Game development documentation

Develop games using Microsoft tools, products, and services.

Concept

What is Game Development Kit (GDK)?

Overview

What is PlayFab?

Get started

Start developing Xbox games

Get started

Start developing PC games

Develop

Develop Xbox and Windows PC titles

• GDK development resources
• Xbox services
• Game streaming

Development setup

• Boost productivity with GitHub
• Manage sprints using Azure Boards
• Use Visual Studio as your IDE
• Azure Game Development Virtual Machine (VM)
• Remote working support using Azure Networking

PlayFab multiplayer services

• Multiplayer Game Servers - host, scale, and manage lifecycle
• Party - text/video chat, peer-to-peer
• Lobby
• Matchmaking

PlayFab player and economy services

• Authentication
• Leaderboards and Achievements
• Economy
• Catalogs and Inventory
• User Generated Content (UGC)

Game accessibility

• Game Accessibility Guidelines
• Gaming and Disability Player Experience Guide
• Microsoft Gaming Accessibility Testing Service

Sustainability

• Game sustainability and Xbox Sustainability Toolkit
• Manage power consumption more responsibly
• Fortnite energy consumption optimization case study
• Use Xbox dev kit to measure power consumption

Azure partner solutions

• Unreal Pixel Streaming in Azure
• Perforce with Azure Active Directory (AAD)
• Incredibuild on Azure DevOps

Build custom solutions using Azure services

• Game server hosting
• Scalable game servers
• Content moderation
• Customer service bot

Distribute

Publish to Microsoft Store

• Game Publishing Guide
• Submit a title to the Microsoft Store using Partner Center
• Product planning

Grow

PlayFab monitoring and reporting

• Game Manager - Title management dashboard
• Playstream - Real-time event stream
• CloudScript with Azure Functions
• Insights

PlayFab data and analytics services

• Analytics
• Manage Events - Data sampling
• Export data to Power BI, Azure Data Explorer, and other data tools
• Experiments and A/B testing - Change game variables and test response

Tools, products, and services

GDK

Xbox services

Azure PlayFab

Azure Gaming

xCloud

Visual Studio

Havok

Simplygon

Microsoft Game Dev

Developer programs

ID@Xbox

ID@Azure