Click here to Skip to main content
65,938 articles
CodeProject is changing. Read more.
Articles / Mobile / Windows-Phone-7

How To: Get Started with XPG

5.00/5 (1 vote)
9 Jan 2012CPOL4 min read 15.9K  
A walk through of using all of the features XPG Live has to offer

This is the first article in a series that will walk you through using all of the features XPG Live has to offer.

Before you can begin using XPG, you’ll need to have an XPG Live account.

You’ll notice links in the upper right hand corner of the home page.

image

You can get an XPG account either by completing our simple registration form or by logging in with your existing Facebook or Twitter account.

image

Once you’ve registered or logged in, you will see your name and a “Log Off” option. XPG Live is Gravatar enabled, so if the email address used in registration is associated to a Gravatar account, there is no need to upload a profile image.

image

To get to the management area of XPG, you just click on your name or image. When you first arrive in the management section, you will have the following tabs available to you - “Profile”, “Relationships”, “Messages”, and “Settings”.

  • The “Profile” page is where you can update basic information (i.e. email, password, name, location, etc.)
  • The “Relationships” page is where you can send a friend request or respond to incoming requests.
  • The “Messages” page is how you can communicate with your friends on XPG Live.
  • The “Settings” page allows you to manage profile visibility, notifications, and social accounts. This is where you would go to link a social account if you did not use it to register.

The following steps are intended for developers that are making an XPG Live enabled game.

You will find the “Become a Developer” button near the bottom of the screen on “Profile” page.

image

After you click this button, you will notice that several of the profile fields have been marked as required. Fill out the additional required information and click the “Save” button.
image

When the “Please wait…” indicator goes away, you will have the following additional tabs:

  • The “Publish” page – Manage your publisher specific information
  • The “Games” page – Manage or create games
  • The “Leaderboards” page – Manage or create leaderboards for your game
  • The “Achievements” page – Manage or create achievements for your game
  • The “Announcements” page – Manage or create announcements for your game

Let’s take a closer look at these pages.

The Publish Page

image

Highlighted in orange is the dropdown that lists all the publishers you own or have access to see. This dropdown also contains a “New Publisher” entry that will allow you to add a publisher.

Highlighted in red is a check box that will indicate the publisher is being created for testing purposes and data associated with it will not be mixed with live data.

The Games Page

image6

Use the “Publishers” dropdown to select the publisher you want to edit a game for.

Highlighted in orange is a dropdown that lists all the games associated to the selected publisher. This dropdown also contains a “New Game” entry that will allow you to add a game to the selected publisher.

Highlighted in red is a check box that will indicate the game is being created for testing purposes and data associated to it will not be mixed with live data. This check box is checked and disabled if the publisher is a test only publisher.

Highlighted in green are the game features. Be sure that you check the box for each feature that your game will use.

Highlighted in yellow is the “Add Language” button. This button opens the language selection dialog (below). Check the check boxes next to each language you would like to provide a translation for and those tabs will be added to the property that the “Add Language” button was clicked from.

image

image

Below are the additional views for each game:

  • The “Access Key” tab – Allows you to add versions of your game
  • The “Platforms” tab – Manages the platforms that your game will be available on and enter your games id from the platform specific store and click “Refresh” button for that platform
  • The “Images” tab – Shows the images that XPG Live automatically imports for you from the platform specific stores

image

The Leaderboards Page

image

Highlighted in red are the actions for leaderboard.

From the left:

  • Edit Leaderboard – displays the leaderboard editing window (below)
  • Reset Leaderboard – clears scores posted to that leaderboard and cannot be undone
  • Delete Leaderboard – removes the leaderboard from the game

image

The Achievements Page

image

Highlighted in red are the actions for achievement.

From the left:

  • Edit Achievement – Displays the achievement editing window (below)
  • Reset Achievement – Clears all users from having earned the achievement and cannot be undone
  • Delete Achievement – Removes the achievement from the game

image

The Announcements Page

image

Highlighted in red are the actions for announcement.

From the left:

  • Edit Announcement – Displays the edit announcement dialog (below)
  • Delete Announcement – Removes the announcement from the game

image

Stay tuned for more in this How To series on XPG Live!

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)