iPhone Game Development

The Skeleton Application

By now, we should have a well-rounded framework with all of the basic functionality to begin creating our game. In addition, we have a number of example states showing how to use each feature available. Before we move on to the next chapter, we should create a skeleton application that ties all of the states together to show off our work.

Since we already have the framework and example states, all we need to do is create a Main menu state that will allow us to navigate to each example. The fastest way to do this is with Interface Builder:

1. Select Xcode file→New File→User Interfaces→View XIB and name the file gsmainmenu.xib.

2. Select Xcode file→New File→Cocoa Touch Classes→NSObject subclass and name the new class gsMainMenu.

3. Modify gsMainMenu.h so that the class inherits from GameState instead of NSObject.

4. Add #include "GameState.h" to the top of gsMainMenu.h.

5. Add an IBOutlet to gsMainMenu.h for the view that you will load from gsmainmenu.xib:

   IBOutlet UIView* subview;

6. In gsMainMenu.m, override initWithFrame: andManager: to manually load gsmainmenu.xib and set up the subview:

   -(gsMainMenu*) initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame andManager:(GameStateManager*)pManager { if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame andManager:pManager]) { //load the gsmainmenu.xib file here. this will //instantiate the 'subview' uiview. [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"gsmainmenu" owner:self options:nil]; //add subview as... a subview. This will let everything //from the nib file show up on screen. ...