Windows 8 on Dave Voyles

prime[31] Azure plugin for Win8 Unity games (Part 3)

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

RESOURCES:

You can find the source for this project on my GitHub.
Power point slides
Video Walkthrough
Get this working on Windows Phone

In part 2 of my tutorial, I showed you how you how to set up the initial project with prime[31]. Now that we have it built, I’m going to walk you through the code, as well as how it all works.

Insert

Let’s test this out by running the project from Visual Studi and inserting a new object into our leaderboard. Deploy the sample, connect to the Azure service, then insert a new username and score.

prime[31] Azure plugin for Win8 Unity games (Part 2)

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

RESOURCES: You can find the source for this project on my GitHub.

In part 1 of my tutorial, I showed you how you how to set up the initial project with prime[31]. Now that we have it built, I’m going to walk you through the code, as well as how it all works.

Now that we have the project built, let’s open it up the metro folder, and launch the Prime31 Visual Studio solution.

Examples of apps published with the Web App Template

Fri, 18 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

A few months back, I wrote a piece on a high level overview of Microsoft’s Web App Template. I’ve recently learned that it not only works on Windows 8, but is also applicable to Win Phone 8, with Universal support coming soon.

So why would anyone ever wrap their site and turn it into an app? Well for one thing, it can quickly and easily net you 300+ 4+ star reviews on the store, and takes no more than an hour to create.

Windows 8 app development for beginners

Thu, 22 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

[iframe src=”http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/34969684″ width=”676″ height=”600″ frameborder=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no”]

Intro to the Web App Template

Wed, 07 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

You can find Part 2 of this tutorial, here. I’ve also compiled a list of great apps published with the WAT.

On Venture Capitalist Chris Dixon’s blog, he recently highlighted the decline of the mobile web.

“People are spending more time on mobile vs desktop, and more of their mobile time using apps, not the web This is a worrisome trend for the web. Mobile is the future. What wins mobile, wins the Internet. Right now, apps are winning and the web is losing.

Super Rawr-Type is released for Windows 8

Tue, 25 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Play Super Rawr-Type for FREE in the Windows 8 Store

Super Rawr-Type, my 2D sidescrolling JavaScript shooter, is finally available for Windows 8. I actually finished working on it in August, but needed to change a few lines of code to have it pass certification, and completely forgot to resubmit. On Friday I made the final necessary changes, submitted, and it’s up in the store today.

The project is open source, and you can find my GitHub here.

How do I get my game on Xbox One?

Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Update 3/29/16

With today’s announcements at //BUILD, some of this information will be out of date. I will make changes in the very near future.
Updated, 9/24/15
TLDR: Middleware engines work great and support for Xbox one is continuing to grow within new tools each day. I have a more recent post with more information following Microsoft’s presence at GDC 2015. Here is the latest.

For developers to focus on building for the UWP. Building UWP apps today is the best way to make sure apps will work on the Xbox when UWP is available on the Xbox. Similarly how different device families have specific APIs (GPIO, Hardware buttons, etc), Xbox will have a set of APIs that developer can use to extend experience to match the Xbox One, and those APIs will be used on top of the core UWP functionality that developers are building today.

How to write engaging second screen experiences, using SmartGlass or Win8

Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This ties into my previous post, where I spoke about how to get your game or app on Xbox One.

Microsoft unveiled quiet a bit of information regarding SmartGlass during BUILD 2012, and much of it is available **via this Power Point presentation.**Ignore most of the C++ in there; I never had to touch any of that. All of my work was done via JavaScript and it worked fine.

I also spoke about SmartGlass development on this week’s Hanselminutes podcast.

Start making games, even if you don't know how to program

Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

“I want to get started with making games, but I don’t know how. Where should I start?”

It can be overwhelming when you are starting off, because there are so many options available to you. I mean just look at plethora of game making tools at Pixel Prospetor, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. If you have zero programming experience, then I’d suggest starting with Construct2.

Construct 2 allows you to create HTML5 games without ever having to write code. Everything is handled in the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) which has a GUI (Graphical User Interface) that anyone could use. You simply drag-and-drop objects into your scene, and can make changes to the objects properties by right clicking.
Even better, it’s free! There are premium versions available, but if you’re just starting off, then the free version offers more than enough to get you going.

Hacking jQuery to work in Windows 8

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

For some time now I’ve been building HTML5 apps for Windows 8. I had previously done work in C# and XAML (Spell and Speak, Pizong, and two Unity games), but prefer HTML5 and JavaScript for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it allows me to build apps for multiple platforms while only having to make marginal tweaks for each one. Naturally, each platform comes with its own ups and downs, but I haven’t really had any issues with Windows 8 until I started integrating jQuery.

Adding touch controls for Windows 8

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Loading Super Rawr-Type within the Win8 touch simulator

For the last two weeks or so I’ve been working out bugs in Super Rawr-Type and integrating touch controls for the Windows 8 port. This is the first time I’ve ever created touch controls, so it took a bit to understand how they work, specifically with toggling the joystick for movement and stationary buttons for shooting, switching weapons, and activating powerups.

What proved most difficult for me really was not having a machine to test my controls on. I’ve had to rely on the simulator thus far, which basically runs a virtual machine on your desktop, wrapped a shell that appears like a Win8 tablet. The buttons on the right hand side emulate figure gestures, so you can view and understand how your own touches will affect the game.

[Tutorial] Design Time Data + Passing Data Across Pages (WP8)

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The most difficult part of this project thus far has been understanding the idea behind MVVM, or Model-View-View Model. Wikipedia defines it as:

“MVVM facilitates a clear separation of the development of the graphical user interface (either as markup language or GUI code) from the development of the business logic or back end logic known as the model (also known as the data model to distinguish it from the view model). The view model of MVVM is a value converter, meaning that the view model is responsible for exposing the data objects from the model in such a way that those objects are easily managed and consumed”