Summary

The ability to effectively communicate with the people that play your games is a critical factor of game design and development. In one direction a game communicates by displaying graphics and playing sounds and music, but in the other direction the user responds by interacting with a physical input device of some sort . It's very important for game developers to master the fine art of responding to user input through a variety of different user input devices. The keyboard and mouse are the two fundamental user input devices that you can count on virtually all people having. This hour showed you how to handle and respond to keyboard and mouse input in an efficient manner specifically suited to games.

Beyond the keyboard and mouse, it's up to your resources and the specific needs of each game to determine whether you should support additional input devices. Hour 7 tackles the subject of joystick input, which is the next most important input device for games.