Professional Windows® Phone 7 Game Development: Creating Games using XNA Game Studio 4

Chapter 8. Putting It All Together: Drive & Dodge

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Using everything you've learned thus far and creating a game called Drive & Dodge

• Creating a basic game project template for reuse in other game projects

It's time to take everything you have learned in the previous chapters and create your first complete game for Windows Phone 7.

Note

The examples provided in the "Putting it All Together" chapters (Chapters 8, 12, and 15) assume knowledge of C#. Without that, the sample projects may be a bit overwhelming and confusing. These chapters are not for beginners, but for experienced developers who are familiar with C# and somewhat familiar with the XNA framework and game-development concepts.

When you begin developing games for a new system, it's always good to do a basic "Hello World!"–type game. It's important to pick a game with simple game play and mechanics so that you can spend time learning the ins and outs of the new API and hardware, instead of struggling with new game coding techniques. With that in mind, it's time to lay out the design of your "Hello World!" game, called Drive & Dodge.

If you were to buy Drive & Dodge at your favorite game store, the back of the box might read something like this: "You're in a car speeding down a perfectly straight road that seems to stretch on forever. The car keeps accelerating as you drive. Wait — what's this? Some kind of construction is going on, and hazard signs blocking portions of the road keep appearing in the lanes. ...