As you know, I've released a game for PC, then Xbox using XNA (see my article about XNA on Desura :Indiedb.com)
So now, let's try and move it to Windows Phone.
1- Code migration (5/5)
Surprisingly the process is quite smooth. I made my first compilation after a couple of hours. The only constraints being
1- No custom pixel shader. Pity
2- No add blending. Well it's possible but my engine was managing toning, add blending, opacity and pixel shader at the same time in a custom pixel shader
The only hassle was to change some dll from window to phone. But the MISDN doc is ok
2- Performance (5/5)
Really amazing, I could manage a 640*480 3 layers rpg scroll with tile priority without any issue. The caching and file system is even faster than my Xbox. This little phone are really incredible
3- The interface
That's really the only custom thing to do, but the framework provides you with all the necessary method to check pinch, tap, flick, drag etc.
To be honest I spent more time in deciding how to replace the pad function to touch function rather really coding the touch interface :)
So here's what I changed:
Open menus : Tap on the menu icon
Move : Tap the destination + pathfinding
Action : Tap an object or a character
Hit : Tap the enemy
Cast : Double Tap
Zoom : Pinch in or out
Cancel : Hold
Menus : drag up, down, left, right
Hit : Slash or flick
4- Testing (5/5)
Here again, it's really easy, you can directly deploy or test from Visual Studio to your Window Phone with no lag at all.
5- Deploying (3/5)
This kind of process I find always not user friendly with Microsoft. I don't know why, it's never straightforward.
For instance the interface is completely different than the Xbox one, even the validation process.
Also there's no easy way to get your application beta-tested. I mean there's a feature to send a copy to beta tester if you have email address of WP7 owner, but you can't use the community to playtest like for Xbox game for instance. Strange !
At the end of the day, when you filled all the crap up, the validation process is pretty quick.
To sum-up. Microsoft did a great job with XNA and the porting from PC to Xbox and WP is really ease, but don't think it's 100% straightforward though. You may need some tears and blood, especially for the Xbox version. But, honestly I recommend it
Have fun
