DEFCOM1  
 

XNA Level 1 Lesson 1

 

XNA Lessons Level 1 – A Basic Game

Lesson 1 - Creating a new Project

Open Visual C# and create a new project

Choose ‘Windows Game 4.0’ and call it Lesson01

Press F5 to run your game you should see the following screen

 

Note: If you see the following warning you maybe on laptop or other low powered machine you may have to make the following change.

Project --> Properties

Select the ‘use reach’ button

 

 

 

Exploring the project

Now that you have created you first project, lets familiarise ourselves with the layout

The game contains the following functions

Game1() Is what starts the game running

Initialise() is where we can create new things when the program first starts

LoadContent() as it sounds, this is where we can load our things.

Update() is where we move our characters

Draw() go on.. take a guess :)

 

The Code should look like this, I have removed all the comment code to make it easier to read

GraphicsDeviceManager graphics;
        SpriteBatch spriteBatch;

        public Game1()
        {
            graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this);
            Content.RootDirectory = "Content";
        }


        protected override void Initialize()
        {

            base.Initialize();
        }


        protected override void LoadContent()
        {

            spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);

        }


        protected override void UnloadContent()
        {
            
        }


        protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime)
        {
            // Allows the game to exit
            if (GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One).Buttons.Back == ButtonState.Pressed)
                this.Exit();

            // TODO: Add your update logic here

            base.Update(gameTime);
        }


        protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
        {
            //GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);
            GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Black);

            // TODO: Add your drawing code here

            base.Draw(gameTime);
        }
    }

 

Make sure your are familiar with the layout of the code, where each function is.

 

Changing the Background Colour

In the ‘Draw’ function change the line from Color.CornflowerBlue to Color.Black, so it should look something like this

protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
{
    //GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);
    GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Black);

    // TODO: Add your drawing code here

    base.Draw(gameTime);
}

 

Press ‘F5’ and you should get the following

Feel free to try different colours (colors)

 

Well Done. NEXT>>