Time for action – initializing the game board

  1. Add a constructor to the GameBoard class: 
    Public Sub New(pieceTexture As Texture2D, emptyArea As Rectangle)
  playingPieces = pieceTexture
  emptyPiece = emptyArea
  ClearBoard()
End Sub
  2. Add the ClearBoard() helper method to the GameBoard class: 
    Public Sub ClearBoard()
  Dim x, y As Integer
  For x = 0 To GameBoardWidth
    For y = 0 To GameBoardHeight
      boardSquares(x, y) = New GamePiece("Empty")
    Next
  Next
End Sub

What just happened?

When a new instance of the GameBoard class is created, we store the texture and rectangle values that we will need for drawing, and the constructor calls the ClearBoard() helper method, which simply creates 80 empty game pieces and assigns them to each element in the array.

Tip

Helper methods

Why not simply put the two for loops that clear the board into the GameBoard constructor? Splitting work up into methods that accomplish a single purpose greatly helps to keep your code both readable and maintainable. Additionally, by splitting ClearBoard() out as its own method, we can call it separately from the constructor. When we add increasing difficulty levels in Chapter 3, Flood Control - Smoothing Out the Rough Edges, we will make use of this call when a new level starts.

Updating GamePieces

The boardSquares array in the GameBoard class is declared as a private member, meaning that code that uses the GameBoard will not have direct access to the pieces contained on the board.

In order for code in our Game1 class to interact with a GamePiece, we will need to create public methods in the GameBoard class that expose the pieces in boardSquares.

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