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Submit to the windows 8 store possible?

by Blake Drolson · in Torque Game Builder · 11/13/2012 (2:31 pm) · 5 replies

Hi there,

Wondering about submitiing to the windows 8 store for our TGB 1.76 based game "Drip Drip". Has anyone approached submitting to the store with TGB or torque in general? Any tips to share?

Are there any deep technology mismatches between TGB and the windows store requirments that would prevent us from submitting to Windows app 8 store?

Thanks for any help and advice.
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Torque Owner Blake Drolson
Imminent Games
#1
11/13/2012 (2:42 pm)
Further reading some of this stuff, like this here...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh694083.aspx

In section 3.1 I saw this...
"Windows Store apps must not communicate with local desktop applications or services via local mechanisms, including via files and registry keys."

In section 3.6, I saw this...
"Your app must neither programmatically close nor offer UI affordances to close it. Windows 8 Process Lifetime Management closes Windows Store apps automatically."

I am now wondering how much work it is going to take to get a TGB game to run. I mean I have save files and a quit button!

Anyone else been thinking about this and have an opinion to share?

Torque Owner Blake Drolson
Imminent Games
#2
11/13/2012 (3:43 pm)
Ok further reading, looking at this link...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/windows/apps/hh465084

So does this mean that we would have to rewrite the graphics C++ code for TGB to incorporate the CoreApplicationView and CoreWindow structures as talked about here?

I am beginning to think that submitting to Windows 8 store is going to be a big job with the engine as it currently exists, am I right or wrong on this?

Torque Owner Lukas Joergensen
WinterLeaf Entertainment
#3
11/14/2012 (12:25 am)
Windows 8 Store should be able to sell desktop applications aswell afaik!
I don't think you have to rewrite your game to become a Windows 8 Application but just publish it as a Dekstop application.
I could be wrong of course!

Torque Owner Richard Ranft
Roostertail Games
#4
12/06/2012 (4:56 pm)
Save files aren't used to "communicate with local desktop applications or services" - they're used to store application state information.

You can remove the exit button. iOS also has this restriction.

A wrapper to work within the managed DirectX framework would be a significant endeavor. Both flavors of T2D use OpenGL for rendering, so there would be a lot of work to get it ported.

Now, I can tell you for a fact that T2D and iT2D run as desktop applications under Win8. I'm going to go out on a limb and state that neither will run as-is on Win8 RT. They'll probably run on the Windows Surface Pro, though.

So, if you're planning to run on WinPhone8 I think you're in for a load of work.

Torque Owner Blake Drolson
Imminent Games
#5
12/06/2012 (6:33 pm)
Yeah thanks richard thats what I thought.