Just curious if anyone knows of an active open source MonoGame game in development?
Not sure if it is what you are looking for but the game devs from Bastion have released what looks like their customised monogame framework:
https://www.supergiantgames.com/blog/bastions-open-source-branch-for-monogame/
How high profile do you need? You mean commercial projects?
Because I have that “grinder” game going on… And if you want to see the code, you can see the code… 
But its nothing special… just a typical monogame / homebrew kind of thing…
+1 to this. If there’s any simple open source projects with 3D .fbx model animation I’d really like to see how that is accomplished. As well as to see guide to project structure.
the game devs from Bastion have released what looks like their customised monogame framework
@lozzajp I’ve seen that before. It’s pretty cool, but not what I’m looking for here.
How high profile do you need? You mean commercial projects?
@monopalle Not really. I was just curious if there’s any projects at all that are active. I was thinking about maybe contributing in some way. I’m not really sure yet.
Because I have that “grinder” game going on… And if you want to see the code, you can see the code…
Oh, you mean this? It looks really good. Where’s the code? Do you publish it on github somewhere?
Yeah, thats the one! And thanks…
“Where’s the code? Do you publish it on github somewhere?”
No, I’m a total recluse. I dont even have a smart phone, I’ve never even met a programmer, and I’ve never been in a situation where I needed to “share” something, because I’ve never been a part of a community…
To make things worse, every time I ask someone what github is, and whether it requires a new skill-set, or membership somewhere, I am thoroughly ignored. (Like I’m asking what a rectangle is, or which way is up).
I WOULD like to share my code though, if you’d like to see it… So if you drop another comment telling me to, and its within my capabilities, I’ll give this “github” a chance 
Though I have to say - I thought you were making the extension for monogame, so I thought you saw screen-shots in code, and could decipher my game by looking at it…?
Lol. Thanks, I’ll take that as a compliment.
Yes, MonoGame.Extended is my little spare time project. But really, I’m just a humble programmer trying to help other game developers with the few skills I’ve picked up over the years.
To make things worse, every time I ask someone what github is, and whether it requires a new skill-set, or membership somewhere, I am thoroughly ignored. (Like I’m asking what a rectangle is, or which way is up).
To be honest, github is not that easy. I certainly couldn’t explain it in a few paragraphs so I’ll leave that to the internet instead. That said, if you want to build a programming career it’s a pretty useful skillset to have.
I WOULD like to share my code though, if you’d like to see it… So if you drop another comment telling me to, and its within my capabilities, I’ll give this “github” a chance
Sharing your code can have a lot of benefits but it may also have a number of downsides. So it’s really something you should decide for yourself.
For me, it’s really just a curiosity to know what’s already out there. At this stage I’m really not even sure what I’m looking for so don’t go out of your way to share your code with me.
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My plan with MonoGame is to make a 2D platformer really. I have some ideas and I like to project things up and draw up a bit of a plan.
So far I know the tools I want to use: MonoGame (with MonoGame.Extended), Tiled map editor and have a rough idea for a few tools for making tile/sprite art (something I have 0 skill in).
If you would be happy contributing and helping along the way, I would learn MonoGame and Extended a lot more and in return I will write my understandings of Extended up in documentation to help other peoples use and learning of the frameworks.
@harry-cpp That’s awesome. Thanks.
@lozzajp My spare time is already pretty limited. I don’t think I’d have much time to do too much.
One idea that has crossed my mind a couple of times is creating an open source game using open source assets and having the community contribute and learn from it. I’m not really sure how this would work though. It’s probably not so easy to get people involved or agree on what to build.
TrueCraft is a pretty amazing example. Of course, this works well because it’s based on an existing game so the “what to build” is pretty well set in stone.
Thanks for the input guys. For the moment I’m just going to leave this idea floating around in my head.
Good luck with that ! 
Problem is such project seems to go the opposite way of the base human nature, and look at some great well-known community project like Linux kernel or Debian distro, there is always the need for one or more leader who ultimately take the final decision for the “greater good”. Some people got more involved than other, some path are chosen for the better or worth (in such case, the project die sooner or later, like Gaim/Pidgin). I don’t think it would gonna change so soon.
The game idea, unique of its kind, is a collaboration based game (think about it: not a single game ever has been collaboration based gameplay, there is of course co-op multiplayer, but it doesn’t change the way game are designed, based upon competition. If you find a single one, please let me know).
The base of my idea is resource harvesting (scan for deposits, send mining team there, dig, refine, transport resources back to home base or sell hem), but this time, instead of destroying opponents, stealing hardware and resources, player(s) score points by helping each other, including also IA (for a single player game) ! And, loose points by playing selfishly (could loose the right to mine the local area or either the entire planet).
The objective would be impossible to achieve alone too (too much resources to gather for example, or too much things to do to get it like: discovering new bodies, scanning the surface for resources, designing and building spaceships to get there, land, face wild condition with potential deadly hazards like heavy oxidation, very high pressure/temp like on Venus, organizing transports from surface then to homeland, etc)
I know there is a lot of work still to be done to create something fun and addictive to play with.
XNA.com and MSDN.com 's XNA documentation have code and asset samples. I think they’re under the Microsoft Permission License, whatever that means. But my entire game uses derivative works based heavily on many of their samples.
Share any good ideas that might come from this… I am also interested in collaboration, as a learning experience… I would happily work under “leader ship”… I have my own projects to rule over, I could make do with a non important role… I’d almost appreciate just WATCHING how a collective effort develops over time… And how components from multiple authors comes together…
I’d love to contribute to a game like this
Though you’re probably right that it’s hard to agree on a concept. If something like this were to happen, it would have to start with a discussion about the basics of the game that won’t be changed later on in development (but it would be nice if it’s something expandable, so features can be added later) so there’s a direction that the people involved agree on. Not sure if there are enough people that would like to contribute to this though.
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Other way to do it is building up a team of people who build component from a kind of TODO list, similar to MG issues, example:
level 1,2,…n
arts; enemy sprite A,B,C player moving right/left, …
sounds: shot, explosion
Bonus class (name, effect, etc)
IA enemy 1,2,3, NPC A,B,…
rendering: map, landmarks, …
It could even be set as a shared project (on github or elsewhere).
Doing so, instead of a full game to do (quite intimidating), there is only a small component(s) to do which can fit people’s wish, mind, style, etc It is also open to improvement, as someone can come with a way to do something, then later, another people can offer a better (faster, smoother, easier to improve, etc) version.
But what is obviously needed is the “frame” (=game design, or the map to show roughly where to go to).
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Yes to this and the above…
We should just do more of THIS, what we are doing right now… I think this is actually good procedure so far.
Outline the outline of the outline… So to say…
Maybe we should start by talking scope, or size of the project,… Something like:
-A) What complexity we are aiming for. ( between Tic-tac-toe and an A.I. that writes its own replacement framowork)
A) How many people we can manage to communicate effectively with.
B) whether or not its even practical to have an “open for all” project, without dedicated management…
C) how asset heavy a project we want (perhaps code-generated graphics are better)
D) how much dedication we can reasonably expect, considering all the stuff everyone has going on, and how this will effect our planning / goals…
When we have these parameters covered, we can proceed to talk about styles, themes, game type, assignments, management etc…
yes?
I agree. IMO someone (or even better, a few people) need to take the lead in this. That would come with the responsibility of maintaining the project and end decisions in discussions. Without that I don’t think a project like this could work. For scale/complexity, like I said, I prefer a simple but expandable game. For assets, mostly open source assets would be best since most people here are programmers, not artists. Generating assets would be really cool, but I think that should be something that can be added later on (unless that’s be one of the core concepts of the game).
Damned ! That’s could become a new social experiment, by this I mean it could be the chance to try something different than the old “alpha male” (or female for matriarcal society type like bees) style, with one or more “leader(s)” who take final decision or just lead and all other following, instead having something like:
- people who want to be involve for a while or a short time, whatever let others know, they do the tasks, report and give their work (a single sprite, texture, sound or class or a full component like a rendering engine)
- all important choices are submitted to a vote, the currently involved people choose by majority and so it goes.
The pros here is there is no need for a few people maintain a living “core” for the project to live (this may need a dummy/“corporate” account which can be shared fr managing project), people would be free to get involved has much as they want until they get bored for example.
To add something to what I wrote earlier also, having many people adding their own brick to the great wall, one at a time, allow these people to contribute how they want and how much they want, so people who don’t have so much time can still achieve something they can’t do on their own alone.
For the game itself, I think of a city building/management like Millionaire City or Rising Cities, there are not so much game like these and it is rich and wide enough to allow various idea and design. For example, it could include an optional multiplayer component, which could also use social media stuff (FB account for keeping data, sharing stuff between “friends”, etc), it could also be designed as Gnu Chess and its rendering program.
I mean, GnuChess is just a chess engine, and there is many visuals which can use it to get classic 2D top view or 3D view (openGL of Win DX or whatever), there could be the game engine, displayless itself (can be use on a server), then many visual clients (top view like Millionaire City, 3D isometric like Rising Cities, full 3D like in Sim City games)
The base game would offer a single player on local computer play, “plug-ins” can be use to play online, use 3D display on a powerful enough computer, and simple 2D top view for keep playing on a phone with the same account, same data, same things currently achieved.
Agreed on the assets part.
About leadership / direction, I dont know if that’s going to be easy without any of us having relevant experience…
Right now, the only way I know how to share code is copy pasting to or from my own project…
Dont know how to coordinate code-dependencies, and decide on class/method structure >>from multiple contributors<<
We could START with a GitHub collaboration along the lines of a HELLO WORLD program…
That could get us started on the basics of group communication, organization etc…
- And that way, we wouldnt need a totally dedicated leader, just someone with enough time for a HELLO WORLD collaboration…
I just mean something really small, that wont overwhelm any one…
I think a basic game that demonstrates many requirements of a game and utilises MonoGame and Extended well. Start with a basic list of requirements (business/game requirements) and also techniques/features used from the frameworks.
For example a basic platformer game
Game Reqs
- Main menu - Start game and options choice.
- Options menu - change screen size and full/windowed
- Start game - Small cutscene where player walks across screen and level begins
- Character player - affected by gravity, basic collision detection (can walk on blocks but through scenery), one projectile/weapon.
- Pause menu - 2 options continue or quit to main menu
- and so on
Functional Reqs
- Camera2D
- Maps are created in Tiled
- Tiled map via content pipeline
- (expand onwards with more framework functions)