Application Properties Page

Use this page to change application information for the current XNA Game Studio Express project.

You open the Application Properties page from Project Designer. Open Project Designer by double-clicking the Properties item in Solution Explorer or by clicking [project name] Properties on the Project menu. Then click the Application tab.

For information about using most of the fields on this page, see Application Page, Project Designer (C#).

There is also a field specific to XNA Game Studio Express that lets you specify a game thumbnail project, as explained below.

Setting a Game Thumbnail

The Game Thumbnail box lets you set the thumbnail image that appears beside your game on the Xbox 360 when people are selecting games to play, and on Windows when people are selecting a game to unpack. This image is distinct from the Windows icon.

There are several things to keep in mind when specifying a thumbnail for your game.

• The image must be saved as a .png file.
• If the largest dimension of the image you provide is not exactly 64 pixels, the image will be scaled so that its aspect ratio remains the same and its largest dimension becomes exactly 64 pixels. Such scaling can produce results you might not expect, so it's best to avoid scaling by providing an image whose largest dimension is already exactly 64 pixels.
• If you do specify an image that needs to be scaled, it must be smaller than 2048 pixels by 2048 pixels in size, and the .png file that that contains it must be smaller than 16 KB in size.
• The Game thumbnail drop-down menu lists all files with a .png extension that have been added to your project, regardless of their size or resolution.
• You can also browse for any other .png files accessible from your machine by clicking the ... button beside the Game thumbnail drop-down menu. When you select a file from the browse dialog box, it is added to your project and set as the game thumbnail.

See Also

Application Page, Project Designer (C#)
Developing Xbox 360 Games