GFKAEV^‡

Slowly but surely the game progresses. I have a list - partially mental, partially written - of all the things I need to add to the game before I consider it done. After reviewing the list, it sometimes seems like I'll never be finished. Plus of course I'm constantly adding to it. More features ... more equipment ... more planetary objects ... more more more. This is probably why Dave and I hardly ever finished any of our games. We're constantly striving for perfection - and our definition of perfection gets upped a notch each time we get remotely close to achieving it.

Of course this is partially a good thing. As a result of our stubbornness we'll never create something we think is second-rate. If we don't like playing it then there is something wrong. In the past, however, this has degenerated into incessant tweaking. We get so caught up in the need to make it the best that we forget to actually finish the game.

This is why I am so determined to complete GFKAEV^‡ (or whatever it ends up being called). I want to have the satisfaction of not just finishing a game, but of finishing a game of which I am proud.

As a goal for which to shoot I'm aiming to have at least a minimal demo (a few levels) out for the next issue of the Insider. It's all a matter of finding time to code.

Items in bold are more recent.

Here's the list of what I've done so far:

• Added fire and smoke when you thrust.
• Shields now recharge. If an object gets hit enough such that it's shield drops, it will slowly charge back up. After the shield energy reaches a certain threshold it will turn back on.
• Added pieces of scrap which fly off a turret when hit (after the shield has been drained of course)
• When the turrets explode there are a couple of explosion sprites and a few large pieces of scrap go flying away. As a neat after-effect, the large pieces of scrap explode into several smaller pieces after a time delay. It doesn't affect anything, but it looks cool.
• Each planet can come in 5 different sizes - and thus 5 different gravity strengths. Also each can use any one of 6 different CLUTs. I plan on having 8 different planet graphics so this leads to 8 * 5 * 6 or 240 possible planets. The different CLUTs have no actual affect on gameplay - they're just there so you don't see the same planets over and over.
• I significantly increased the quality of the planet graphics. I had bought that Texture Universe CD when I got the Yaroze and figured this was a good way to finally use it. By applying a mineral, dirt, or organic texture to a sphere's surface it looks convincingly like a planet. Check out these samples:


• I restructured my code to make it more viable to create a level editor.
• A two-level parallax background has been added. Rather than use the GsBG method (since I could never get that to work) I just use sprites.
• Added a module which prints any text string on the screen. You can play all sorts of funky tricks with the letters. I will use this for the intro sequence and for beginning of level messages.
• Player and turret shields added (with crappy hand-drawn art)
• If a player/turret gets hit and still has enough shield energy left to absorb the damage then only the shield is displayed.
• If the shield is low on power (or has no power) then an explosion is shown and damage is done to the target.
• Collision detection for laser beams added
• Turrets rotate to face the player and fire when facing it
• Implemented a table for the various types of turrets. That way I can have one turret which rotates quickly, but fires slowly; or another which rotates slowly but has a powerful laser; etc.
• Note that any laser can hit any target once fired. So if you fly between two turrets correctly, they could both fire at you, miss, and end up hitting each other.
• Created new object for enemy turrets
• Player can now fire laser
• Added HUD to show vectors for movement, thrust, and gravity
• Player can rotate and thrust
• Collision detection for the player hitting planets added
• Objects exert appropriate gravity on the player
• Menu at beginning of level lets you select angle and power
• Screen scrolls when actual playfield is larger than screen size
• Objects display on screen

• I think I hit the limit for number of sprites on the screen at once. Unfortunately it's around 250 so that doesn't give me much room to do cool effects. You can be sure I'll try to stretch it as far as I can.

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