57 posts tagged with "game development"

TL;DR -> .NET 8 language support is now available for MonoGame and opening up a whole new world of goodness and speed for games.

*Note, the information contained below is for those developers who want access to the cutting edge, as it requires access to the development source. (with the exception of upgrading your game to .NET 8)​

The full release of the .NET 8 MonoGame support will be included with the 3.9 release, coming soon.​

MonoGame may have seemed stagnant or unmoving in the past, mainly because of the rigors of a group of developers working unpaid on the development of an OpenSource framework, meaning the focus had to be on what enabled the developers to make money in their own projects based on MonoGame. But thanks to recent investments by ReLogic and our awesome MonoGame community, the MonoGame Foundation was born and more significant investments could be made.

Source code on GitHub

TL;DR -> With a little effort, publishing MonoGame projects to the Web is possible, so long as you remember it is the Web and you cannot do EVERYTHING!

When it comes to GameJams, like the one mentioned in this post, pushing out the finished project as an EXE or Appx usually results in your project either getting downvoted or ignored, because who wants to infect their machine with an unknown just to test out a Jam project. This applies to most Game Engines out there that are not web-based, including MonoGame, but thankfully due to the hard work of Nikos Kastellanos (NKast) there is an option available to us.

Source code on GitHub

TL;DR -> Getting started with MonoGame is easy, mastering it takes time. So, throw all that out the window and get hacking instead!

The 5th annual MonoGameJam is kicking off soon on the 30th November 2023, which is by far one of the best ways to throw yourself into MonoGame and learn something new:

Source code on GitHub

TL;DR -> It is as simple as Initialize, LoadContent, Update, Draw, UnloadContent and finish, with a little sauce in between.

Every Game, Program or process runs on a specific loop, it might go through just once, or as is in the case with Games, the loop continues until the game is over, finished, kaput, crashed or simply closed (but who really wants a Game to ever end :D). Put simply, this is known as the Game loop, and whether it is Unity, Unreal or MonoGame, they all have their own specific order of things.

Source code on GitHub

TL;DR -> Today, cross-platform projects are easy to setup (except UWP), with .NET7, it gets easier. Read the article for the How-to!

Most Game projects when built are solely for a single platform, usually the same as the development machine they are being built upon. Only later does the idea surface to maybe ship to another console, handheld or platform which then highlights issues in the games implementation that can lead to issues.

Source code on GitHub

TL;DR -> MonoGame rocks and continues to be one of the best open-source frameworks for building games including with lightweight editors like VSCode, on ANY platform.

Things are busy and heating up in the Open-Source development space and the MonoGame Team announced their plans to step up to the recent demand.

Source code on GitHub

TL;DR -> MonoGame rocks and continues to be one of the best open-source frameworks for building games.

Making games is hard enough (or the most fun you will ever have) without the worry of the Framework or Engine you use either being cancelled or changing the terms of its use in the future, which can provide uncertainty for the years of effort you put into making your dream a reality that everyone can play.

MonoGame (for those of you not yet aware) is a Game Building Framework / API born from the ashes that was the Microsoft XNA Framework that provides a very easy to use API to build games. (or 3D Apps)

The game development landscape, especially for Indies is certainly changing. With the recent XBOXOne and PS4 console releases show that skills like C++ are still very much in demand, as a fellow Indie this does concern be greatly. I left my C++ skills in the past once MDX and then XNA were born and the thoughts of going back does intimidate me somewhat.

Need to update this list and move it to a better place, such as github

I’ve been around the game development arena for so many years now that it actually hurts if i try to think back too far , it is always been as a hobbyist working on a string budget (and sometimes I couldn’t afford the string) so I always had to make best use of what I had and everything else, well, lets just say it is been fun.

Some time ago when I first started posting on XNA-UK (not my first posts ever, just when I joined XNA-UK), I focused on a very detailed 2D game development series.

“Cut the chatter Red 2” (What can I say, I am a fan)