So you’ve finished making your game, and now you want to show it to your friends. Or better yet, you want to try to sell it. Well you’re in luck! This tutorial will discuss how to package and distribute your game to the world. There are several ways to do this, and we will discuss each of them in turn. This tutorial is an overview of the various methods, and other tutorials will discuss how to do each of these in detail.
XNA Game Studio provides a simple way to give your game to other XNA users. Using this method, they won’t be able to view your source code or anything, and they can easily see your game. The Packaging your Game for Other XNA Users tutorial shows how to do this in detail.
Perhaps you actually want your friends to be able to see the source code. If that is the case, then the previous method isn’t going to work. There is, however, a way to distribute your game to them that still allows them to view the source code. The Packaging your Source Code for Other XNA Users tutorial will show you how to do that.
Both of the previous methods of distribution require your friends to already have XNA Game Studio installed.
This might be OK for your friends (especially if they are XNA game developers), this won’t work for anyone else.
ClickOnce allows you to give your game out without needing XNA Game Studio.
The Using ClickOnce to Distribute your Game tutorial will show you how to use this.
There are a few other choices as well, which are discussed in the Other Ways to Distribute your Game tutorial.