Creating a game

To create a new Yaeger Game, a Java class should be created that

• extends YeagerGame
• contains the following method:

public static void main(String[]args){
    launch(args);
}

Such a game does not have any content yet, but it can be run and will only show the Splash screen. This Splash screen will be shown before each Yaeger Game. It can, however, be disabled by adding a commandline argument when running your game. More information on this can be found here.

Lifecycle methods of YeagerGame

By extending YeagerGame, several methods will need to be implemented. These methods are part of the lifecycle of a Yaeger Game and will be responsible for setting up the content of the Game.

Setting up the game, through setupGame()

The first method to implement is setupGame(), which has the following s ignature:

@Override
protected void setupGame(){
}

This method will be called first and must be used to set up the width/height and title of the Game. A typical implementation can look like:

@Override
protected void setupGame(){
    setGameTitle("Waterworld");
    setSize(new Size(800,600));
}

For more information, check the API of setupGame()

Adding Scenes, through setupScenes()

After setupGame() has been called, Yaeger will call setupScenes(). This is the second step in the life cycle of a Yaeger Game, in which it expects the developer to add Scenes to the Game. Scenes can be added by calling addScene(int, YaegerScene). The first parameter is the id of the YaegerScene, which can be used to select which YaegerScene will be shown. By default, the first scene that is added, will be the first scene that is shown.

A typical implementation can ook like:

@Override
protected void setupScenes(){
    addScene(0, new TitleScene(this));
    addScene(1, new GameLevel(this));
    addScene(2, new GameOverScene(this));
}

Loading a scene

When adding scenes to the Yaeger Game, the first added scene will also be the one that gets loaded and becomes visible. To load a specific scene, YaegerGame provides the method setActiveScene(int). Read the API for the details on how to use this method.

What about the constructor?

For Plain Old Java Objects (POJO's) the constructor is usually used for configuring your Object. Although it is not always the best approach, since the constructor should be only used for constructing an Object, not for configuring it, it will usually still work.

With Yaeger, however, it will usually not work. Configuring a YaegerGame should only be done from the setupGame() method. Furthermore, the constructor of the class that extends YaegerGame should be empty, since Yaeger will otherwise not know how to make an instance of it.