Eric Barone makes $125,000 donation to the C# framework Stardew Valley uses, as well as ‘an ongoing monthly commitment’ in what the team behind it calls an ‘extraordinary show of support’

Eric Barone, the developer behind all-time great farming sim Stardew Valley, has had his head down working on the upcoming Haunted Chocolatier since it was announced in 2021. But he’s also flirted with a bit of gaming-minded philanthropy, publicly musing about whether he’d save the Minecraft-like Hytale before it was sold back to its original owners; and today, the open-source C# framework MonoGame announced it received a sizable donation from Barone that kicks off a long-term relationship.

MonoGame announced in a post on X that Barone “has made a very generous initial donation of $125,000 and an ongoing monthly commitment to the project. This extraordinary show of support, alongside ongoing contributions from other studios and individuals, helps ensure MonoGame continues to be the open-source C# framework that game developers of all sizes can rely on.”

While Stardew Valley wasn’t initially built using MonoGame—it switched to the framework from XNA in 2021—it has been used to make all sorts of indie hits. You can find a list of games that utilize the framework on its website, ranging from reverse-horror game Carrion to Celeste to cutesy RTS Tooth and Tail.

I can’t speak to the specific advantages offered by XNA or derivatives like MonoGame as I am no programmer, but it seems like a net positive for prospective game developers to have open-source options like this win the support of figures like Barone. It reminds me a bit of when the Terraria dev dunked on Unity by donating to open-source game engines Godot and FNA.