Introduction to 3D Game Engine Design Using DirectX 9 and C#

Although this is not part of the game engine design, we need to look at the typical game application structure and process flow that will employ the engine to provide a framework for the game engine that we will develop. This process flow is based on observations of numerous commercial computer games . The important thing to remember is that the steps in this flow are not hard-and-set requirements. Do not feel bound to include any steps that do not seem appropriate. The implementation of this process for this books example game will be a simple state machine.

We will have five states in our game process:

• Developer splash screen

• Game splash screen

• Options

• Game play

• After action review

There will be one or more triggers. Each trigger controls the transition from one state to the next . These triggers will be a keystroke, mouse click, or timer expiration as appropriate for whichever state is current.