I want that a player can download new level files(.txt) from an url and save them on his Android/iOS mobile phone or tablet. After that, the new files should get loaded in the game.
How can I load/read the new text files that where not in the initial app store release of my game? And where should I store the files when I download them? What path should I use to store them so that I can load them afterwards in my game?
Sorry, you will have to write your own importers.
Some content importers have FromFile or FromStream , but in the general case XNA , and hence MonoGame, was designed to use pre-generated content.
You will also have to check the target platforms allow you to download content into the game… It is not a given that you can.
Is it better to release a new version of the game in the app store if I just want to add a few more levels to my game?
But then, the players need to download the full application again from the app store, isn’t it? And the size of the full application is much bigger than just a few level text files. I don’t know if all the players would want to download the full application again because of the file size.
How are other developers adding new levels to their game?
Generally what I have done in the past is use an update mechanism.
Most platforms allow you to do updates post-purchase.
The update is generally not a full download of the game.
Be warned though, some target platforms charge for updates. Others only allow a small number of updates for free, then they start charging.
You will have to do your research.
However there are some tricks you could think about.
You could modify Monogame to get the built content files from a URL, you could use your own file formats and bypass the content manager entirely, if all you are interested in are desktop machines, you could just have a public directory on the machine with all your own files in it.
In short, you need to come up with a plan and code it.
Is it necessary to create two xnb files(one for iOS and one for Android) if I want to add a new sprite(png) to my game?
For example, I want to add a file named mySprite.png to my game.
What should I do with the png file so that it will work on iOS and Android devices after the player downloaded it from the server? Is it necessary to upload two different xnb files on a server, mySprite_Android.xnb and mySprite_iOS.xnb?
I’m kinda confused.
Why does he need importers if what he wants are simple text files? Reading / saving them on runtime shouldn’t be a problem (there are some topics with examples but I take a little possibility that they might be outdated).
Download can be nicely handled inside the game as well, just matter of designing it in a not annoying way.