Nez aims to be a lightweight 2D framework that sits on top of MonoGame/FNA. It provides a solid base for you to build a 2D game on. Some of the many features it includes are:

Scene/Entity/Component system with Component render layer tracking and optional entity systems (an implementation that operates on a group of entities that share a specific set of components)
SpatialHash for super fast broadphase physics lookups. You won't ever see it since it works behind the scenes but you'll love it nonetheless since it makes finding everything in your proximity crazy fast via raycasts or overlap checks.
AABB, circle and polygon collision/trigger detection
Farseer Physics (based on Box2D) integration for when you need a full physics simulation
efficient coroutines for breaking up large tasks across multiple frames or animation timing (Core.startCoroutine)
in-game debug console extendable by adding an attribute to any static method. Just press the tilde key like in the old days with Quake. Out of the box, it includes a visual physics debugging system, asset tracker, basic profiler and more. Just type 'help' to see all the commands or type 'help COMMAND' to see specific hints.
Dear ImGui in-game debug panels with the ability to wire up your own ImGui windows via attributes
in-game Component inspector. Open the debug console and use the command inspect ENTITY_NAME to display and edit fields/properties and call methods with a button click.
Nez.Persistence JSON, NSON (strongly typed, human readable JSON-like syntax) and binary serialization. JSON/NSON includes the ability to automatically resolve references and deal with polymorphic classes
extensible rendering system. Add/remove Renderers and PostProcessors as needed. Renderables are sorted by render layer first then layer depth for maximum flexibility out of the box with the ability to add your own custom sorter.
pathfinding support via Astar and Breadth First Search for tilemaps or your own custom format
deferred lighting engine with normal map support and both runtime and offline normal map generation
tween system. Tween any int/float/Vector/quaternion/color/rectangle field or property.
sprites with sprite animations, scrolling sprites, repeating sprites and sprite trails
flexible line renderer with configurable end caps including super smooth rounded edges or lightning bolt-like sharp edges
powerful particle system with added support for importing Particle Designer files at runtime
optimized event emitter (Emitter class) for core events that you can also add to any class of your own
scheduler for delayed and repeating tasks (Core.schedule method)
per-Scene content managers. Load your scene-specific content then forget about it. Nez will unload it for you when you change scenes.
customizable Scene transition system with several built in transitions
Verlet physics bodies for super fun, constraint-to-particle squishy physics
tons more stuff

Nez Systems

Setup

Install as a submodule:

create a Monogame Cross Platform Desktop Project
clone or download the Nez repository
add the Nez.Portable/Nez.csproj project to your solution and add a reference to it in your main project
make your main Game class (Game1.cs in a default project) subclass Nez.Core

If you intend to use any of the built in Effects or PostProcessors you should also copy or link the DefaultContent/effects folder into your projects Content/nez/effects folder and the DefaultContent/textures folder into Content/nez/textures. Be sure to set the Build Action to Content and enable the "Copy to output directory" property so they get copied into your compiled game. See the Nez.Samples csproj for an example on how to do this.

Note: if you get compile errors referencing a missing project.assets.json file run msbuild Nez.sln /t:restore in the root Nez folder to restore them.

If you are using a .NET Core main application and want to switch the Nez projects over to .NET Standard 2.0, run the following command in a terminal. On Windows it will require the linux subsystem terminal: find . -path Tests -prune -o -name 'Nez*.csproj' | grep -v Tests | grep -v Pipeline | xargs perl -pi -e 's/net471/netstandard2.0/g' You will also need to update the NuGet references in the Nez csproj files to point at the MonoGame dotnet Core versions.

Install through NuGet:

Note that using the NuGet packages isn't recommended. The source code has been carefully commented and contains a wealth of useful information. Use the NuGet packages to give Nez a test and if you like it consider switching to using the source code.

Add Nez to your project's NuGet packages. Optionally add the Nez.FarseerPhysics and Nez.Persistence NuGet packages.

Installing through NuGet, the contents of the DefaultContent content folder is also included in the package. You will find them under packages/Nez.{VERSION}/tools.

All Nez shaders are compiled for OpenGL so be sure to use the DesktopGL template, not DirectX! Nez only supports OpenGL out of the box to keep things compatible across Android/iOS/Mac/Linux/Windows.

If you are developing a mobile application you will need to enable touch input by calling Input.Touch.EnableTouchSupport().

Samples Repository

You can find the samples repo here. It contains a variety of sample scenes that demonstrate the basics of getting stuff done with Nez. This YouTube playlist also has a few relevant videos.

Using Nez with FNA

Note that you have to install the required FNA native libs per the FNA documentation. Here is what you need to do to get up and running with Nez + FNA:

clone this repo recursively
open the Nez solution (Nez/Nez.sln) and build it. This will cause the NuGet packages to refresh.
download/clone FNA
open your game's project and add a reference to FNA and Nez.FNA
(optionally) add references to Nez.FNA.ImGui or Nez.FNA.FarseerPhysics if you need them

The folder structure the cscproj files expect is something like this:

TopLevelFolderHousingEverything
- FNA
- YourGameProject
- Nez

Alternatively, you can use the Nez + FNA template which works for Visual Studio and VS Code available here.

Acknowledgements/Attributions

Bits and pieces of Nez were cherry-picked from various places around the internet. If you see something in Nez that looks familiar open an issue with the details so that we can properly attribute the code.

I want to extend a special thanks to three people and their repos listed below. The Monocle Engine and MonoGame.Extended allowed me to get up and running with MonoGame nearly instantly when I was first evaluating if it would be a good alternative to use for making games. libGDX scene2D UI was ported over to Nez to get a jump start on a UI as well. Nez uses a bunch of concepts and code from all three of these repos.

Matt Thorson's fantastic Monocle Engine

Dylan Wilson's excellent MonoGame.Extended and his initial work on converted Farseer Physics Engine to a Portable Class Library. Farseer is Microsoft Permissive v1.1 licensed.

Nathan Sweet's libGDX Scene2D UI libGDX. Nez UI is based on libGDX Scene2D which is Apache licensed.