Book Image

Learning Windows 8 Game Development

By : Michael Quandt
Book Image

Learning Windows 8 Game Development

By: Michael Quandt

Overview of this book

With the recent success of a lot of smaller games, game development is quickly becoming a great field to get in to. Mobile and PC games are on the rise, and having a way to create a game for all types of devices without rewriting everything is a huge benefit for the new Windows 8 operating system. In this book, you will learn how to use cutting-edge technologies like DirectX and tools that will make creating a game easy. This book also allows you to make money by selling your games to the world. Learning Windows 8 Game Development teaches you how to create exciting games for tablets and PC on the Windows 8 platform. Make a game, learn the techniques, and use them to make the games you want to play. Learn about graphics, multiplayer options, how to use the Proximity + Socket APIs to add local multiplayer, how to sell the game outright, and In-App Purchases. Learning Windows 8 Game Development guides you from the start of your journey all the way to developing games for Windows by showing you how to develop a game from scratch and sell it in the store.With Learning Windows 8 Game Development, you will learn how to write the code required to set everything up, get some graphics on screen, and then jump into the fun part of adding gameplay to turn a graphics sample into a proper game. From there, you'll look at how to add awesome features to your game like networking, motion controls, and even take advantage of new Windows 8 features like live tiles and sharing to make your players want to challenge their friends and keep playing. This book wraps up by covering the only way a good game can finish development: by shipping the game on the Windows Store. You'll look at the things to remember to make certification painless and some great tips on how to market and sell your game to the public.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Learning Windows 8 Game Development
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Chapter 7. Playing Games with Friends

One of the biggest features in modern games is multiplayer, either over the internet or on a local network. Xbox Live, for example, is one of the largest multiplayer networks, and games such as Halo and Battlefield have incredible communities that sometimes never even play the single player component of the game. For this reason, multiplayer is a valid and powerful concept that should be considered for your games, although it may not always be appropriate for what you are creating. If your game doesn't fit a competitive mode of multiplayer, consider a cooperative mode. If multiplayer doesn't feel like it matches the experience that you want to provide, leave it out. The important thing is to ensure you focus on ensuring quality and fun, rather than adding in features that might not work.

One thing that I've omitted so far is a user interface system. This is crucial to multiplayer gaming as you need a way for the user to choose the multiplayer option and...