Even though it appears that I’ve fallen off the end of the earth, it’s not true. For the last 45 days, I have been at the top-secret Cyragon Games headquarters working on their latest hit game.
Title from the game Strategic Command
That’s right, Strategic Command!
Two armies. One battlefield. One victor. Will it be you?
Use strategy and deception to maneuver your armed forces into your opponent’s territory and conquer their headquarters. The winner will be crowned with glory and live to see their name thunder down the hallowed corridors of time. The loser will be buried in infamy.
The fate of the war is in your hands. What will you do, commander?
This will be our entry in the Silverlight Server Quest Game Contest.
Strategic Command Screenshot
We’re planning to do a postmortem on the game and make some other exciting announcements so check back soon.
Announcement, Silverlight
games, Silverlight, StrategicCommand
#1 Visual Studio Express 2008 with SP1
www.microsoft.com/express/download/
You can download an ISO with all the express editions or just the Web Developer edition. The only one you need is Visual Studio Web Developer 2008 SP1.
If you don’t have SP1 for Visual Studio 2008, get it here:
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FBEE1648-7106-44A7-9649-6D9F6D58056E
#2 Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
Download the tools for developing applications of awesomeness here:
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=c22d6a7b-546f-4407-8ef6-d60c8ee221ed&displaylang=en.
If you want some offline documentation, you can download that here:
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bce7684a-507b-4fc6-bc99-6933cd690cab&displaylang=en.
Optional: Expression Blend 2 Trial
This isn’t a requirement but it will give you a good place to start if you’ve never played with XAML. Download it here:
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5FF08106-B9F4-43CD-ABAD-4CC9D9C208D7&displaylang=en
and don’t forget Blend SP1
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=EB9B5C48-BA2B-4C39-A1C3-135C60BBBE66&displaylang=en
or Expression Studio 2 Trial here:
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7AE2720C-72BA-489B-ADBB-EE6F3C79066D&displaylang=en
Optional: Deep Zoom composer
Needed if you want to develop deep zoom applications:
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=457B17B7-52BF-4BDA-87A3-FA8A4673F8BF&displaylang=en
Optional: Silverlight Toolkit from Codeplex
Nice set of components from the community for you to use or extend in your Sliverlight applications. Download it here:
www.codeplex.com/Silverlight/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx
Other Options
If you want to go hardcore, check out this article on developing Silverlight applications in Eclipse: www.eclipse4sl.org/download/.
If you use Blender, the free open source 3D content creation suite, you might want to check out this XAML exporter. Not that it will fully work for Silverlight (it’s really for WPF). But it’s still pretty cool: www.codeplex.com/xamlexporter
That’s it! Go forth and develop!
Don’t forget to check out silverlight.net for videos, blogs, and forums. More resources: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/resources/tools.aspx.
Silverlight
Blender, Eclipse, Silverlight, Visual Studio, XAML
What will drive Silverlight to widespread adoption?
Content, content, and more content.
That’s it. People need a reason to install the Sliverlight plugin. Entertainment is a great motivator. Videos, games, and interactive content.
Flash is the most popular video player on the web. Interactive web games are primarily made in Flash. Silverlight needs to make some inroads into the web entertainment market.
Or, they could just cheat and include it on Windows Update and ship it with every product they make.
Silverlight
Silverlight