   Graphical Menu
  I'm attempting to figure out the best method to create the graphical menu (that usually follows the splash screens | Play, Options, Controls, etc.) in C#. I started designing it using multiple form applications, but was wondering if using multiple threads in a game is a bad idea? (Nothing of the which is taught from the recent resources I've been to which all include strictly XNA).If using multiple form applications (or even multiple threads) isn't the idea then I'm missing the idea entirely. I'm not exactly sure how to go about creating a graphical menu, and switching from the menu to the actual game. My attempt at using form applications as the graphical menu lead me to having to use threads to load the game (once loaded, it would close the menu form application; or should I have the game side load the form applications?).Is that the idea?Going down that route I figured I could run a "loading" form application with a new thread created that actually would be loading the game portion in the background.Or, are you suppose to do all of that through just the game side (single application, no threads)? I'm fairly new to game programming, and any examples I find are for XNA menus which are just text, which I'm sure I can replace as 2d images, but the main support with most XNA resources are for XBox360 (no mouse examples, lol).Any help would be greatly appreciated.   
  I started building the graphical menu game wise, thinking it was probably the best choice for performance, however if it doesn't harm performance I wouldn't mind trial and error through multiple form applications and threading.I'm basically using collision detection to determine if the mouse is over a specific 2d texture, if so, it will render a different 2d texture instead (for a hover effect), and if it remains within the area of the 2d texture and the left button is clicked, it'll do the actions.A slight and rare flicker will happen when changing images, but I imagine I can fix that by making the 2d texture both the normal and hover image (while I'm at it, make a clicking image). The 'ole so fun part will be making this a class so it can be more flexible and be able to load a new menu after clicking an item from a previous menu.However, multiple applications would have been easier in my opinion, since I could visually edit most of the menu instead of determining X and Y coordinates, but if this is the usual practice that provides better performance then I'm all over it.Any help or ideas would be grateful.Also, how would I go about finding a team for my project? I know, it's totally off subject, but I'm curious. I would eventually need to find a team, volunteer is preferred but I can pay as well. A programming partner/buddy would be fantastic right about now.Let Me Correct: Volunteer is preferred, however if the project became a selling project, I have no problems splitting the income. Payed partners will only receive the agreed payment.Thanks everyone.[Edited by - paul_thomas on June 17, 2009 12:28:46 AM];  Multithreading is not a bad thing and is getting quite popular in game development, but it is not necessary. Btw. using multithreading is one of the fastest ways to shoot yourself in the foot. As a beginner start stick to just one single threaded application.Quote:Also, how would I go about finding a team for my project? I know, it's totally off subject, but I'm curious. I would eventually need to find a team, volunteer is preferred but I can pay as well. A programming partner/buddy would be fantastic right about now.Let Me Correct: Volunteer is preferred, however if the project became a selling project, I have no problems splitting the income. Payed partners will only receive the agreed payment.Take a look at the "Help Wanted" forum. A little advice, before mentioning payment, be sure you really want to spend money for development service,atleast you need  a few hundred $ per working day (=8 hours of work) to attract any professional developer or artist. Else try to join an other project, there are several "beginner team" projects to learn game development (browse the "Help Wanted" forum).--Ashaman   ;  Ashaman,Thanks for the reply man. You know, I browsed through the forum categories really quickly and didn't even see "Help Wanted," bah. I guess because I was searching for categories that said "Advertising" or something.Thanks for the advice on both topics. I'm fairly decent with threading but was only forced into the topic when attempting to make reusable graphical menus with form applications, otherwise I would have never really thought of it.