MonoGame Extended – Extensions for MonoGame/XNA/FNA – GameFromScratch.com
MonoGame is one of the most successful indie game development frameworks, carrying on the gamedev legacy that Microsoft began with XNA. While XNA (and MonoGame) is an excellent framework for creating games, its missing several “out of the box” features you would expect these days. This is where MonoGame Extended comes in, it’s a set of common extensions for MonoGame (and FNA, another modern XNA implementation), providing features such as:
2D Graphics and Rendering: It provides helpful tools for managing textures, including texture atlases and sprite sheets, which streamline the creation and rendering of 2D sprites.
Camera System: A dedicated 2D camera class allows developers to easily pan, zoom, and rotate the view of their game world, which is essential for most 2D games.
Tilemaps: It has robust support for Tiled maps, a popular external tool for creating 2D levels. This feature allows for the easy loading and rendering of complex tile-based levels.
Animation: It simplifies the creation and playback of frame-based 2D animations, which is a core component for bringing characters and objects to life.
Input Management: The library offers an event-based input system that goes beyond MonoGame’s standard polling method, making it easier to handle complex player input.
Collision Detection: It provides different algorithms for handling collision detection between various shapes, such as circles and rectangles, which is crucial for gameplay.
Particle Systems: Developers can create and manage dynamic particle effects for things like explosions, fire, or dust, adding visual flair to their games.
Content Pipeline Extensions: MonoGame.Extended includes extensions for the MonoGame Content Builder (MGCB) tool, allowing for the easy importing and processing of custom content, such as Tiled maps and texture atlases.
The project is open source under the MIT code license. The project is jam packed with examples to get you up and running.
Key Links
MonoGame Extended Homepage
MonoGame Extended GitHub Repository
Discord Server
MonoGame
FNA
You can learn more about the MonoGame Extended project in the video below.