I don't think I like those wall crushers very much. They make the player too powerfull.
Another thing, after playing a load of levels, I came into a situation in which I killed all hives and snipes, but the game said I had still 10 to go. I scourged the map, nothing. I got those wall-crusher powerups, broke down every wall in my way, still nothing. I stopped the game. Unfortunately, it didn't ask for my name to put it in the high score table, I had quite a lot of points.
This is good to know. I think the main problem with my end of level detection is that I am basing things on collision detection, which can be somewhat inaccurate if a lot of bullets are flying around. I'm going to change my end of level detection by counting active snipes in my draw routine. That should fix this bug.
I think it is going to take some time to figure out the best power balance between the creature and the snipes. Your input is very helpful.
OK, I just deployed a new version (v0.5.1) that should fix the bug with the end of a level not being detected. Just download the files again (same links) and you should be set. You can tell if you have the latest version by checking the about section for version 0.5.1.
Settings menu screen that includes the sound effect toggle and the swap movement/shoot keys toggle (for lefties).
Introduced the mighty "armored snipe" (has a helmet and requires more hits to kill). The armored snipes doesn't appear until level 4, where they take 2 hits to kill. At level 10, some require 3 hits to kill. This will help balance the power of each side.
Decreased the "power ball" power-up duration to 20 seconds to help balance the power a bit.
I did a few things in this release to balance out the power between the creature and the snipes. Snipes now have armor and the "power ball" power-up only lasts 20 seconds.
I don't have any more features planned so this game is starting to wrap up. I plan to do more stability testing and try it out on my nephews over Christmas.