C++ Direct2D (XAML) App Walkthrough: Assets

Assets in the vanilla app include 3 different logos and a splash screen. I know from Windows Phone development that there are lots of guidelines concerning tiles. Here is a link that describes what images are required and what sizes.

Logo.png

This image is 150x150 and is used to display you app on the start screen. This file is required according to the Windows 8 App Certification Requirements:

1.4 Each app must display only one tile after it is installed

The image on an app’s tile must be reasonably related to the content of the app.

I found this lengthy article about tile design. The article mentions that if you are not doing a live tile then you only need the square tile.

Use only a square tile if your app will not use tile notifications to send updates to the user. Wide tile content should always be fresh and regularly updated. If you aren't using a live tile, do not provide a wide logo in the manifest.

This means I will not be needing a wide tile for version one. I will have to blog later about live tiles since I think they are important to drawing users back into your app. But to make my deadline I think that I am going to have to forgo a live tile.

SmallLogo.png

It took me a while to figure out exactly what this image did but I found this that describes it:

A small image shown in the corner of the tile to identify the app. For more info on how to specify the image in this attribute, see Remarks.

From what I have seen from other apps this image is one color with a white background so it can pick up the  tiles color since it is shown on the main tile.


SplashScreen.png

The splashscreen is required and for a game a splash screen can double as a loading screen. When I ran the app the splash screen was really small (620x300). This is . I am going to have to make it bigger. The settings for the splash screen is in the package.manifest file and it gives you two settings: Image and BackgroundColor. This is the code behind. VS has a nice gui to walk you though setting up the splashscreens and logos.

<SplashScreen Image="Assets\splash-sdk.png" BackgroundColor="#00b2f0"/>

It also appears that the splash screen is static so to show a loading bar you have to switch out the image with an identical image on a xaml page. This trick is demoed in a sample app provided by Microsoft.

StoreLogo.png

The store logo is required. The image is 50x50 so there is not a lot of pixels. Use them wisely.

That is the breakdown of the assets file. On to the Common folder.

C++ Direct2D (XAML) App Walkthrough

I learned a lot when I wrote my first windows phone app and I wish I would have written things down. One of the main things that I learned was that there is a lot more to getting your app into the store than just code. If you don't think about those things now you will be scrambling to get them together when it comes time to publish your app.

With that in mind I am going to walk through the Direct2D (XAML) App template and talk about the things that need to be addressed when writing an app that will be published in the store. Also show the basic structure of a C++ Windows 8 app. Here is a list based off of the vanilla sample project structure:

1. Assets
2. Common
3. External Dependencies
4. App.xaml
5. BasicTimer
6. DirectXBase, DirectXHelper, DirectXPage
7. Package.appxmanifest
8. pch.cpp
9. SimpleTextRenderer.

I will update this post to link back through the series.

Source Control (Git vs Svn)

I will be writing my app mostly from my laptop but I am planning on the possibility of bringing on other people, particularly a designer. Source control is a must even if you are designing your app solo. As far as I am concerned there are two options Git or Svn.

There are tons of comparisons of these two forms of source control so I wont waste my keystrokes. Since I will be developing this app at home, in coffee shops, and for the most part on the go there is one feature that Git has that I feel I cant live without: local checkins. For that I am willing to pay $7 for a github micro account. I will be keeping my account private but watch my github account for sample projects and utilities. I am convinced that keeping things as open as possible is the way to go.

Boo on menus

I have had a windows phone for about a year and a half. I dont play games very often but I have downloaded tons of games for when my nieces and nephews want to use my phone. These kids are smart and at two they already know how to get around a phone menu and play the games they like.

I began to notice that some games were fun for them but just a little too hard. They were spending more than half of their time restarting the game. They just wanted to slice the fruit but they weren't old enough to distinguish the bombs. That's when I realized that there is a place for games that are simple and keep you out of the menus. I will talk more about this because I think that just like we have gotten ride of chrome to highlight content we will be getting ride of menus so people can get at the game and can move from level to level without pain.

I will be presenting my idea for a game pretty soon but first I need to write a few sample apps to get the hang of the C++ stuff.

Starting Goal

I just upgraded my digital life. I reformatted my laptop, upgraded to 8GB of ram, and added an SSD drive. I also bought a 22 inch monitor for when I program at home and need the extra screen real-estate.  I did all of this to prepare myself for my own personal challenge.

I am planning on having a game in the windows 8 store before it launches on October 26th. I have lots of experience using C# since I am a full time Silverlight developer. I also am learning javascript as we prepare for the inevitable move away from Silverlight. Yet I want to make a game and the best way to make a game for Windows 8 is to use C++.

I haven't used C++ since college and so this is completely new to me. I am lucky that my brother is a professional C++ developer but for most of this I will be on my own. This is blog will be a record of my struggles going from zero to app. I have a terrible track record with blogs so I am crossing my fingers but I think that I can make this work.

Here we go... 

Do Hard Things

I tried to read "Do Hard Things" in its entirety last night. It is not very long but long enough to take me a few hours. I started at 1 in the morning and I made it to about 3. I read about half of the book before sleep overtook me. I guess I am just not cut out to "do hard things".

 

Trendy

So I have enjoyed searching with Google's new trend search. What google did was they kept track of all of the searches that people did over the past 4 years. Now you can use that information to do statistical graphs. Some of the correlations are amazing. I started simple:

This is a simple graph of when people search for ice cream. Notice that it is mostly in the middle of the year (ie. the summer). It for the most part is consistent from year to year. The bottom graph is the news stories concerning the subject. Here it models the same pattern. People like ice cream in the summer but are not to excited about it in the winter. So what about hot chocolate?

Hot chocolate has the opposite effect. Except for in the middle of the summer of 2005. I don't remember a cold spell but it looks like something significant took place. The little flags are news stories that took place at those times. I cut those out because they are often irrelevant. But sometimes really funny.

Weight has an interesting graph. Looks like it pretty well describes human nature. Good intentions but lack of results. Notice that the news graph increases but the search graph is pretty regular.

People are strange creatures. This graph tells a lot. I dont know if people are happy during the holidays or if they are looking for happiness. There is a mirrored effect that adds to the graph. Notice the news go up for depression in 2008. The double meaning of the word changes some of the statistics.

Now for controversial topics in our society. I looks like people are still pro-life. I like how this graph fluxuates with the issues.. There is a lot of symmetry.

Next I decided to use this to answer questions, like which gaming system is the most popular? Xbox has a lot more tradition behind it perhaps I should have added the 360. Regardless the wii took over the market pretty fast. Next I asked, is love really the greatest?

Yes it appear the greatest of these is love. I know it is heresy to judge the bible by popular opinion. Finally to answer the age old question, which Bloom boy is the most popular?

Mom was right all along. Good try James. Rex and Dave have been woefully deceived.