates it In 1979, disgruntled employees from Atari, made their own company called Activision as they said were not properly compensated enough… Activision was the very first third party video game developer. The market got saturated with consoles like VCS, Intellivision and ColecoVision. Their sales were high but there was a poor release of good quality games during that time and sales went down

21. History of Video Games – 1980
The industry struggled as new publishing companies opened up.
Maze Games
Platform Games
Spurred by the low production costs, Home computer games were profitable as a business.
Racing Games
Role Playing Games
Rhythm Games
By the 80’s video game genres began to take form, the games began to innovate in their ways to entertain those who play them. The genres are broken as:
Shooters
Stealth Games
Survival Horror
Vehicle Simulation Games
Adventure Games
Beat ‘em Up
Fighting Games
Interactive Movies

22. History of Video Games – 1980
The late 80’s introduced more mainstream consoles like the Nintendo Family Computer in Japan (known as Nintendo Entertainment System in US) a popular 8- bit machine. This gave the rise of some popular characters in Video Games: Mario and Luigi, Link, Metroid’s Samus, Solid Snake… etc. It is through the 80’s that console hardware (starting 3rd generation) development ramped up exponentially, with the release of Sega Master System to rival that of Nintendo. Controllers of gaming consoles became standardized with the use of the directional gaming pad (or D-Pad), an eight way cross directional pad and two or more buttons on a rectangular piece of plastic. Also, portable gaming devices began in production. Most famous is the Game & Watch line of portable devices.

23. History of Video Games – 1980 to 1990
Gaming computers emerged after the slump of gaming consoles (Americans retreated from it), these are home computers (PCs) that focused mainly on gaming, and have the hardware power of PCs at that time. Some of the famous Gaming computers were: Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, and the MSX (in Asia and made by Japanese companies) One of the advantages of Gaming Computers was that these had a program called BASIC which enabled a person to program their own game…. Easily The Commodore 64 was famous as it supported BASIC, had the best sound and graphics for a machine and enabled the backward compatibility of old controllers. Gaming Magazines began showing up with the introduction of Nintendo Power.

24. History of Video Games - 1990
The decade marked more innovations in gaming, PCs became more powerful and cheaper with the constant update from Intel 386 to Intel Pentium !!! during the decade alone (speed increase from 8MHz to 500MHz) 4th – 5th Generation consoles are introduced in a short span. The use of optical media (CDs) became popular. The introduction of “3D” graphics gave more detail in games. The introduction of new genres like First Person Shooters, Real Time Strategy, and “Sim” games Handheld gaming consoles advanced with the release of Nintendo’s Game Boy, and later, the release of colored handhelds like the Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear.

25. History of Video Games – 1990 to 2000
Arcades have begun a decline, as games normally played in the arcade like shooters, fighting games, racing have moved onto consoles, PCs and even portable systems. In an effort to stave off losses, game companies made innovations in Arcade Games by producing titles that required controls not found in consoles or PCs. Some games like Dance Dance Revolution required our feet to move, Time Crisis and Police 911 which required either a pedal or the person to move while shooting. Racing, Flight, and even robot games involved sitting inside a booth or enclosed cockpit to provide a more realistic simulation. It is during this decade there Role Playing Games on the console became big hits, like Final Fantasy VII

26. History of Video Games - 2000
The 6th and 7th Generation of consoles were created, using DVDs and/or Blu-Ray disks as the medium.