I am having some trouble serializing/deserializing in a little game I am doing to teach myself monogame. Basically, I am using the gamestatemnanagement resources common to monogame (screen manager etc). Then I am serializing my screen manager component and all associated screens in the OnDeactivated method: protected override void OnDeactivated(Object sender, EventArgs args) { foreach (GameplayScreen screen in mScreenManager.GetScreens()) { DataManager.SaveData(screen.Level.LevelData); } mScreenManager.SerializeState(); } The Save data bit is to do with something else. Then I then override OnActivated to de serialize protected override void OnActivated(Object sender, EventArgs args) { //System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("here activating"); mScreenManager.DeserializeState(); } However, when this runs it just loads a blank screen - it goes into the game initialize and the game draw method, but doesnt go down into the screens initialize or draw methods. I have no idea why this might be - any help would be greatly appreciated. I am not the only one who has encountered this - I found this post also - https://monogame.codeplex.com/discussions/391117