Step 1: Defining the Game Actions

The first step toward creating an action map is the definition of the game actions. These actions are specific to the application and are defined by the developer. In the case of this example, the actions chosen reflect its needs as a space combat simulator. These values can be defined in many ways as the developer sees fit. They could be defined as an enumeration, as in the Preparing the Action Map overview, or they could be defined as constants as in this code fragment.

#define INPUT_LEFTRIGHT_AXIS   1L
#define INPUT_UPDOWN_AXIS      2L
#define INPUT_TURNLEFT         3L
#define INPUT_TURNRIGHT        4L
#define INPUT_FORWARDTHRUST    5L
#define INPUT_REVERSETHRUST    6L
#define INPUT_FIREWEAPONS      7L
#define INPUT_ENABLESHIELD     8L
#define INPUT_DISPLAYGAMEMENU  9L
#define INPUT_QUITGAME        10L

Once these values are defined, they can be assigned to genre-specific action-mapping constants. This is done in Step 2: Defining the Action Map.