Be sure to first check the First Steps guide. After downloading you can start by opening up DeltaEngine.sln, DeltaEngine.Samples.sln or one of the Tutorial solutions in the Tutorial folder. For Xna make sure that you have XNA 4.0 installed (redistributable installers are enough) to be able to compile, similarly you will need MonoGame for compiling MonoGame projects and DirectX or OpenGL drivers installed if you use a framework utilizing it.

Use the SampleBrowser to check out samples and the App Builder to deploy samples or your own projects on supported target platforms. Finally there is also additional documentation available. You should also checkout the Coding Style. It is not only useful to understand the structure of the code, but also required to know in case you want to submit code to the Delta Engine.

By default after installing VS2010 the latest nuget (2.7 or later) is used and all dependencies are downloaded automatically for you.
If in trouble either install all required NuGet packages manually or refer to the next section (VS2010). 

Open Visual Studio 2010 Express, select "File" -> "Open" -> "Project/Solution" and browse the "DeltaEngine.sln" to load. When all project are loaded, right click on the root node of the solution explorer and select "Rebuild Solution" to make sure nuget dependencies work and the solution compiles.

Visual Studio 2010/2012/2013/2015

VS 2013 and VS 2015 work out of the box, for older versions please first install the NuGet Packager Manager: In the menu bar click "Tools" -> "Extension Manager..." and then select "Online Gallery".
Following our Coding Style for the best integration experience (hotkeys, tips, setup).
Type "nuget" into the search bar, select the "NuGet Packager Manager" and hit download.

The latest NuGet package manager (2.7 and higher) will work out of the box, nothing needs to be done, you can skip this step. If you use an older version of NuGet (like in the screenshot above), please first make sure you have NuGet Package Restore enabled to automatically let Visual Studio grab all dependencies. If in trouble read the Nuget guide or make sure you copy the required dlls yourself into the output directory. Note: If you are using .NET Demon you might need to disable it, rebuild, then enable it again to make sure all nuget dependencies are grabbed automatically. Alternatively you can open the Nuget Manager and click restore Nuget dependencies on the top. When you're not using Visual Studio or an Express version older than 2010 look here of how to get the required dependencies. 

Now you can select "File" -> "Open" -> "Project/Solution" and browse the "DeltaEngine.sln" to load.
When all project are loaded, right click on the root node of the solution explorer and select "Rebuild Solution" to get all dependencies.

SharpDevelop / MonoDevelop / OnmiSharp

Install all required NuGet packages as described here.
Open SharpDevelop, select "File" -> "Open" -> "Project/Solution" and browse the "DeltaEngine.sln" to load.
When all project are loaded, right click on the root node of the solution explorer and select "Rebuild Solution"

Of course other tools and IDEs can also be used, the DeltaEngine code base does not really care what you are using. With OmniSharp you can work on Linux or Mac and use Sublime Text, Emacs, Vim, Atom, etc., 

http://www.omnisharp.net/

Currently our Editor is WPF based and thus only works on Windows, but it is not required to use, you can also use the DiskContentLoader or call the Content Service API yourself. When there is popular demand we might support other platforms in the future.

Contact us in the Forum if you need help or a better guide to get started.

Xamarin Studio

Automatic restore of NuGet packages is only supported in Visual Studio 2010 Pro (not Express) or Visual Studio 2012 (all editions). Later versions, including Visual Studio 2013 or 2015 Community Edition work just fine. To get all required packages using other IDE's the DeltaEngine repository includes a PowerShell script called "InstallNuGetPackages.ps1".

Windows PowerShell is build-in since Windows 7.
If you're using an older version than you probably have to install Windows Management-Framework Core which includes PowerShell 2

Before the script can start downloading packages you need to manually download the NuGet.exe Command Line from the bottom of the page and copy it inside the ".nuget" directory of the repository. If the binary is not found the script will notify you to do this.
To execute the script just right click on it and select "Run with PowerShell" or navigate to the directory and type in the script name:

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 
PS C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator> cd C:\DeltaEngine
PS C:\DeltaEngine> .\InstallNuGetPackages.ps1
NuGet bootstrapper 1.0.0.0
Found NuGet.exe version 2.2.0.
Downloading...
Update complete.
Successfully installed 'NUnit 2.6.2'.
All packages listed in packages.config are already installed.
Successfully installed 'opentk_unoffical 1.1.788.3121'.
Successfully installed 'Moq 4.0.10827'.
Successfully installed 'SharpDX.D3DCompiler 2.2.0'.
Successfully installed 'SharpDX 2.2.0'.
[...]

All packages are now installed and you can open the solution in the IDE of your choice and everyhting should compile.

If you get an error messag like this you have to change the ExecutionPolicy to Unrestricted to allow the execution of local scipts:

PS C:\DeltaEngine> Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
 
Execution Policy Change
The execution policy helps protect you from scripts that you do not trust. Changing the execution policy might expose
you to the security risks described in the about_Execution_Policies help topic. Do you want to change the execution
policy?
[Y] Yes  [N] No  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): y
PS C:\DeltaEngine>

Now run the script again and everything should work.

Visual Studio Templates

This step is done automatically by the Installer on the Download page.

If you want to do this step manually or understand how it works, follow these steps:

• Download the latest source code from GitHub or CodePlex
• Navigate inside your explorer to "%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio {YourVersion}\Templates\ProjectTemplates"
• Copy the "\VisualStudioTemplates\Delta Engine" directory of your installation to this location (just the "Delta Engine" folder).
• When you now start Visual Studio you should have a new entry "Delta Engine" under the "Visual C#" node where you can create a new project: