"Day 31": Aether Collect mission

Day 30 is finisherminocamitisaroficious.

It's a basic Collect mission that utilizes almost everything accumulated from other Biomes--flying platforms, timed walls, timed spikes, spinning walls, spinning spikes, hidden spikes, doors, fake walls, etc.

Game is 88% done now :)

I've now got six days to finish each of the remaining levels to make the deadline. In fact, I have six point six days. Point six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six six...

Design: Polishing the interface

I did more polishing today, which was going to be done sooner or later, so I'm going it sooner. Notably, I smoothed out the transitions between menus and levels, and just smoother in general. This includes fading in and out between the two and also this intro pause to each level:

This creates an intermediate between when you select a level and when you start it. You can also use this time to read the instructions to Errands (if the level you choose is a minigame). It's very smooth in the way that it fades in, the level name (in this case, "Imperial: Day 28") scrolls, fades in after you begin, etc. Details are probably pretty boring for you to hear.

Anyways, a somewhat high priority is going to try to fade out music:
- after selecting a mission from the main menu
- finishing a mission (when the Completed or Failed screen comes up)

GM's function for fading in and fading out is pretty confusing in that I can't get it to work anywhere I put the function.

Small update, I'll be chipping away at finishing levels, but I really want to make this game smooth and not awkward at all. To the extent of my skill, that is.

Design: Incorporating PC and PSP control schemes

I realized yesterday that I'm pretty much finished with my game. A couple of more level designing sessions, a simple endgame level, and an epilogue, and it's all done. That is why I'm going to be lazy and not do anything for a while.

Instead, today, I polished quite a bit. I updated the game so it looks like in both PC and PSP mode (chosen through Options), fixed many bugs, optimized the code, cleaned up some code, and made some of the Errands more efficient and better-looking. It was about two hours' worth of work but most of it was looking through code and playing through to test. It's a nice break.

By my calculations, I have 7.0 days to work on each level to meet the deadline. Ah...

What I mean by PC and PSP:

I had some sound advice to separate the two control schemes as to not confuse the player. Rather than showing Press [Cross Button]/[X Button] to select or [Circle Button]/[C Button] to continue, it'll just show one. I do agree when I see Comp05/Comp06 entries show both the PC and PSP setup, it miffs me. If that makes sense.

Design: Three new enemy "turret" types

I didn't really work on any new missions, but I did a lot of work on three new features introduced in the Aether Biome (the cloud world). There's the Helix, which is essentially a turret which shoots spinning bullets at you. There's the Smoker, which shoot a homing rocket at the player (which actually is kind of annoying with its somewhat accurate following and loud proximity beeping). And then there's the Flasher, which is pretty much just a turret that shoots lasers at you.

The Flasher is in the style of N/N+, where the laser creates a crosshair which homes onto the player. After it's aimed at the player, the laser will be fired. There's somewhat of a chance to avoid lasers as long as you continue moving in one direction.

Helix

Smoker

Flasher

Yes, the names are pretty stupid. And, yes, I realize that a laser doesn't really make sense. BUT LET ME DO IT.

As I said in the previous post's comment, if anybody wants to play the current progress of the game, contact me wherever you see fit (if you know me from the GMC, YYG, 64D, etc.) or just post in one of my blog...things. If you want to test, and have your name added in the list of Testers in the credits, tell me also. G'day.