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...