Chapter6.Implementing the User Interface

Chapter 6. Implementing the User Interface

You've spent some time reading through the book now, and I would bet that you're probably anxious to have me stop rambling on about support code and timers. Good news, though, because now you are ready to delve into the actual process of writing your game. You've got your plan, you've got the supporting code, but where to start? It's probably common that you would want to start with the main game first, but doing so would only cause you pain later. Once you had the game engine working, you would need to "retro-fit" the user interface (UI) into the game to start playing. To avoid this potentially costly work, you should first start with the UI of the game. It's relatively simple, and then you can continue the rest of the game unabated.

For this game, you need just three UI screens. The first is the main menu screen, where you can start a new game or exit the application. After making this choice, you see a "character selection" screen, which will really just be a select-your-color screen. Finally, you need a quit-confirmation interface for when the player wants to quit while playing a level. You will do the quit screen in a later chapter because it won't be of any use until you can actually play the game.

In this chapter, you'll learn

• How to design and display the main menu

• How to design and display the selection screen