Topic: AGS on Windows Store - Xbox live ?

[adipson]

Good morning all.

I would just like to ask a question that is likely to remain unanswered but this is my first question of the year ...

Do you think that one day we will have the chance to see a game made on AGS able to be ported to Windows Store?

I was a little interested in the Microsoft SDK, in an msix/msixbundle compilation of my exe but obviously, no ags file turns into a compatible installation file to be only uploaded to the Microsfot store ... is not my specific domain so I struggled and gave up but if ever someone had a solution to be able to allow an AGS game to be published or compatible on Windows Store (like for Unity) and even more to be adaptable for Xbox live ... I'm a taker ... as certainly almost all the dev here

Best wishes for 2021!
Mine will be to see one day AGS games be able to join the Windows Store, although having searched for these terms on this forum tells me that no one seems interested in this option, or that everyone seems resolved never to see this possible ...
and if it is this last option that remains ... why should it be impossible if the cause is already doomed to failure?

I think a lot of the developers here would love to see this possible ... but is it a dream come true or a Utopia?

Thank you in advance for your information or advice and have a nice game on my last free products GrandMa !

[morganw]

I don't think there would be anything that technically prevented you from having an AGS game on the the Windows Store right now. Win32 apps are meant to be support through the special packaging and it is likely fully documented here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/msix/desktop/source-code-overview

What is likely to be an issue is that you need a real (not self-signed) code-signing certificate if you want sign a store app and have it trusted by anyone who downloads it. The last time I looked these are expensive, although I've never investigated further to look for cheaper options. Potentially someone could make a helper utility that automates the process for you, and that could be part of AGS or just hooked to run after AGS compiles your game, but it cannot remove the signing requirements.

I'll also make the bold prediction that AGS as a desktop application will outlive Windows being a desktop OS.

[adipson]

I don't think there would be anything that technically prevented you from having an AGS game on the the Windows Store right now. Win32 apps are meant to be support through the special packaging and it is likely fully documented here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/msix/desktop/source-code-overview

What is likely to be an issue is that you need a real (not self-signed) code-signing certificate if you want sign a store app and have it trusted by anyone who downloads it. The last time I looked these are expensive, although I've never investigated further to look for cheaper options. Potentially someone could make a helper utility that automates the process for you, and that could be part of AGS or just hooked to run after AGS compiles your game, but it cannot remove the signing requirements.

I'll also make the bold prediction that AGS as a desktop application will outlive Windows being a desktop OS.

Thank you for that answer.
I tried to create the bundle with the tools, but it totally screwed up. I gave up for my first game, but seeing that I am attacking a second one over the year, I think that by then I will have found the courage to come back to this cruel challenge to put a AGS game under bundle form accepted by Microsoft
I'll do it like I'm rubbing at a new point and click lol
PS: AGS will outlive at everything ! 

[eri0o]

Found an interesting information regarding UWP

https://github.com/microsoft/ProjectReunion

Not now, but at some point in the future UWP and Win32 will be somehow merged according to this repository.

Ah, if you want to release a game in a Xbox platform right now, Ratalaika Games already have a port of the AGS Engine for it.

Some information that may be relevant when doing a "official" AGS Xbox compatible build

https://github.com/FNA-XNA/FNA/wiki/Appendix-B:-FNA-on-Consoles
https://github.com/haxenme/nme/issues/457

[eri0o]

Someone added a game on here: https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/rogue-by-rob-colton/9NLRXCV3C0TM