Creating A Project

Install MonoGame

In Visual Studio, use the 'open without code' option to load the main interface. Then find 'Extensions' and 'Manage Extensions'. You can then click to browse / search and type 'monogame', this will find the MonoGame extension and click to install. Remember you normally need to close all Visual Studio windows for the install to commence.

Making it work in college

Create a MonoGame DesktopGL project (this will reduce the file size of your project). Locate your project `.sln` file. In this folder create a new text file and change the name to `nuget.config`.

Open this file in notepad and copy the code below into the file and save it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <configuration>
    <config>
      <add key="globalPackagesFolder" value=".\installed_packages" />
    </config>
 </configuration>

This will force the Nuget Package Manager to install into your project folder instead of to the `C:` Drive. Now look in the dependencies in solution explorer and check the packages section. You need to remove the MonoGame.Content.Builder.Task package.

Now search for JDG.Monogame.Content.Builder, and install it. Then in solution explorer find `content.mgcb` and right click it and select `Open With`. Click `Add` and browser for `Pipeline.exe` in the folder for JDG.Monogame.Content.Builder.

Without MonoGame Installed

If you don't have MonoGame installed you could use the nuget package, use THIS document to do this. It will get you to install the MonoGame package and will also create a project. PS This is not the easy way

With MonoGame Installed (3.7 or lower)

No Templates Installed

If you have installed MonoGame onto your own machine and you don't have the templates, or you are using MonoGame in college for the first time then you should use THIS document to create a new project. You will need to download the template zip files from moodle as described in the document.

By the way, this has happened because when MonoGame was installed you hadn't previously opened or run Visual Studio. Re-installing MonoGame should give you the options to add the templates depending on your version of Visual Studio.

With Templates Installed

If your game is okay for just Windows, I would recommend to create just a Windows Project because it will keep everything simple. You could use another option, this will depend on the platform you wish to target but the cross platform option is a good compromise.