MonoGaming all the things at Future Decoded!

Simon (darkside) Jackson
ramblings

From the archive

This post was written in 2015. Technology has moved on a fair bit since then, so some of the tools, links and advice here may well be out of date. Treat it as a piece of history rather than a current guide.

Future Decoded banner, 10 to 11 November 2015, ExCeL LondonOne of the biggest tech conferences in the UK is returning this year, refocused, re-targeted and yet still as big as ever. Compressed down to just two days (1 business and 1 technical) it offers a fast paced and intensive experience to get everyone up to speed.

Day one – The business one

Gives all businesses, large or small, an in-depth view on how technology is making such a large impact in the way we run things, showing how everyone can take advantage of the best and the brightest, whether you are a small firm of one up to the mega corps.
Also features a headline keynote from none other than Satya Nadella himself.

Day two – The Geek / Technical one

All about the technology itself, seeking to invigorate and work those neurons to consider applications and uses of technology that you may not have considered before. Whether it is delving in to quantum computing and quantum architecture with Professor Brian Cox and Krysta Svore, to Game Development with all the major players in the market.

Bringing on the game

For my sins (or recognition, who knows), I was invited to talk at Future Decoded about MonoGame (the XNA game development successor) and what it takes to bring your games to Windows 10.

The Defence of Lushington Springs game logo

You can check out Lushington Springs on the Windows Phone store right now if you wish

Now I could show just how easy it is to start any new project in a Windows 10 Universal Windows Project (UWP) and see some silly blocks bouncing round, but where is the fun in that?

So for my talk I will be taking an entire Windows Phone 7 game called “The defence of Lushington Springs” (a hardy and intentionally difficult tower defence game) and walk you through the pipeline to bring any XNA project in to the bright new world:

Slide titled The path of least resistance showing the move from XNA to MonoGame Universal to MonoGame UWP

Through the talk (approx. 20 mins), we will cover:

  • Managing your XNA project in Visual Studio 2015 (yup, you heard that right)
  • Porting to a Windows 8.1 Universal Phone/Desktop MonoGame project
  • Upgrading to a MonoGame UWP project.

It is a fast-paced journey, so pens at the ready (or phone cameras, whichever is easier).

Granted this journey could simply be direct to Windows Universal but I did not want to leave out anyone who had already made the leap 😀