I’ve been somewhat distracted by Portal 2. It’s pretty awesome!
In development news: I’ve set up a potentially-final menu layout. It’ll look prettier before the game’s done, but the functionality is there.
I’m structuring the game into four sectors, each with its own ship types, twenty waves, and two bosses. Getting points in playthroughs of those sectors will give you credits. Those credits will buy you unlocks. Your best score in each sector will also give you a medal, with challengingly high scores taking gold.
The simulator will let you practice and play around with each of the unique fighter types in the game. I’m hoping to give each one a challenge mode, whether it’s fighting through as many AI waves as possible on a single life or something better tailored to that fighter’s special abilities.
I’ve also revamped the scoring system. Originally, you earnt points as you went along, but it wasn’t very clear what you were earning and the incentives were bad – the system rewarded you for taking as long as possible to kill stuff, for example. Now, there’s a basic combo system where each kill increases a points multiplier which is reset on death.
It’s a simple tweak, but it directly incentivises skilful play and makes each life its own arc of glorious destruction. Definitely a plus.
What I’ve realised, in deciding to split the game into four twenty-wave sectors, is that I now need to go and develop enough unique ship and boss types to make every sector compelling and unique. I somehow don’t think I’m going to finish this by the end of April!