Dan Rigsby – Coding Up Style

This post is a little more “101” than most of my posts, but I think it’s useful to show how easy it is to install and debug a game on the Zune using XNA Game Studio. For this series of steps, we are going to look at getting the game “Alien Game” up and running on a Zune from scratch.  Once you have done this, you should know the basics to install other games, or deploy your own.

Steps to Install

1. Download Zune 3.0 firmware or greater

2. Install XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta or greater

You will need to have Visual Studio 2008 installed or Visual C# 2008 Express installed first.

3. Open Visual Studio and ensure XNA Game Studio is installed

You can do this by checking the “About Visual Studio” window located in the “Help” menu item.  Scroll down until you find the XNA Game Studio:

4. Download “Alien Game” and extract to your local disk

5. Open the AlienGameZune.sln file in Visual Studio

When opened you should see the AlienGameZune project and all of its files and resources:

6. Connect Zune to your PC via the Usb Cable (not Wifi)

Be sure that you don’t have any other Zune software running since Visual Studio needs full control of the device.

7. Add Zune to the XNA Game Studio Device Center

You can access the XNA Game Studio Device Center via the start menu or through the Tools menu in Visual Studio.

One in the XNA Game Studio Device Center, Click “Add Device”:

On the next screen select “Zune” and continue:

If your Zune is connected correctly, you should see it in the list with the device name.  More than one Zune will appear, if you have multiple devices plugged into the PC.  If you don’t see your device, double check your connection.

Once you have selected your device, you need to make sure you have it selected as your “default Zune device”.  If you only have one Zune you are using, then this is automatically selected for you.

Now that the wizard is finished, you should see your Zune device with a “green checkmark” that indicates that it is ready:

8. Simply run the debugger from Visual Studio by pressing F5

You should see all of the files transferring down to the Zune.  Once the game is running, you can play the game, set breakpoints in Visual Studio, etc.

Nabbing Screenshots

One other little tip, is that you can snag screenshots of the an executing game on the Zune.  This won’t work unless you are currently running a game from your PC to the Zune.  All you need to do is to right click on the device in XNA Game Studio Device Center and select “Take Screen Capture”.

Here are a couple of screenshots nabbed from “Alien Game”: