Prepare your Windows Store DirectX game programming environment

[This article is for Windows 8.x and Windows Phone 8.x developers writing Windows Runtime apps. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation]

This topic shows you what you need to start programming DirectX games for the Windows Store. For now, these templates only support Windows Store game apps.

First you need Visual Studio, then you can install the DirectX game learning templates that are available for download.

Get Visual Studio

Download and install Microsoft Visual Studio 2013.

Note  The DirectX game learning templates work with Visual Studio 2013, including the Express edition for Windows Store apps. Visual Studio 2013 has tools for graphics programming, such as debugging tools. For an overview of DirectX graphics and gaming features and tools, see Visual Studio tools for DirectX game development.

Install the templates

Download the DirectX game learning templates from the Code Gallery. The templates come as a Visual Studio add-on in a .vsix installer. Double click the .vsix file to install them.

After the templates are installed, you can choose New Project from the File menu and select Installed->Visual C++->Windows Store and select the project of your choice. The new templates appear on the bottom of the list.

The DirectX game learning templates are complete projects, so you can build and run the solution right away. See Create a DirectX game project from a template in Visual Studio to get started.

In this section

Next steps

Learn more about the GDC 2013 game templates for a Windows Store DirectX game, see Create a DirectX game project from a template in Visual Studio.

If you are porting an existing game, see the following topics.

• Port from OpenGL ES 2.0 to DirectX 11
• Port from DirectX 9 to Windows Store

If you are creating a new DirectX game, see the following topics.

• Creating a DirectX game (Windows)
• Developing Marble Maze, a Windows Store game in C++ and DirectX