Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
If you are planning on building an HTML5 Windows 8 game from scratch, I suggest reading
through the entire topic. This will give you a great overview of how Windows 8 development
works. In the final chapter, I discuss simultaneous development workflows for the Web and
Windows 8.
What You Need
There are three things you will need in order to start doing development on Windows 8: a
copy of Windows 8 plus a PC or Mac that can run it, a copy of Visual Studio Express, and a
developer account.
There are a few optional things you may want to consider having as well: test hardware
(which I will talk about in more detail later), a touchscreen monitor or touch-enabled device,
and a copy of Visual Studio Pro or an MSDN subscription.
The first three items are self-explanatory. In order to do development for Windows 8 you will
need to be on Windows 8 and have the right tools. Luckily, when it comes to doing Windows
8 development, you can also test on the same computer you use when coding and/or take ad-
vantage of the built-in simulator to test out various configuration and resolution types, if you
don't have the test hardware in person.
Also make sure to check out the passage at the end of the chapter about BizSpark and
DreamSpark which may be great ways to get free copies of Windows 8 as well as Visual Stu-
dio.
Windows 8 Hardware
Chances are good that, if you have already created an HTML5 game, you have a computer
that can be used for development. In that case, all you need to do is get a copy of Windows 8.
If you are on a Mac, I have some instructions on how to set that up via Boot Camp in the
next section. For now I want to focus on the types of Windows 8 hardware and what it means
for you as far as testing and developing.
Devices
Windows 8 has an expansive list of supported hardware, both new and old, which you should
be familiar with. It's important to remember that you still need to support legacy systems, as
