title	description	ms.assetid	ms.date	ms.topic	keywords	localizationpriority
Getting started	Learn how to get started right away developing games for Windows or Xbox by following this quick start guide.	40490837-6c7f-4f82-96b5-14f6858982b3	08/21/2024	get-started	windows 10, uwp, games, getting started	medium

Getting started

This article is a getting started guide for creators who want to develop games on Windows or Xbox.

Note

Before investing time developing a game based on the UWP framework, please note that UWP is no longer under active development. Further, UWP based games are no longer accepted in the Xbox Store.

Here are some questions to help you find the info you need:

Are you an experienced game developer and want all the details? See the Windows game development guide.
Completely new to coding? Something fun like the Minecraft Hour of Code tutorials might be of interest.
Just looking for great games to play? Check out the Microsoft Store.

Quick start guide

Steps to get into developing games right away.

Step 1: Get the software and tools

Make sure you have Windows 10 installed on your device and have the latest updates installed.

Install a suitable IDE like Visual Studio. Visual Studio Community 2017 is available for free download. For more information, see Visual Studio downloads.

If you plan to use a game engine and other middleware, see Bridges, game engines, and middleware section in the Windows game development guide. For information about developing Windows games using a specific game engine, you'll need to go to the game engine's documentation.

Step 2: Prepare your hardware for development

If you're doing development for the first time, you'll need to enable Developer Mode on your device. For more information, see Enable your device for development.

Step 3: Run a sample and see how it works

To get started with UWP DirectX development, see Create a simple UWP game with DirectX. If you simply want to read and be acquainted with DirectX concepts like what a buffer is, see Direct3D graphics concepts.

For more samples, see Game samples.

Step 4: Sign up for a Partner Center account

A Partner Center account gives you access to Partner Center, which lets you manage and submit all of your apps and games for Windows devices in one place.

For Windows game development, you may choose to wait till you want access to Partner Center or when you want to use Xbox Live features in your game.

For more information, see Publish Windows apps and games.

Useful links

Windows game development guide
What's a UWP app?
Using cloud services for UWP games
Making games accessible

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