A few people have been wondering about the exact nature of XNA games on
Zune and the XNA CTP. What does CTP really mean? Why do you need more than just the Zune software to put games on the Zune? How come it doesn't always work? I just received the August 2008 issue
of TechNet Magazine and came across a really good definition of CTP
that I thought I would share with the community. This explanation was
taken from an article talking about Windows PowerShell 2.0 CTP2. I took
the liberty of replacing references to PowerShell 2.0 with XNA Game
Studio 3.0.
Don Jones wrote:
A CTP is pre-beta code that Microsoft provides
to let eager users like me ge an idea of where Microsoft is headed wht
the next version of an application. Each CTP milestone or drop (as they
call it in the industry) may differ completely from previous drops.
This is becasue the development team gathers feedback, reviews it
carefully, and then makes changes to the application based on this user
feedback. That methodology brings up an important benefit and important
caveat about your use of the CTP.
The benefit is that when you use the CTP, you're able to give feedback
(through the connect.microsoft.com Web site) about the product at a
time during the development when the team is able to act on that
feedback! If you wait until the beta or, even worse, Release Candidate
stage, your feedback is a lot harder to incorporate. During CTP,
anything might happen and the team can make vast and sweeping changes
if necessary.
That brings me to the caveat. The CTP is not ready for production. Sure
[XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP] may be one of the most stable pieces of
pre-release code you've seen, but keep in mind that the next CTP may be
a completely different app. So don't start relying on [this CTP],
becasue the next version may require you to start all over....
In addition, since the CTP is very early code, Microsoft has so far placed most emphasis on the app working on the latest oerating systems, meaning Windows Vista... Current OS compatibility is no indication of the OS compatibility you can expect for the final released code. Backporting receives attention later in the development cycle.
So just keep that in mind when playing around with XNA Games Studio
3.0 CTP. A CTP is really just that, showing what is possible and looking for feedback to make the final product better. I think its also reasonable to assume that when games for Zune is ready for mass consumption, the distribution methods will also become simpler, negating the need for external programs to get games on your device. Also of note, below is the link to the XNA connect website, for
those who do come across bugs. The same login (i.e your LiveID) that
you use with Zune.net should allow an easier time registering with
Microsoft Connect than using a separate email address. In addition, the XNA
forums, as seen in the second link on the Connect site, are LiveID accessible.
https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=226
Zune MVP
Contributor, http://www.insidethecircle.net
