A Gentle Intro To Game Development Using C# and MonoGame

In this Lecture we will 

• Highlight the historical development of Monogame and why you should want to learn it

• Learn that Microsoft C# and .Net are my favorite development tools. 
  • For creating Windows desktop and web-based applications, they are unsurpassed. 
  • However, one area where C# fell short, was in game development. Using the .Net API’s it is not possible to get the high performance required for gaming. DirectX, which is used by virtually all professional games on Windows, requires the use of the C++ language. DirectX allows low-level access of the Video Card, which makes it the fastest method of drawing on the screen for the PC.  Many people find  C++ to be a difficult language to learn and use, fraught with many of the same pitfalls that plague developing with C.
• Learn that In 2006, Microsoft provided a solution: 
  • Microsoft XNA Framework. XNA allows C# developers to access DirectX from C#. 
  • XNA, which is a set of tools and code libraries (with a level of complexity falling somewhere between a game engine and a grittier API like DirectX) that made it easy to make games that could be run on Windows desktop and laptop computers, plus their Xbox 360 console. Soon after, they updated it to be able to also run on their Windows smart phones. For many programmers, this was the thing we had been waiting for. A system where you could create games that ran all over the place, and without an insane amount of trouble or work. 
  • For years, Microsoft did a great job of supporting and growing XNA, and it became an exciting approach to game development. C++ is still the go-to solution if you need to squeeze the absolute last bit of performance out of a PC, but C# is now a very credible solution for gaming development. In fact, it has been used by many commercial games today. For many people, getting your game on a console like the 360 was several heaping teaspoons full of pure awesome. There's no way you could not be excited about that. But still, there were more platforms that people wanted to be able to target: iPhones, Android phones, other consoles, and Macs and Linux machines as well.
  • Unfortunately, Microsoft discontinued XNA development in 2013. But, thanks to the open source community, all was not lost. MonoGame is a compatible open source version of XNA, that is still being supported. Even better, MonoGame is extremely easy to learn and  is cross-platform, so you can develop games in C# for iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows.
• Learn that MonoGame is an open-source port of XNA. It's not run by Microsoft, but rather a group of independent software developers (including you, if you wanted to join) who wanted to build a version of XNA that allows people to use the exact same code, but run everywhere. (On these other platforms, instead of running on Microsoft's .NET Framework, the games run on Mono.NET, which is an open-source port of the .NET Framework itself.)
  • Learn that MonoGame far better than its XNA heritage
  • MonoGame is built from the ground up to be multi-platform, supporting many of today's modern platforms, including:
    
    • Android
    • iOS / MacOS
    • Windows 8 / Windows 10
    • Linux
    • Even Consoles
    • And many more (still growing)
  • Learn that MonoGame has even extended the Content pipeline that XNA introduced (an asset management system) to also make assets like Art, Textures, Models and so on, work for every platform from a single configuration / building platform.
• Raise the issue ... Why not Unity, Unreal or any other  Game Maker
  • When you are picking the Game Development framework or engine to start with (or jump to), it's important to choose what you want to build your game / project in using something that suits your development style.
    • Unity and Unreal have a great editor / GUI experience with some coding required, so it's a good fit if you like drag and drop.
    • Scratch / Game maker and others offer a much more stripped down and basic experience meant to wet your appetite. Although I have seen some serious projects built with these 
    • XNA / MonoGame on the other hand, are a full coded experience. So if you prefer to control all the bits of your game and not rely on things being done for you, it's a better fit.
• Showcase games created with Monogame : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8h5u5BgoJY

In this Lecture we will

Learn about some of the concepts and applications we will create .. here is a sampling

• Create a Graphics program which simulates an "Etch-A-Sketch" drawing program
• Create Graphics applications which incorporate drag and drop events
• Create a simple object animation then use it as the basis for a car race game
• Create a slot machine game
• Create a falling objects games ... where you move an object around with the keyboard and catch objects falling from the sky for points
• Create a Space shooter game
• Create several 2d Game Applications which incorporate flicker free animation and allow the user to use the keyboard and mouse to control movement.
• Create a Scrolling Game
• Create a game which incorporates Game State Management
• .... and Much More 
• .... Now its your turn !

In this Lecture we will

• Learn about the graphics coordinates of the screen
• Learn how to access (instantiate) and use the C# graphics class to draw lines,rectangles,ellipses and load images from a file on the form
• Create a simple dice roll graphical simulation

In this Lecture we will

• First review the concepts of the previous lecture by using an example which implements a user created Class that draws Faces on the screen
• Learn how to draw on a Panel control
• Learn about using the Color.FromArgb(alpha,r,g,b) command
• Learn how to scroll the contents of a panel

In this Lecture we will

• Challenge you to create a program that generates an 8x8 red and black checkerboard

In this Lecture we will

• Learn about the Mouse Events MouseDown, MouseUp and MouseMove
• Write several programs that incorporate mouse movement including a drawing program.
  • MouseProblem ... multiple forms
  • UpdatedBlackboard

In this Lecture we will

• Create several applications incorporating the mouse and using classes
  • SimpleHouse ... note the use of the Point class
  • CsharpDraw ... note the use of ArrayList
• Demo a simulated version of dragging and dropping ...MouseMove

In this Lecture we will

• Create a program which simulates a drag and drop application
• Challenge you to create your own application

In this Lecture we will

• Learn what timers are and how to use them
• Learn how to use an array of images
  • using images placed in pictureboxes on the form
  • using images stored in an external files
• Using Threads instead of Timers

In this Lecture we will

• Learn how to extract frames of images from animated gifs (using GifFrame) that can be used in your animations
• Learn to create (draw) your own images that will become the individual frames of your animation
  • FlipBook
  • EyeAnimation (uses forward and reverse animation)

In this Lecture we will

• Look at two applications of in place computer animation
• Look at the Dice Roll Game
• Look at the Slot Machine Game

In this Lecture we will

• Make our objects move across the screen using the .Top and .Left properties
  • Discover how to check for the screen edges (top,bottom,left and right)
  • Discover how to make an object bounce off the wall or reappear around the other side
• Demonstrate several racing applications

In this Lecture we will

• Give you the challenge to create a simple two car race ... with some hints (help) of course !

In this Lecture we will

• Learn about another way to move objects across the screen using the DrawImage command

In this Lecture we will

• Learn how to create transparent gifs/png

In this Lecture we will

• Learn about the 4 requirements for collision
• Learn how to detect keyboard events using the KeyDown Event
• Create a simple application to implement both of these concepts
  • Learn how to animate without using pictureboxes
  • Learn that everything is an image object including the background
  • Learn that instead of wiping the screen with the backcolor we now redraw the background graphic over the current state of the animation

In this Lecture we will

• Learn how to incorporate sound into a C# program
• Learn how to use two techniques to create sound , the System.Media technique and using the Windows Media Player

In this Lecture we will

• Learn how to create a simple Falling Objects game
• Learn how to incorporate image arrays for the falling objects to reduce coding
• If you have taken the "Beginners Version of this Course" ... how about the extra challenge
  • keep track of a top 10 best scores (names and scores)  in sorted order
  • store the scores in a data files 

In the Lecture we will

• Learn to use some advanced animation techniques including using "double buffering" to reduce screen flicker during game creation
• Create some simple animations incorporating double buffering

In this Lecture we will

• Learn to use the mouse with double buffering
• Learn about double buffering on a panel

In this Lecture we will

• Learn about the concept of scrolling
• Create a program to simulate scrolling

In this Lecture we will

• Learn that game development is driven by polling for events, rather than waiting to hear that an event has taken place. Instead of the system telling the game that the user has moved the mouse, for example, your game will have to ask the system if the mouse has moved. In the meantime, the application is always performing actions, regardless of user input
• Learn about the basic game loop (polling)
  • While (game is runing)
    • check for input (keyboard/mouse)
    • update all objects in the game (position)
    • draw all the objects in the game
    • refresh the screen (force a repaint)
• Work through several sample games making incremental improvements as we go along

In this Lecture we will

• Create a Space Shooter Game
• Leave you with the challenge to create your own game

In this Lecture we will

• Set up the Pipeline Tool 
• Learn to add assets to our project using the Pipeline Tool
  • images ... bmp, jpg, png (best)
  • audio ... wav , mp3
• Organize content into folders 

In this Lecture we will

• Create a place to store the images (instance variable of type Texture2D)
• Load the images into the instance variables
• Draw the images using SpriteBatch (object used to do drawing)
  • using the Draw command

In this Lecture we will

• Introduce the concept motion in Monogame
• Learn how to use the Vector2 class to create objects which indicate the sprite location of our images
• Use the Update method to change our Sprite Location
• Use the Draw Method to redisplay our sprite at its new location

In this Lecture we will

• Introduce the concept of velocity
  • we add a velocity instance variable from the Vector2 class which will be used to move our image , instead of using a constant
• Introduce/Review some basic Vector addition concepts from mathematics

In this Lecture we will

• Discuss the screen constraints
  • where exactly (X location ) is the right and left walls
  • where exactly (Y location ) is the top and bottom walls
• Create a program which has the image bounce off any part of the walls it encounters

In this Lecture we will

• Learn how to create a Sprite Font using the Pipeline Tool
  • Edit the Font (XML)
• Use the Sprite Font to display a count of the number of wall collisions
  
  • Using the DrawString command

In this Lecture we will

• How to add sounds to your Mono Game Project
• First we add directives 
  • using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media
  • using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio
• Next add instance variables of the Song and SoundEffect classes
• Next we load the sounds
• Lastly we Play the sounds at the desired location in the program 
  • Background music (songs) can be started  right at the beginning
    • mp3s work best with songs ...
      • but can use wavs ... need to force pipeline tool to change processor type from wav to song
    • can't play two songs at same time one will cancel out the other
  • SoundEffects are activated at a specified point in your game like hitting an object 
    • wavs are used for Sound Effects
    • multiple sound effects can play at the same time... can play over the background music 

A recap of the concepts learned in this section

In this Lecture we/you will

• Be introduced to the "Big Green Head" problem set
  • a series of exercises to review, reinforce and extend the knowledge gathered in the previous Section
• Place a number of similar static images of differing colors at various locations on screen 

In this Lecture we/you will

• Create a Vector2 object to store sprite locations instead of using constants
• using the sprite location object have an image move across the screen

In this Lecture we/you will

• Determine when an object (image) hits one of the four walls  (left/right/top/bottom)
• Reverse the direction of the object off the wall (make it bounce off the wall)

In this Lecture we will

• Start the implementation of a BoucingHead class
  • Create the BouncingHead class
  • Create an instance of the class
  • Update the instance
  • Display the instance
• Begin to appreciate how this implementation will ... eventually make the program more structured and shorter

In this Lecture we/you will

• Update the BouncingHead Class 
  • add static fields to easily access the Sprite Texture Object
  • add a parameterized Constructor
  • add an Update method to be called from the main Game
  • add a Draw method to be called from the main Game

In this Lecture we/you will

• Update the BouncingHead Class
  • add accessors and mutators for the Position and Velocity of the image object
  • now enforce encapsulation

In this Lecture we will

• Add one more feature to the BouncingHead class
  • add a color property  
• In the main Game modify the image objects color in several ways

In this Lecture we will

• Learn to add a background, instead of using the standard blue screen
• Learn to implement the Rectangle class by creating an object that matches the exact dimensions of the screen
• Learn that the order the background is drawn is very important
• Learn to use a different version of the Draw command
  • Instead of using the regular draw which takes a vector specifying X,Y
  • Use a draw technique that takes a Rectangle object specifying the X,Y, Width and Height of the bounding rectangle of the destination sprite.
  • By specifying the width and height the SpriteBatch knows how to scale the sprite from its original size to the size specified.

In this Lecture we/you will

• Implement the Song class to play background music
• Recall the importance of the directive accessing Media  in the XNA Framework

In this Lecture we will

• Implement an array of BouncingHead objects  to show the power of Object Oriented Programming and arrays.
  
  • Because we are using an array of objects we must instantiate each individual array object
  • Update all the objects using a foreach for efficiency
  • Draw all the objects using a foreach for efficiency
• Have some fun watching a bunch of crazy looking heads bouncing everywhere

In this Lecture we will

• Learn how to have an object rotate around a central point
• Introduce another form of the Draw command which incorporates angles

In this Lecture we will

• Learn one of the techniques used to display character animation
  • Find or create a group of related images
  • Declare an array of type Texture2d and store the images in the array
  • Cycle through the images and draw them each time the screen is updated
  • Discuss how to control the speed of the update

In this Lecture we will

• Cover how to use texture sprite strips , which are single images with multiple textures on it. 
  • Look at how we can do 2D animation using these sprite strips 
  • Look at how these strips are much more efficient then using multiple images
• Look at how our strip has 16 different images (frames) evenly spaced on a 4x4 grid
  • Determine the width and height of each individual frame by taking the Sprite Strip Width/4  and Height/4
• Learn how to create an AnimatedSprite class to handle most of the calculations, updating and drawing

In this Lecture we will

• Look at the basics of getting player input from the keyboard
  • The Keyboard class has a method that returns the current state of the keyboard whenever it is called. The current state of the keyboard is stored in a KeyboardState object
  • KeyboardState state = Keyboard.GetState();
• Look at how to control the movement of an object on screen using the keyboard state
  • To determine whether a key is pressed down or not, we can use the method IsKeyDown() in the KeyboardState class
  • if(state.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left))
    { // do something here } 

In this Lecture we will

• Take a look at another simple application of Keyboard detection and character movement ... with a twist
  • The character we are trying to control is already is motion 
  • When the character collides with the wall it changes its shape

In this Lecture we will

• Revisit the first Lecture in this section and develop a technique to determine when the ball has collided with the earth
  • We take a look at the concept of bounding rectangles
  • We apply the Intersect property of rectangles
• We introduce the concept of a hit flag to control scoring

In this Lecture we will

• Begin a step by step development of a simple game incorporating Keyboard movement and Collision detection
  • ... Don't want to "Build it with me" ... then jump to the RECAP Lecture
• Collect our assets and add them via the Content Pipeline Tool
  • two images ... a ball and a man/women (transparent/png)
  • two wav files
  • a sprite font
• Add a couple of new directives for Sound Effects and Music
• Declare all our variables
• Load our content
• Make Mouse Visible
• Code the Draw method ... display the ball, the man and the score

In this Lecture we will

• Complete our simple game creation
• Focus on the Update method and all the necessary logic
  • Tracking keyboard movement left and right
  • updating the position of the falling ball
  • checking when the ball hits the walls or the ground
  • check for a collision between the man and the ball 
    • update the score
    • play a sound
    • reverse the direction of the ball

In this Lecture we will

• Look at a simple application of  Keyboard input and Collision detection
  • ... already "Built It With Me ? " .... then you can skip this lecture
• Create simple falling object game with a character along the bottom of the screen trying to make contact with the object for points
  • note the use of IsMouseVisible=true in Initialize
  • note the use of the Intersects method and the additional condition for collision

In this Lecture we will

• Learn how to get player input from the mouse
  • The first thing we are going to do is to get the current state of the mouse. 
  • The natural place to put our code is in the Update() method. 
  • Add the following lines of code to get the current mouse state:
    MouseState mouseState = Mouse.GetState();
  • The MouseState class contains all of the information that we could possibly want to know about the current state of the mouse.
    To do this, we just add the following code: 
  • if(mouseState.LeftButton == ButtonState.Pressed) { // Do whatever you want here }
• Learn that the mouse location and button clicks are kept up to date in your Monogame, however, by default, the mouse is not displayed. One solution to this is to just draw an image at the location of the mouse.
• Learn how to simulate an explosion when the mouse is clicked at a particular location

In this Lecture we will

• Offer you the challenge of creating your first game in MonoGame
• Suggest that as a start you possibly redo a previous game created in plain C#
• Demonstrate an instructor created sample game
  • Space Shooter Game
• Demonstrate how to change the screen startup size for your game... including going Full Screen

An overview of Keyboard, Mouse input and Collision Detection

In this Lecture you will

• Learn the concept of Game State Management
  •  Every game starts off in an introduction state, then moves to a menu of some kind, and finally play begins. When you're finally defeated, the game moves to a game-over state, usually followed by a return to the menu. In most games it is possible to be in more than one state at a time. For example, you can usually bring up the menu during game play.
  • The traditional way of handling multiple states is with a series of if statements, switches, and loops. The program begins in the intro state and loops until a key is pressed. Then the menu is displayed until a selection is made. Then the game begins, and loops until the game is over. Everytime through the game loop, the program must check to see if it should display the menu or simply draw the next frame. Also, the part of the program that handles events must check to see if your input should affect the menu or the game. 
• Learn to implement a simple Game State Management technique in Monogame 

In this Lecture we will

• Discuss and Overview the look and feel of the Cannon Shooter Game we want to create
• Create a GameObject class which will be used by the main program to create the enemies and the cannonballs
• Make all our declarations
• Texture2D
• Rectangles
• GameObjects
• SpriteFont
• Load all the content

In the Lecture we will

• Draw the content
• Create the Update method
  • delve into the cannon rotation calculation which constrains the cannon to 90 degree movement ... using the Clamp function
• Create the UpdateEnemies method
  • delve into the respawning calculation which uses the Lerp Function and Random numbers

In this Lecture we will

• Complete the Cannon Shooter Game
• Create the FireCannonBalls method which involves some Trig calculations to determine the velocity (x,y) components
• Create the UpdateCannonBalls method which checks for collisions and updates the score
• Challenge you to create a new game which incorporates Games State Management and mirrors the new skills developed in the Cannon Shooter Game
  • using Class objects
  • firing at objects with some sort of rotational element ... how about the cannon at the bottom centre of the screen with full 180 degree movement

Recap of the Next Step in Game Development

In this Lecture we will

• Learn how to implement a simple side scrolling technique in MonoGame
  • Declare an array of Textures ... a series of related images 
  • Position each Texture in a horizontal line... one on screen the rest off screen to the right
  • Start an infinite loop (Update method) where each texture's x position is decremented , until its x position is totally off screen to the left
  • Move the offscreen texture to the end of the line back on the right side by updating is x position 

In this Lecture we will

• Create a vertical scroller that is controlled by the keyboard
• Demonstrate how to create a scrolling screen by using one image that is redrawn in strips down and across the screen (tiled)

In this Lecture we will

• Extend our knowledge of scrolling by introducing a rotating shooting object in the center of the screen
• Incorporate the use of a Struct to define our bullets
• Make use of a Sprite Strip to contain our scrolling background,bullet, and firing object
• Change the frame rate of the game using TargetElapsedTime and TimeSpan
• Highlight the Update routine 
  • Turning the ship ... keyboard detection
  • TurnShip() Method
• Highlight the Draw routine and its exclusive use of calls to methods
  • Look at the DrawShip method
  • Look at the DrawBackground method used to tile the background  ... To be continued in next Lecture

In this Lecture we will

• Continue our look at our newest scrolling application
• Focus on the Update method and its associated calls 
  • MoveShip
    • Revisit DrawBackground
  • Shoot
  • DrawBullets
  • UpdateBullets

In this Lecture we will

• Look at a simple game which incorporates scrolling ... in this case  ... vertical scrolling
  • Drive Fast and Avoid Obstacles... Vertical Scroller
• Challenge you to create a new game which incorporates a scrolling component

In this Lecture we will

• Demonstrate a variety of games created by students 
• Look closely at the code of the "Jungle Runner Game"
• Showcase games created with Monogame : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8h5u5BgoJY

In this Lecture we will

• Discuss where to go from here
• Why not Unity, Unreal or Other Game thing X?
  • When you are picking the Game Development framework or engine to start with (or jump to), it's important to choose what you want to build your game / project in using something that suits your development style
    • Unity and Unreal have a great editor / GUI experience with some coding required, so it's a good fit if you like drag and drop.
    • Scratch / Game maker and others offer a much more stripped down and basic experience meant to wet your appetite. Although I have seen some serious projects built with these 
    • There are those who then also like to go even lower but we shall not mention such things so as not to scare the birds, lest they fly away. 
• My advice is to choose what is the right fit for YOU and go with it. If you end up getting lost, then try something else until you find the right home for YOU. Game Development is a very personal thing and the tool you choose should be your choice!

In this Lecture we will

• discuss future options for students interested in game development