I decided to write a blog post on MonoGame and what my current experience is on how to use it.
So far I 've written a few games within a singular game loop, no editor/debugger or anything. I know how to add logic to objects and program inheritance, a bit of enemy AI, and some scripting logic like making a particle engine. The thing is however, that's all fine and dandy for small simple games like 1 level platformers and shmups, But when it comes to what I'm doing, I don't think it's gonna help me by restarting the main window every 30 seconds if a glitch goes haywire. What I need is a true debugger/level editor within the MonoGame window itself in order to make the development process more smooth. So the goals of getting my engine to actually BE an engine are the following:
- Debugger that actually pauses the game loop and shows actual analytics like memory usage and FPS, as well something that can handle entities and components
- Console-like terminal that makes debugging easier during test sessions
- A reusable engine that can be used for primarily 2D Games with other third-party software and codebases like Humper and Tiled
Now this is a lot of work and is easier said than done, But I have to do it because hard-coding every little thing is like buying a new pair of shoes every week because you just wear the old pair of shoes once. So yeah, I have a big stack ahead of me. Thank God I am not starting off from complete scratch with the 3rd party libraries I have with me. So that's a plus.
Anyways, I have to go for now. Hopefully I'll have something by next Saturday I reckon.
