Download and Get Started!

Awesome, glad you're interested. Here's what you'll need to do:

Step 1: Download

Click the giant green button to download CuttlefishSetup.exe, roughly 6MB. System requirements: Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, 32 or 64 bit. You don't have to check back here for upgrades; the app will let you know when there's a new version available.

There's currently no Macintosh version. We suggest running Cuttlefish from within Parallels, or using Boot Camp.

Step 2: Register

Register a user name on this site. You'll need to be registered in order to run the designer.

Step 3: Dependencies

Cuttlefish needs:

* XNA Game Studio 4
* Windows Phone Developer Tools
* Visual Studio 2010 (full edition) or Visual C# 2010 Express (free)

You can get the first two from http://create.msdn.com/resources/downloads. Visual Studio Express is available at http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/.

You don't need to pay to be a registered Windows Phone developer until you're ready to build for device.

Windows XP users - MS doesn't support WP7 development on Windows XP. The designer will run, and you can play your game in its simulator, but you won't be able to build for device.

Step 4: Tutorials!

You probably want to start with a Hello World tutorial, and from there maybe some additional tutorials.