Anatomy of a Silverlight Game: Avoid Common Mistakes When Building Online Games

Last week I created a document that incorporates my experiences developing the Shock Silverlight online game so far.

The document discusses the basics of online games in Silverlight and has a lot of practical examples (code) and a working project that you can use to build your own game.

Don't make the mistakes I did! Happy coding!

 

Open Document: Anatomy of a Silverlight Game.docx

Download Source Code Project

Play Sample Game

 

Here are the abstract and contents of the doc: 

Abstract:

Typical online games have a start screen, levels, storyline, transitions, high scores, chat, and other features that can take significant amount of time to develop.

There are challenges when building online games, such as full screen support and scaling; speed optimization; animations; real-time calculations.

Learn how to develop compelling Silverlight games faster, by using a base framework for the common game elements outlined above.

 

Contents:

 

About the Author

About this Document

Goal

Scope

Target Audience

Getting Started

1. Introduction: Why Care About the “Details”?

2. Components of an Online Game

3. Screen Layout

Visual Layers that Make Up Your Game

Game Interface Layer

In-game Controls Layer

Sounds Layer

Start Screen Layer

Main Screen Popup Controls Layer

4. Silverlight Game Internals

The Game Loop

Some Classes That You’ll Likely Use in Every Game

The Game Class

Defaults Class

Globals Class

Enumeration Classes

Sounds Class

Other Classes

Keyboard and Mouse

Full Screen Support

Returning from Full Screen to Embedded Mode

Aspect Ratio

More Info

Transitions

Sound and Music

5. Networking

Score

Chat and Multiplayer

Network Speed Optimizations

6. Host Integration

7. Cheat Protection

8. Tips and Tricks

9. Summary

 

Happy Reading!

Anatomy of a Silverlight Game.docx