Part 9 - Game Over

The last thing the game is missing is an ending! Update the code so that the game ends when the player runs out of lives. All changes will take place in the ArcadeFlyerGame.cs file.

Tracking Game Over

Add a way to track whether or not the game has ended. If it has, stop the game from running.

1. In the ArcadeFlyerGame class, under the score field, add a new private bool field named gameOver
2. Set the value of gameOver to be false to start

    private bool gameOver = false;
   

3. In the Update method, find where the life field is decremented
4. Under that, create an if statement to check if the life field has gone below 1
5. In the body of the if statement, set gameOver to true

    if (life < 1)
    {
        gameOver = true;
    }
   

6. Next, at the very top of the body of the Update method, create another if statement
7. Make this if statement check the gameOver field as its condition
8. In the body of the if statement, simply return from the method so no updates will continue

    if (gameOver)
    {
        return;
    }
   

Run the code and see what happens! The game should freeze when the player has zero lives remaining.

Displaying a Final Message

The program properly freezes when the game ends, but it's not entirely clear what's happening. When the game is over, everything should disappear except a final message near the center of the screen.

1. In the ArcadeFlyer class, find the Draw method
2. At the very top of this method, create an if statement
3. Make the if statement check if the game is over
4. In the body of the if statement, call GraphicsDevice.Clear and pass in an appropriate color
5. Under that, call spriteBatch.Begin
6. Next, create a new Vector2 variable named textPosition
7. Set the textPosition variable to a new Vector2 object, passing in screenWidth / 2 and screenHeight / 2
8. Under that, call spriteBatch.DrawString, and pass in the following:
   • textFont for the SpriteFont object
   • A new string displaying a "Game Over" message, along with the final score
   • textPosition for the Vector2 object
   • An appropriate Color value
9. Under that, call the spriteBatch.End method
10. Finally, under that, return early from the method so nothing else is drawn

Code

if (gameOver)
{
    GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Black);
    spriteBatch.Begin();

    Vector2 textPosition = new Vector2(screenWidth / 2, screenHeight / 2);
    spriteBatch.DrawString(textFont, $"Game Over :(\nFinal Score: {score}", textPosition, Color.White);

    spriteBatch.End();
    return;
}

Run the game again, and it should display a message when the game is over!

Final Code

The final code for this walkthrough is available on GitHub.

Next Steps

Beyond this, take a look at the Enhancement Ideas to try to make the game even better!