Fabians road to Xbox ONE release

@vikingfabian wrote:

Met many issues along the road to make my game run on Xbox. So I thought I could start documenting it.

License
-Applied to the ID@XBOX program (easy to google).
-I emailed them about games I wanted to release. In the beginning they thought my game weren't showing of the power of the xbox. But they must have lowered their expectations since then, and considering I am a total bottom of the barrel developer, I would say than anyone has a chance today.
-I received a document to fill out. They wanted to know things like: how it plays, how it compares to similar games, is it console exclusive and a couple of screen shots.
Two things to note here: They wanted to try a demo, and they wanted the demo to support an xbox controller.

As part of the license I recieved two xbox dev kits for free. I had to sign a lot of legal papers to never mention them to anyone (only to see them lined up on the E3 showfloor two weeks later).

The mail tracking of the dev kits didnt work, so I had to hunt them down by calling the post office, so make sure to keep an eye on that.

Websites to visit
I got links to three websites. They are all a bit of a half-finished mess, I am still pretty confused why it is this way and I am not sure they do either. Use Internet Explorer for the best experience. Tip is to archive all setup emails you get, I had to go back and read them a couple of time.

Xbox Dev Portal (XDP). So far Ive only used it to active the consoles.
Game Developer Network (GDNP). There are some deeply buried tutorials here plus a developer forum that has 2 posts a month.
Microsoft Account (MSA). I still dont know what I do on this page, but you need to create an account here I guess

Xbox setup
I followed a tutorial I found on: Game Developer Network>Development>Hardware>Recovery and Developing> The Xbox One Dev Kit Quick Start Guide>Getting Started with Xbox One Development>Setting Up Your Xbox One Development Environment>Connecting the Xbox One Hardware

-Hook it up like a normal Xbox, but also plug a controller in the back USB ports (worked without a keyboard for me).
-Don't let the Xbox update anything in Retail mode, this will remove the ability to boot the dev mode. I fixed this mistake by factory resetting it in the system settings.
-The Xbox need to be updated by downloading a OS image called a "Recovery". See Xbox One XDK & Recovery.

Computer setup
-On the xbox (Console settings>Launch settings) System>Console info>Console Id. Write that down.
-Use your link to the Xbox Dev Portal site. Manage> Console convertion. This site is tricky because it showed a green "READY!" message even when I did the wrong thing. In some instances I had to wait a half an hour for changes to take effect.
On the white sticker on your xbox there is a serial number that starts with "SN". Select that console on the site and enter the Console ID, included "." and the last two numbers.
- Install the XDK, was easy but is a download that takes hours.
-You get a "Xbox One Manager" app on your computer. I ran that with the xbox connected to the same network and the app found it immediately. I didn't have to change anything in my firewall or router (ignoring the instructions to do that).

Visual Studio
I had to install VS2017, and then reinstall Monogame from the development branch. Make sure to include all templates in monogame.

-Start a Window10 Universal project. Right click References>Manage NuGet Packages...>install Microsoft.Xbox.Live.SDK.WinRT.UWP

-Change target platform from x86 to x64.
-Change debugging play arrow from "Local Machine" to "Remote Machine". I found the Xbox suggested there (while running the Xbox and the Manager app).

-Your game must render something or it will just immediately close.
-The Content pipeline manager stopped working for some reason. You can start it from
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\MonoGame\v3.0\Tools\Pipeline.exe
and select your project content file.

This is how far I am now, a working "hello world" game on my Xbox. Next up is to get my full game working on it and adding the Xbox Live User system. I also need to figure out where I upload my game for Certification.
Will update this as I go on...

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