There are those who either do not like or prefer not to use big heavy-hitting coding IDE's, prefer the raw metal of cutting their teeth on code using nothing but their wits (and a good spellchecker), thanks to MonoGame 3.8's new .NET Core delivery approach they can.

MonoGame 3.8 Mac CLI

Thanks to the aforementioned Command-line/Terminal (CLI) approach mentioned in my previous article, developers can (if they choose) use either a slimline code editing tool such as VSCode, Sublime, Rider or even just a trusty command-line/terminal window to build great games.

Sure, you might miss some of the big-hitting features the larger packages might offer, but if you are starved for disk space, bandwidth or simply like your meat raw then the slimline editor is much more attractive option.

Getting started with CLI for MAC

The MonoGame team took particular interest in ensuring everything you need to know about setting up MonoGame 3.8 on your Mac for CLI was all up to scratch and you kind find the article (as well as others) here:

Setting up your development environment for macOS

If you scroll past the Visual Studio for Mac sections you will find the instructions for:

1. Getting the .NET Core project templates for MonoGame
2. Registering the MGCB Content editor GUI
3. Setting up the Wine effect compilation pipeline
   (Needed for compiling shaders on Mac for all platforms)
4. Fin

The process is fairly easy and shouldn't take you more than one or two cups of coffee to get through (depending on your internet connection)

If you prefer, I have uploaded a video walking through the process here:

Additional Reading

A couple of extra tips when you are entering the world of MonoGame 3.8 to be aware of, are the following:

• If you are upgrading a project from MonoGame 3.7 or earlier, check out this guide
• If you are upgrading or following an XNA Game Studio 4.0 project to MonoGame 3.8, check out this guide
• if you want to package your project automatically from the command-line. Check out the awesome guide on MonoGame packaging here.
• MonoGame Samples are being updated for 3.8 which are available here. Stay tuned.

So why are you still here reading this article? Get out there and get coding your game and if you are stuck, check in to the MonoGame discord and start chatting!

Simon (darkside) Jackson

Engineer, industry executive, research enthusiast. Avid learner with diverse interests in coding, game development, Mixed Reality (AR/VR/XR) and reinforcement learning. 25+ years of experience working in multinational corporations and startups.

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