Menu
▾
▴
06. State
Game state is the value of all fields in all traits in all counters at any given time.
A move changes the game state by changing the value of a field.
It is useful to define the concept of stage. A stage is one or more moves that bring the
game from one meaningful state to a next meaningful state. An example is moving a stack of
counters. It consists of the individual moves of each counter but the next stage
is only meaningful when all counters have moved.
Moves are stored on a stack, the stageStack. Stages on the stack are separated by a special
"end" move.
In the figure below the stageStack is illustrated.
The black pointer is the stagePointer that points to the current stage. An undo will move the stagePointer down.
A redo will move it back up. A new move will erase any next stage(s).
There are many useful concepts tied to game state.
-
Game state makes Undo functionality simple. Undo is tied to being able to generate a previous state of the game.
Similarly, Redo is about generating the next state. -
Game state helps to keep the logical representation of the game separate from the physical (visual)
representation of the game on the screen. This improves code quality and clarity. -
Game state is what is saved when saving a game. To already have a game state concept makes saving games easy.
Similarly, loading a game must generate the visual representation on the screen. -
Game state may be the basis for developing a computer opponent. A tree of game states with possible moves
and counter-moves can be generated and their relative merit decided to calculate the best move.
Test code for game state is found here [EDIT: new link]. Counters can be moved, flipped, rotated and deleted. The moves can be undone and redone.
