Adding text fields

I'm generally a big fan of having as few text fields in an application as possible, and this holds doubly true for a game but there are some occasions when receiving some sort of textual information from the player is required so in these regrettable occasions, a textbox or field may be an appropriate choice.

Unfortunately, a premade textbox isn't always available to us on any given gaming project, so sometimes we must create our own.

Getting ready

This recipe only relies upon the presence of a single SpriteFont file referring to any font at any desired size.

How to do it...

To start adding textboxes to your own games:

1. 1. Add a SpriteFont to the solution named Text:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <XnaContent xmlns:Graphics=
   "Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.Graphics">
   <Asset Type="Graphics:FontDescription">
   <FontName>Segoe UI Mono</FontName>
   <Size>28</Size>
   <Spacing>0</Spacing>
   <UseKerning>true&lt...