And that is why the studio switched to Unity for Snowtopia. We actually started [Snowtopia] with MonoGame, which I used for several projects before. In general I prefer MonoGame because it's more hands on, it's more flexible. But because the game is in 3D, I switched to Unity to have all the ease of having a rendering engine and material system -- it just handles all the added complexity of doing something in 3D.
And he's not the only one thinking that for some aspects, Unity is a better alternative. As always when it comes to discussing the best approach to starting with a new engine, most of the advice given revolves around making good use of the community. MonoGame has well populated official forums and a small but pretty active Discord server. With MonoGame being only one of XNA's various evolutions, it may be that when faced with difficulty you'll have more luck if you expand your horizons a little bit.
So it widens the amount of results you can get. Happ advises to actually also look into FNA itself and not only MonoGame when considering your options. When choosing to use MonoGame, you need to be fully aware of what you're getting into.
As our interviewees discussed at length, MonoGame is not strictly speaking a game engine, so do not expect it to behave like one. It typically is best suited for people who want fine control and great portability of 2D games.
But if you're just getting started it might be easier to begin with something like Unity. Silva concludes: "If you like coding more than dealing with a complex engine, and you're embarking on some 2D game creation, MonoGame is worth a try.
Our in-depth guides on all the major game engines can help you find the best technology for your game -- this page will be regularly updated to add new engines to the list. If you're eyeing the most popular game engines, you can jump to our Unity guide right away, or read more about Unreal Engine here. Zuckerberg's 'metaverse' pivot has likely condemned us to hearing the buzzword a lot, but Unity buying Weta Digital is much more practical than a science fiction dream.
What are the advantages of MonoGame? What are the disadvantages of MonoGame? MonoGame is flexible, versatile and highly customisable "MonoGame is more a set of convenient C libraries than an engine, so it gives you a lot of creative freedom" Tom Happ MonoGame's primary strength is its flexibility. C makes MonoGame ideal for coders and allows for a fast iteration process MonoGame is the perfect framework for coders, with C allowing for rapid iteration, making it easy to prototype and get projects running quickly -- should you have that C experience, of course.
MonoGame struggles with 3D Some of MonoGame's weaknesses will be obvious if you've read the previous section. Manage your expectations, MonoGame is not for beginners When choosing to use MonoGame, you need to be fully aware of what you're getting into. Enter your email address. More stories Unity's Weta acquisition doesn't need the Metaverse to make sense Opinion Zuckerberg's 'metaverse' pivot has likely condemned us to hearing the buzzword a lot, but Unity buying Weta Digital is much more practical than a science fiction dream By Rob Fahey 2 days ago.
Sign in to contribute Email address Password Sign in Need an account? Register now. Beginning with the basics of drawing images to the screen, the book then incrementally introduces sprite animation, particles, sound effects, tile-based maps, and path finding. It then explores combining XNA with Windows Forms to build an interactive map editor, and builds a platform-style game using the editor-generated maps.
Finally, the book covers the considerations necessary for deploying your games to the Xbox platform. By the end of the book, you will have a solid foundation of game development concepts and techniques as well as working sample games to extend and innovate upon. You will have the knowledge necessary to create games that you can complete without an army of fellow game developers at your back. With the release of Windows 95, Microsoft also introduced the DirectX Application Programming Interface API , which allowed Windows-based applications to integrate closely, in a standard way, with the graphics hardware available on the system.
The developer is also faced with large volumes of background work to get a DirectX project to the point where he can display images on the screen before ever considering the logic of the game itself. NET development environment. NET languages including Visual Basic. NET and C to be compiled into common runtime code.
In order to support devices such as Windows Mobile phones, a subset of the. NET Framework was released, called the. NET Compact Framework. NET CF, as it is often abbreviated, removed non-essential components of the full Framework in the interest of saving storage space on handheld devices. While Managed DirectX 2. The XNA project templates include an integrated game loop, easy to use and fast methods to display graphics, full support for 3D models, and simple access to multiple types of input devices.
For the first time, a game console manufacturer has released a supported method for individual game developers to create and sell! Microsoft has even established the Xbox Indie Games system on Xbox Live to allow you to sell your creations to the world.
Many beginning developers make the mistake of attempting to tackle far too large a project early on. Modern blockbuster video games are the result of the efforts of hundreds of programmers, designers, graphic artists, sound effects technicians, producers, directors, actors, and many other vocations, often working for years to create the game.
That does not mean that the efforts of a solo developer or small team need to be dull, boring, and unplayable. By the time you have completed the projects in this book, you will have the knowledge necessary to create games that you can complete without an army of fellow game developers at your back. In this chapter, you will build your first XNA mini game, chasing squares around the screen with your mouse cursor.
In subsequent chapters the following four more detailed games are presented:. Flood Control : An explosion in one of the research laboratories has cracked the pressure dome protecting your underwater habitat. Work quickly to construct a series of pipes to pump water out of the habitat before it floods. Flood Control is a board-based puzzle game with simple game mechanics and slowly increasing difficulty. Asteroid Belt Assault : After being separated from your attack fleet in Hyper Space, you find yourself lost in an asteroid field without communications or navigation systems.
Work your way through the chaos of the asteroid belt while combating alien pilots intent upon your destruction.
A vertically scrolling space shooter, Asteroid Belt Assault introduces scrolling backgrounds, along with player and computer controlled characters. Robot Rampage : In the secret depths of a government defence facility, a rogue computer has taken control of robotic factories across the world, constructing an army of mechanical soldiers.
Your mission—infiltrate these factories and shut down their network links to break the computer's control. A multi-axis shooter utilizing both of the analog control sticks on the Xbox gamepad controller, Robot Rampage generates and manages dozens of on-screen sprites and introduces world map construction. Gemstone Hunter : Explore the Australian wilderness, abandoned mines and ancient caves in a search for fabulous treasures.
In Gemstone Hunter you will construct a classic platform-style game, including a Windows Forms-based level editor and a multi-map "world" to challenge the player. The games are each presented over two chapters. In the first chapter, the basics are implemented to the point where the game is playable. In the second chapter, features and polish are added to the game. Each game introduces new concepts and expands on topics covered in the previous games.
At the end of each game chapter, you will find a list of exercises challenging you to use your newly gained knowledge to enhance previous games in the book. We will focus on Windows as our platform for the games presented in this book. That said, the code presented in this book requires very little in the way of changes for other XNA platforms, generally only requiring implementation of platform-specific controls gamepads, touch screen, and so on and consideration of the differences in display sizes and orientation on non-Windows devices.
The general requirements are:. Microsoft recommends Shader Model 2. The projects in this book similarly require Shader Model 2. Optional requirements. Development tools include a Windows Phone emulator to test applications without deployment to a physical device. Only required if you plan to deploy games to a Zune handheld device. Zune development is supported under XNA 3. Xbox Live Silver is free. As of version 4. If you have a DirectX 9 video card, or wish to distribute your games to computers with DirectX 9 support, you will need to right-click on your project in Solution Explorer and select Properties.
To get started developing games in XNA, you will need to download and install the software. With the release of XNA 4. Run the setup wizard and allow the installation package to complete. Open Visual Studio Express. Click on the Help menu and select Register Product. After you have completed the registration process, return to Visual Studio Express and enter the registration number into the registration dialog box.
From the Start Menu, select Control Panel. Under Classic View , choose Fonts. The redistributable fonts package. To use its integrated text drawing methods, XNA games need to convert normal Windows fonts into an internal format called a SpriteFont. These SpriteFonts get distributed with your game, which means you will not be able to use most of the fonts on your computer due to licensing restrictions. For this reason, Microsoft has provided a selection of fonts that XNA developers can freely distribute without purchasing an individual license to do so.
XNA attempts to simplify many of the basic elements of game development by handling things like the game update loop and simplifying the display of graphical objects. To illustrate just how much of the background work is integrated into the XNA project templates, let's jump in straight away and create your first game within a few minutes of finishing the installation.
In SquareChase, we will generate randomly positioned squares of different colors while the user attempts to catch them with their mouse pointer before they disappear.
While building the project, we will discuss each of the major code sections pre-defined by the XNA templates. Under Templates , select Windows Game 4. Each of the XNA project templates is a series of files and settings that get copied to your new project folder.
Included in this set of files is the Game1. When you create your project, the Location field specifies where it will be saved. By default, Visual Studio creates a folder in your user documents area called Visual Studio to store both programs and configuration information. Under this folder is a Projects folder that contains subfolders for each new project you create. Make backups of your projects on a regular basis. You do not want to lose your hard work to a disk failure!
The most basic XNA game will have all of its code contained in the file called Game1. This file is generated when you create a new project, and contains override declarations for the methods used to manage your game.
In addition to the Game1 class' declarations area, there are five primary methods you will customize for any XNA project. Right below the class declaration for Game1 is the class level declarations area. By default, this area contains two variables:. The graphics object provides access to, not surprisingly, the system's video card. It can be used to alter the video mode, the size of the current viewport the area that all drawing work will be clipped to if specified , and retrieve information about Shader Models the video card supports.
XNA provides the SpriteBatch class to allow you to very quickly draw 2D images called "sprites" to the screen. The declarations area is the spot for any variables that need to be maintained outside of any of the individual methods listed below.
In practice, any data you need to keep track of throughout your game will be referenced, in some way, in your declarations section. These are all the variables you will need for the SquareChase mini game.
Here is a quick breakdown:. You will use this to generate random coordinates for the squares that will be drawn to the screen. We will define a small texture in memory to use when drawing the square.
SquareChase will generate random squares and store the location in this variable. Their score accumulates in this integer variable. Viewed 4k times. Improve this question. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Vaughan Hilts Vaughan Hilts 5, 1 1 gold badge 30 30 silver badges 56 56 bronze badges.
I had a real major issue with particle systems I think I would need major changes to get the game running on Phones or current Tablets, so I am focussing on workstations. Alex Alex 11 1 1 bronze badge. Due to code or the extra external references? Jaanus Varus Jaanus Varus 1 1 gold badge 8 8 silver badges 16 16 bronze badges.
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