Changing of the Guard

April 11, 2014 by Dominique Louis in News

There’s no way of saying it, other than, it is with much sadness that I must step away from the MonoGame project co-ordinator role.

I’ve been a part of it since about 2010 and being part of this project has been one of the greatest experiences of my 20+ year IT career. Being part of this project literally changed my life and I don’t say that lightly. For example I probably would not be working for Xamarin today, if I had not joined the MonoGame project so many years ago. Or been invited to //Build a couple of years ago and lots more.

From its humble beginnings as XNATouch when I helped José Antonio Leal de Farias on the iOS port, I felt it was a worthy project. So much to do, so much to learn. There were lots of contributors who helped us out in those early days. THANKS!

When José left I stepped up to try and lead the project. I hope I’ve done an adequate job over the years.

Then to seeing it grow with Dean Ellis and Kenneth Pouncey working on the Android and Mac ports respectively and then seeing the project take off when Tom Spilman and Steve Williams joined us and we released the Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 ports. Back in the early days one of my goals, when I started believing this project had potential, was to see it on a console and recently, thanks to the awesome work of Tom Spilman and his band of merry coders at Sickhead Games, that dream was realized with the PS4 port!! I’d like to thank the Core team for putting up with my stupid questions over the years and still answering them with a straight face :).

Sure there were naysayers in the early days, who doubted the viability of the project, who asked why bother, said Microsoft would shut us down! But those of us who contributed just loved what we were doing and I think we all saw that our efforts would ultimately not be futile because, if nothing else, we would have met and worked with some gifted people and learned so so much in the process. The journey is more important than the destination.

To everyone that has supported the project over the years, with code contributions, bug reports, donated money, I just wanted to say a massive THANK-YOU!! You have made this project what it is today and have made this period in my life *unforgettable*.

It has been an amazing journey and one I would not swap for anything in the world, but the fact is that I have not had time to contribute anything meaningful to the project recently, so it seems only fair to pass on the baton to people how have the best interests of the Project at heart and the time to move it forward. So I have officially handed all control and rights to Tom Spilman and Steve ‘Sly’ Williams. The project is in amazing hands and I think has an amazing future. I cannot step away totally, as I am still very passionate about the project, but will hopefully do more evangelising as the project targets more platforms/consoles.

As hinted to above, my latest mantra is “The Journey is More Important Than the Destination!”. In our lives it does not matter how we are born, or how we die that defines us. It is how we fill the time between those end-points and how we live our lives, that is paramount and what defines us. Same too with being part of the MonoGame project. It matters not that I joined and that I’m now leaving, but everything that happened in between is what it most important to me. Thanks again for making the last 4 years, incredible. Whatever project you are working on, or goal you are trying to achieve, remember that the journey is more important than the destination. 😉

Dominique Louis.