F# Software Foundation

Game and App Programming with F#

Platforms

F# executes on app and gaming platforms such as Android, iOS, F# on Mac, XBox 360, JavaScript/HTML5 and F# on Windows. See those sections for details about getting started with game and app programming with F# on those platforms.

F# is often ideal for the sever-side of game and app development. See the Web Programming section for details of some server-side technologies. For example, F# is used on the server-sid of one of the largest Facebook social games, as described in this interview.

App Development Stacks

There are some higher-level app development stacks of particular interest to F# users:

  • WebSharper - Can be used for cross-tier client/server HTML5 development and more
  • Xamarin Mobile - Use F# to develop for iOS, Android, Mac and Windows 8 development
  • Xamarin Mac - Use F# to develop applications for Mac OSX
  • Windows Store - You can use F# Portable libraries as components in Windows 8 and Windows 8 Phone applications

3D Game/Visualization Stacks

There are some higher-level advanced game/visualization stacks that are of particular interest to F# users: MonoGame and Microsoft XNA Game Studio.

  • MonoGame is an Open Source implementation of the Microsoft XNA 4 Framework. The goal of the project is to allow XNA developers on Xbox 360, Windows & Windows Phone to port their games to the iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Linux, Windows 8 Metro, and PlayStation Mobile.

    There is a MonoDevelop Mac template by Dave Thomas (@7sharp9). You can find the details of this in the following blog post: Running MonoGame with F# on the Mac

  • Microsoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates video game development and management. XNA attempts to free game developers from writing repetitive boilerplate code and to bring different aspects of game production into a single system.