What are my options for 2D games on Windows Phone 8?

3
votes

So I've been playing around with XNA and after all this time, I finally made a game that's worth buying!

And to my surprise, I see this on MSDN:

XNA Game Studio 4.0 apps that target Windows Phone OS 7.1 remain fully supported and continue to run on Windows Phone 8 devices.

•You can continue to develop and maintain new or existing XNA Framework apps that target Windows Phone OS 7.1.

•You can’t upgrade existing XNA Framework apps that target Windows Phone OS 7.1 to target Windows Phone OS 8.0.

•You can’t create new XNA Framework apps that target Windows Phone OS 8.0.

When you select an XNA Game Studio 4.0 project template, you can only choose Windows Phone OS 7.1 as the target operating system.

•You can use certain XNA Framework assemblies in apps that target Windows Phone OS 8.0.

You can reference and use the following XNA Framework assemblies in apps that target Windows Phone OS 8.0. You can’t reference or use other XNA Framework assemblies that aren’t in this list in apps that target Windows Phone OS 8.0.

•Microsoft.Xna.Framework.dll

•Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices.dll

•Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServicesExtensions.dll

•Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.Touch.dll

•Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media.dll

•Microsoft.Xna.Framework.MediaLibraryExtensions.dll

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/windowsphone/develop/jj207003(v=vs.105).aspx

I'm only interested in making 2D games. I don't have the slightest idea about Direct X or Direct 3D (I would love to get into 3D but that will be yet another huge set back).

From the quoted text above, I see two things that really get on my nerves:

  1. I can create new or maintain existing XNA games that target Windows Phone 7.1
  2. But I can not create new XNA games that target Windows Phone 8! Why??? Where is the sense in that???

So, naturally, my question now is:

What are my options for making 2D games (in Visual Studio) for Windows Phone OS 8? I think I saw an option that lets you use XAML for 2D games, correct me if I'm wrong about that but that feels extremely weird to me. I mean, XAML is very structured, I cannot imagine so much freeform objects being trivial to setup for a game.

2
c#.netwindows-phone-7windows-phone-8xna

2 Answers

6
votes

Try using Cocos2D and Monogame. The were born from iOS and Android development but now support WP8 and Win8. In addition you write your code once (C# + VS) and have a game for all platforms.

1
votes

If you have XNA skills (or exising code) Monogame allows you to reuse that and port it to Windows, iOS, Android very quickly.

If you are new, a popular new option is Unity. Their 4.3 beta has 2D support. They have a free intro SKU for indies, and you can get their add-ins to target Windows Phone and Windows for free.

Finally, if you are only targeting Windows Phone 8 (and maybe Windows 8) you can also use DirectX/Direct3D straight up.