Chapter 4. Control Freak

Most games are designed to be interactive. This means that the player must have some way to control what happens during the game. In the last chapter, you wrote code that displayed the robot and moved him across the screen. Now, you will control the robot!

This chapter will explain how to implement an input system to control the game's character, and interact with the game. Topics will include:

• Types of input: There are many ways to interact with your game. Typically, games written for the PC depended on the mouse and keyboard. Direct touch input has now become the standard for mobile and tablet devices, and soon every PC will also have a touch-enabled display. We will cover the most common methods to receive input in your game.
• Using the mouse and keyboard: In this section, you will write code to receive input from the mouse and keyboard to control both the game and our friendly robot.
• Creating the user interface: In addition to controlling our robot, we also need a way to interact with the game. You will learn how to create an onscreen interface that allows you to control the game and choose the game options.
• Controlling the character: We want our robot to be able to walk, run, jump, and play! You will learn how to use the mouse and keyboard to control how your robot moves about on the screen.