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MonoGame VS p5.js

Compare MonoGame VS p5.js and see what are their differences

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MonoGame logo MonoGame

MonoGame is an open source implementation of the Microsoft XNA 4 Framework.

p5.js logo p5.js

JS library for creating graphic and interactive experiences
  • MonoGame Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-01
  • p5.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-22

MonoGame features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Support
    MonoGame allows developers to create games that run on multiple platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and more) from a single codebase.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, MonoGame is free to use and has a community-driven development process. Developers can contribute to its growth and adapt it to their needs.
  • Familiarity
    MonoGame retains the XNA framework's API, which is familiar to many game developers who have previously worked with Microsoft's XNA.
  • Extensive Documentation
    The MonoGame community has created extensive documentation, tutorials, and examples, making it easier for new developers to get started.
  • High Performance
    MonoGame is built with performance in mind, enabling developers to create games that run efficiently across different devices.

Possible disadvantages of MonoGame

  • Manual Resource Management
    Developers need to handle resource management manually, including loading and unloading assets, which can be cumbersome and error-prone.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    While it offers extensive support, new developers may find MonoGame's learning curve steep, especially those unfamiliar with game development or the XNA framework.
  • Lacks Built-in Editors
    Unlike some game engines, MonoGame does not come with built-in level or asset editors. Developers must rely on third-party tools or create their own.
  • Limited High-Level Features
    MonoGame offers a more low-level framework compared to some other engines like Unity or Unreal Engine, lacking advanced built-in features such as physics engines or advanced AI systems.
  • Community Dependency
    As an open-source project, MonoGame's development and support heavily depend on its community. This can result in slower updates and potentially less reliable support compared to commercial engines with dedicated support teams.

p5.js features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    p5.js simplifies the process of learning and creating interactive graphics with its intuitive syntax, making it accessible for beginners.
  • Web-Based
    As a JavaScript library, p5.js runs directly in the web browser, enabling easy sharing and embedding of interactive sketches online without the need for additional plugins.
  • Creative Coding Community
    p5.js is supported by a vibrant community that shares a plethora of examples, tutorials, and resources, facilitating learning and troubleshooting.
  • Extensibility
    Its modular architecture allows for easy integration with other libraries like p5.sound, p5.dom, and even external JavaScript libraries, enhancing its functionality.
  • Accessibility
    p5.js emphasizes inclusivity, offering features that make it easier to create accessible web content, such as screen reader support.

Possible disadvantages of p5.js

  • Performance
    p5.js may not be as performant as other lower-level graphics libraries or frameworks, which can be a limitation for highly intensive graphical applications.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While beginner-friendly, mastering complex features and fine-tuning performance in p5.js can require significant effort and understanding of JavaScript.
  • Not Ideal for Large Projects
    Due to its simplicity and focus on learning and prototyping, p5.js might not be suitable for large-scale, production-grade applications.
  • Limited 3D Support
    Although p5.js offers 3D rendering capabilities, these are less developed and performant compared to dedicated 3D libraries like Three.js.
  • Dependency on JavaScript
    Since p5.js is built on JavaScript, it inherits the language's limitations and quirks, which might be a hindrance for developers accustomed to other programming languages.

Analysis of MonoGame

Overall verdict

  • MonoGame is a solid choice for game developers who wish to create cross-platform games with a minimal learning curve. Its compatibility with the XNA Framework makes it particularly appealing to those migrating old XNA projects to modern platforms. While it may lack some advanced features found in other engines like Unity, its lightweight nature and focus on code-oriented game development make it well-suited for many types of indie and hobbyist projects.

Why this product is good

  • MonoGame is a popular open-source framework for creating cross-platform games. It is based on Microsoft's XNA Framework, which many developers are familiar with. MonoGame supports multiple platforms like Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, and consoles, allowing developers to reach a wide audience. It also has a large and active community, providing plenty of resources and support. The framework is known for its simplicity, ease of use, and flexibility, making it a good choice for both beginners and experienced developers aiming to develop 2D and basic 3D games.

Recommended for

  • Developers familiar with XNA seeking a modern alternative
  • Indie game developers focusing on 2D or basic 3D games
  • Hobbyists and those new to game development
  • Developers looking for a lightweight and code-focused game framework
  • Cross-platform game creators targeting multiple operating systems and devices

Analysis of p5.js

Overall verdict

  • p5.js is a highly regarded tool for creative coding, offering a versatile platform for interactive graphics and art. Its simplicity and powerful functionality make it a popular choice in the creative coding community.

Why this product is good

  • p5.js is considered good due to its user-friendly interface and extensive documentation, which make it accessible for both beginners and experienced developers. It's designed to make coding easy and approachable for artists, designers, educators, and beginners, focusing on the creative potential of programming.

Recommended for

  • Artists
  • Designers
  • Educators
  • Students
  • Beginners in programming
  • Anyone interested in creative coding and visual arts

MonoGame videos

+ Add

MonoGame 3.7 Released

More videos:

  • Review - Why I use Monogame, and why I do what I do - Game Dev Talks 2

p5.js videos

+ Add

Processing or p5.js? My opinions

More videos:

  • Review - Q&A #1: Side-Scroller in p5.js
  • Tutorial - 17.11: Sound Visualization: Frequency Analysis with FFT - p5.js Sound Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to MonoGame and p5.js)

MonoGame

p5.js

Game Development
100 100%
Game Development
0% 0
Javascript UI Libraries
0 0%
Javascript UI Libraries
100% 100
Game Engine
100 100%
Game Engine
0% 0
Charting Libraries
0 0%
Charting Libraries
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare MonoGame and p5.js

MonoGame Reviews

The Best Gaming Engines You Should Consider for 2023
MonoGame is a game development framework that allows developers to create games for multiple platforms using C#. It provides a unified API for accessing graphics and audio, making it far easier for developers to create games that work across mobile, desktop, and web without having to rewrite any code.
Source: www.incredibuild.com
20 Best Scratch Alternatives 2023
However, MonoGame takes an edge over Scratch with support for 3D. In addition, MonoGame works with codes, not just objects. It supports mainly C#, in addition to other .NET languages.
Source: rigorousthemes.com
Top 10 Mobile Game Development Tools For Intellectual Games
MonoGame toolkit used to develop multi-platform games. It is a C# framework that implements the API of XNA (Microsoft’s late-game development toolset, which is alive through MonoGame and other smaller open-source frameworks) and also supports all .Net languages. So if developers have C# and .Net knowledge, it would not be difficult to develop games with MonoGame for them.
Source: unaryteam.com
The Best 15 Mobile Game Engines / Development Platforms & Tools in 2020
MonoGame is also a multi-platform game engine that uses class architecture and works with C and Net languages. You can find many tutorials in their website helping you in creating your product.
Source: thetool.io

p5.js Reviews

20+ JavaScript libraries to draw your own diagrams (2022 edition)
A JS client-side library for creating graphics and interactive experiences, based on the core principles of Processing to make coding accessible to artists, designers and educators. Beyond drawing, this project provides offers web audio functionality, collision detection and even generation of graphical user interfaces from p5.js sketches.
Source: modeling-languages.com
8 Best Free and Open-Source Drawing Libraries in JavaScript
The p5.js library is a great option for people who are looking for a library that doesn't have a steep learning curve, but which can create very complicated systems if necessary. The get started with P5.js page on the official website has a functional example that draws circles wherever you move your mouse in only a few lines of code.
Source: code.tutsplus.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, p5.js seems to be a lot more popular than MonoGame. While we know about 146 links to p5.js, we've tracked only 5 mentions of MonoGame. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

MonoGame mentions (5)

  • Rust Dependencies Scare Me
    To be fair, there is no language that has a framework that contains all of these things... Unless you're using one of the game engines like Unity/Unreal. If you're willing to constrain yourself to 2D games, and exclude physics engines (assume you just use one of the Box2D bindings) and also UI (2D gamedevs tend to make their own UI systems anyway)... Then your best bet in the C# world is Monogame... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Free high-performance cross-platform game engine
    Defold has been there for a while, not sure of why this in on the front page right now. Anyways, Defold is good, the community, docs etc. Are on the lower side as compared to Godot. The other options include MonoGame https://monogame.net/ (Stardew Valley was written in it) and of-course the biggies like Unity or Unreal. A lot depends on how much investment in learning one wants to make, what is the feature set one... - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • New Year, New Game Engine - Nikola Engine Devlog 0
    You see, for the past several years I have used many programming languages and many more game frameworks and libraries. Programming languages like Java, C#, C++, and even, sadly, JavaScript (I know...). Game frameworks like LWJGL, SDL2, Raylib, MonoGame, SFML, and many more. Essentially, I have seen it all. Out of all of them, I think SDL2 was closer to what I was looking for, though, Raylib was the one I used the... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Can't make my mind about which engine to use
    LibGDX is great, but I can understand if it's not for some people. This also applies to love2d, raylib and Monogame. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Errors on installing monogame
    I followed the Getting Started instructions on monogame.net. Source: over 3 years ago

p5.js mentions (146)

  • Ask HN: Who Are Your Favorite Photography and Generative Coding Artists?
    p5.js is a JavaScript library that I've enjoyed messing with. It's related to Processing. https://p5js.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Art Blocks and the Future of Open Source with Blockchain
    Art Blocks, founded by Erick Calderon in 2020, is a platform that enables artists to create generative art using blockchain technology. It operates on the Ethereum blockchain, leveraging smart contracts to mint unique art pieces as NFTs. The process begins with artists submitting scripts that define the artwork's parameters. Once approved, these scripts generate unique pieces upon purchase, offering collectors a... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Rant: state of generative AI in code generation.
    In my experience with AI code generation, in visual projects like UI development or JavaScript based animation (using three.js or p5.js) etc. AI tools work pretty well. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Procedural Generation and Noise
    For this most recent assignment we were tasked with contributing a larger feature to an open source project. During my time with the previous assignment I worked on a game engine called Litecanvas, inspired engine by libraries like raylib and p5.js/Processing. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Antirez/load81: SDL based Lua programming environment for kids similar to Codea
    Let’s not forget P5js which has a long and esteemed history of helping to teach kids and more to program. It’s browser based so it’s compatible with every OS and requires no install. FOSS with an active community of users and contributors. I personally taught some middle schoolers with zero programming experience how to make interactive monsters in 1 hour. It was awesome! https://p5js.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing MonoGame and p5.js, you can also consider the following products

Godot Engine - Feature-packed 2D and 3D open source game engine.

Pixi.js - Fast lightweight 2D library that works across all devices

AppGameKit - AppGameKit is a game development platform for mobile devices.

Processing - C++ and Java programming at the speed of thought.

RPG Maker - Make your own PC game with RPG Maker. Our easy to use tools are simple enough for a child, and powerful enough for a developer. Try it free today!

Three.js - A JavaScript 3D library which makes WebGL simpler.

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