How can I port my Windows Phone game to a Silverlight thing that I can use on a webpage?

Question

I'm confused about how to port my WP7 C# game to the web using Silverlight.

I know that code written in C# using the Windows Phone (add-in? plugin? other?) for Visual Studio makes a Silverlight app. But how can I embed my finished WP7 app in a webpage?

I've seen some things such as ExEn, SilverSprite, and XnaTouch {the page redirects to MonoGame}, but I'm confused if I even need something like this in order to make my game playable on the web. I've got a feeling the capability may even be embedded in Visual Studio. Is it even possible to do this without rewriting all the code?

Shortened version: How can I port my WP7 C# game to the web using Silverlight?

Can the anonymous close-voters please explain their reasons? — JavaAndCSharp, Nov 01 '11 at 22:14

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 01 '11 at 02:08

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What have you tried?

If you create a Silverlight application in Visual Studio, you should be able to include all your existing Views, ViewModels, resources and so on. I don't know if you'll be able to make a single project that both builds into a WP7 and a Silverlight application but I personally wouldn't bother trying.

answered Nov 01 '11 at 02:08

Kirk Broadhurst

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Yup. I believe that's what Ivan said: that there's no way to do it directly. Do you know how much of the code I'll have to rewrite? – JavaAndCSharp Nov 01 '11 at 02:38
This page http://www.silverlighthack.com/post/2010/03/16/Silverlight-for-Windows-Phone-7-is-NOT-the-same-full-Silverlight-3-RTM.aspx discusses some of the differences between Silverlight and Silverlight for WP – Kirk Broadhurst Nov 01 '11 at 04:22

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 01 '11 at 02:08

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You can't directly - there are missing runtime components and features that are only available to Windows Phone applications.

You can, however, reuse lots of code, especially C# - all XAML code, I beleive, you'll have to copy/paste from WP7 XAML to Silverlight XAML.

answered Nov 01 '11 at 02:08

Ivan Zivkovic

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Thanks. That's what I thought originally: that there was no direct way to do it. I guess I'll have to create a seperate game for the browser. Do you know how much of the code I'll have to rewrite? – JavaAndCSharp Nov 01 '11 at 02:36
It really depends on your project. – Security Hound Nov 01 '11 at 13:14

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 01 '11 at 07:43

Create a new project in Visual Studio targeting Silverlight beside your WP7 project. Then if your existing code is structured nicely, you should be able to re-use most of your "back-end" code (the views, viewmodels people talk of). The best way to do this for files that are common is to add them as links to the new project, so you don't have to keep them both up to date - if there are small changes between versions you can use conditional compilation to do this.

You'll want to use some completely new classes for some things, such as probably the top level view. Some XAML (eg a UserControl definition) might be usable between both with changes, though some people will favour always creating different versions. Have a look at this extensive article on cross-platform SL/WPF/WP7 development.

How can I port my Windows Phone game to a Silverlight thing that I can use on a webpage?

3 Answers3