Hello,

I am transitioning to C# and the Visual Studio platform, mostly for work-related reasons and am looking for a 2D gamedev library to go with it. I assumed this could be found with a simple Google search, but after having spent some time comparing libs I still haven't found any obvious candidate. It seems all the good stuff is native C/C++ and wrappers for C# are either incomplete, not maintained, or simply doesn't exist. I am looking for a library with the following properties:

• Full C# / Visual Studio support (Native or via wrapper)
• Low-level (no big IDE, just the library)

Must-have features:

• 2D graphics support, including, screen creation, textures, and primitives (lines, circles, polygons like in OpenGL)
• Sound and music
• User input from keyboard, mouse, and game controller

What are your recommendations? Can this be done with a single library, or will I have to use several different ones? The libraries that fit the bill most closely are ones like:

• SDL2 ( con: no native primitives drawing support)
• GLFW (con: no sound or texture support)
• MonoGame (con: no primitives drawing support)

(Note: I am only interested in low-level libraries, and not full GUI's / IDE's like CryEngine, Unity or Godot.)

Cheers,

Mike

https://www.nuget.org/packages/OpenTK/

OpenTK 4.1.0

The Open Toolkit is set of fast, low-level C# bindings for OpenGL, OpenGL ES, OpenAL and OpenCL. It runs on all major platforms and powers hundreds of apps, games and scientific research. It provides bindings for GLFW windowing, input and a game loop, and is the perfect start for your own game engine. OpenTK comes with simple and easy to follow tutorials for learning *modern* OpenGL. These are written by the community and represent all of the best practices to get you started. Learn how to use OpenTK here: https://opentk.net/learn/index.html Sample projects that accompany the tutorial can be found here: https://github.com/opentk/LearnOpenTK We have a very active discord server, if you need help, want to help, or are just curious, come join us! https://discord.gg/6HqD48s

@8Observer8 Thanks, this looks very promising. I guess I missed OpenTK because it isn't promoted as a game library as such but still provides all the relevant features. I will take a close look at this but am still open for more game lib recommendations.

Monogame is good for starting with C# game development.

https://www.nuget.org/packages/SFML.Net/​

SFML.Net 2.5.0

A simple, fast, cross-platform and object-oriented multimedia API. It provides access to windowing, graphics, audio and network.

But SFML.Net is for 2D only and it does not support Android and iOS.

I just came across this lightweight. Maybe it is what you're looking for?

Syncaidius/MoltenEngine: A spare-time game engine project. Written in C#. Multi-threaded. (github.com)