State Machine Framework

State Machines provide a framework to manage the logic of an event-driven dynamic system. Many aspects of game-design/development can be modeled and implemented by state-machines. For visual novels, we can consider each Scene as a game-state, where player decisions are the events that allow change between scenes. State Machines provide a simplified perspective of a complex system, which simplifies the logic required to implement dynamic game logic.

State Machine is a System Model

A State Machine models a complex system which is simplified according to these rules:

• There exists a finite set of well-defined states that the system can be in.

• There exists a finite set of discrete events which can cause the system to transition into a different state

• There is a well-defined set of State-Event relationships that specify valid transitions for the system.

• Events can be considered as enternal signals that impact the system.

• It is necessary to specify the starting state of the system

• It is necessary to have program memory which maintains track of the current system state.

  We implement the StateManager class to manage the State Machine structure.

  State-Machines structure:

• a finite set of states,

• a well-defined set of events that correspond to transitions between states

• tracking the currently active state

  State: A State can represent a wide range of things: a scene, an animation clip, a behavior of an NPC.

Event: Events can be due to a variety of causes such as user input or due to gameObjects interacting with each other.

State-Event Transitions: A logical structure specifies which events cause valid transitions for each CurrentState-Event-NextState transition relationship.

UML Class Diagrams: State-Manager System

State-Machine Framework