The most notable changes are:
Interesting levels!
I finally got around to implementing a cellular-based map generation. The results are really good I think.
"Proper" graphics
I created a tilemap for the terrain and replaced the third-party art. Well... it looks okay-ish, but its still "programmer art" .
FPS independend physics
Took me a very long time to notice, but the physics were behaving subtly different when the game was running with different fps. I thought I was handling different delta times correclty, turns out I was wrong. Using the linked code worked wonderfully.
Itch-io Release (Linux/Windows/Macos)
Feel free to check it out here: https://ycakegames.itch.io/asteroid-explorer.
I tried to follow the instructions in the wiki for creating executables. I only have linux machines to try the game on though, so I'd be really thankful for playtesters on Windows/macos.
Items
Only fuel pickups for now. Pickups only have a chance to spawn inside "crevices". As the game progresses the levels get longer and the fuel pickups fewer.
Implemented reverse thrusters (Arrow down)
Very weak and you can only use them if you upgrade them at least once for now.
This does not feel super useful as is. Maybe I will change it so using them does not apply reverse thrust but cancels movement in any direction instead.
I am really happy with the state of the game, the basic mechanics are implemented and the core gameplay loop works.
I had lots of fun implementing it so far. Learning about verlet integration, sat, procedural generation and creating and using spritesheets "from scratch" was really cool.
Things I would like to add sometime in the future would be:
- Sound. I think this is missing before I could actually call it a "proper game".
- Web and Android Version. I have tried (and failed) to get the game running with love.js. Android I haven't tried yet but i think the game could be played on Android devices, I might have to tweak the speed and zoom the game further in for that though.
- More interesting objectives and danger.
- UI improvements. That's always a thing I could and should to. The UI is still really basic. But working on new cool features beats polishing the UI most of the time