WP8.1 Monogame templates and NuGet do not work with VS2015

Windows Phone
1

Hi.
I’m facing a huge problem trying to create empty Monogame project. After installing Monogame I don’t have a template for Windows Phone 8 or 8.1. When I’m creating Blank App Windows Phone 8.1 project and adding Monogame via NuGet - project itself is not changing, and just adding libs. No Content, no default Game class, nothing.
Can someone point me to the working Windows Phone 8.1 Monogame template of maybe to a working blank project for VS 2015?

Thank you.

2

Correct, the 8.1 templates aren’t included in vs 2015 as MS are phasing them out, so the team didn’t add them.

However, they are included in vs2013 which is the primary version for 8/8.1 apps and universal.

Vs2013 = Win 8 / phone 8 (and .1)
Vs2015 = win10

However once your project is created, you can open/edit your 8.1 projects in vs2015, however you only have the win10 emulators to test with.

3

Hi. Thanks for the reply. Does it mean, than Win 8.1 support will be replaced by Universal Apps completely?
I also had some issues with creating universal project as well, but I think it’s covered in other threads here.

Question here, I guess - if I’m starting with new development for Windows Phone, should I go for UAP right away?

4

That is a trickier and larger choice, as all 8.1 apps are forward compatible to WIn10.

SO it depends who your target audience is. I think things will become clearer towards the end of November once the Wn10 mobile rollout begins.

Personally (JMHO), since it is only trivial work to support both 8.1 and UWP. I would create a new 8.1 Universal project, store your game code in the shared project and then add a UWP project referencing the shared project.

The same code will run on all platforms. Only caveat, is that you will need to move the GamePage.XAML and APP.XAML (plus supporting code behind) in to the .Windows and .WindowsPhone Universal projects as the XAML is not supported by UWP.

I’m demoing this as part of Future Decoded, if I get a chance, I’ll try and record a video showing it.

5

Thank you for the reply. It’s a really good advice. Also I would love to see such a video.

6

Tada. Just managed to record it tonight before catching my train. A little preview of my MonoGame win10 talk at FutureDecoded2015

7

Nice! Thanks a lot for this!