for the last year I’ve been playing with MonoGame and just recently I made a short presentation on how to create mobile games in C# using MonoGame on our game design group at the University.
For this purpose I’ve created a github project within last few days, which has step-by-step instructions in Polish and example of implemented game idea that is evolving from one version to another. As of writing this post the projects starts from version 0, where the first square and first letters are drawn on the screen, to version 6, with a simple game mechanics implemented that has been ported to Windows Phone and Android.
Although the script and comments in code are in Polish, I still hope that the names of the classes and methods are self-explanatory and if you don’t know that language you will be able to understand what is happening in the project. If you are from Poland then this is the place I made for you - a resource to learn about MonoGame.
I’m still going to improve the project with new versions to add more depth to the gameplay and make it more clean in design, but I think that the code that is already available is enough to be considered a good start point for someone new to the framework.
If you have some time to check out if it works for you and let me know if you have any issues or suggestions, please let me know, e.g. using the issue tracker on github. I’ll do my best to make it a competent source of information about the framework.
Great resource for learning, thank you for sharing. I downloaded the source and had no troubles running it after downloading the binaries from NuGet. I’m sure many people will find this useful!
Thanks for checking out that it works for you - I’m relying on NuGet to get the packages and Visual Studio is so nice that it will download them for you if they’re missing.
I just added two more versions of the project, including screen resolution independent renderer and a simple parallax effect. If you don’t want to download the code I’ve recorded a short video presenting the newest iteration of project: http://youtu.be/mkWRODw92g8
I’m still working on more and more elements to add, but also want to make some refactoring to the existing code with new iterations - while in the first project it was a good idea to store the textures in Game1 for simplicity, I’ve introduced some object-oriented design to make it more easy to manage in the future by adding for instance a GameObject class. This changes are appearing slowly one-piece-at-a-time with new versions of project and are all explained (why such change is made), so I hope it makes sense on how I’m making the game.
Version 8 will feature ScreenManager class that will let you switch between different parts of the game - I know this is probably basics, but it is made for people who are totally new to the MonoGame/XNA world.
Three more versions arrived to the tutorial and the most recent results can be seen on this video. I’m also working on an English branch of my repo, so it will be both Polish/English tutorial pretty soon.
Also, if there are any artists willing to contribute and improve the quality of graphics please send me a message. I do want to publish this game for free when the tutorial will be finished and this could be part of your portfolio. If you are interested in cooperation shot me a message.
Current mechanics: you control three characters (you can make them jump) that try to collect yellow stars and avoid black stars. Colliding with a black star is an end of the trip for that character (it “dies”), but you can “revive” it by collecting three stars using other characters. If all characters dies it’s game over. Yes, it is a Flappy Bird irritating gameplay style I guess.
