LÖVE

There are only three tables that are added to/removed from all the time. Enemies, Bullets and Explosions. I don't know what could be happening. I'll have to look over my code tonight.

Still can't find anything that would cause slowdown only on your machines. Mine never does it. And the tables seem to be updated correctly. Any help would be appreciated, if it's still happening with this new version: What's new? A lot really...

Two weapons so far. Simple weapons. First one is a plain single laser slow fire. Second is double fast and double deadly. (In this demo, press 1 or 2 to switch)

Same enemies, but the blue ones have 2 hit points instead of 1.

Line thickness bumped up.

Checkpoints every 100 tiles. If you die, you return to the last one.

A messaging system, like when you reach a checkpoint. The message system will accept multiple messages and display them one at a time. I plan on using this for an Achievement system too. (I hope to make a mode where you get an achievement if you can get to the boss without firing a single laser. THAT would be cool. You'd have to weave in and out and take as little damage as possible. Maybe another where you get one for not taking any damage at all. We'll see.

A neat "READY!!!" message when the level starts or you die. Also a 3 second delay before the level scrolls again. It flashes using this formula:The higher the blinkSpeed the faster it blinks. Since Sin and Cosine wave back and forth between 1 and -1 it just checks to see if it's greater than 0. You could also do less than or use any decimal number between 1 and -1 for different patterns. I was so happy when I discovered this. I use flashing/blinking all the time now for damage or messages. Super cool. Remember that, kids!

Lives are in place, but no punishment/game over when you lose them all yet. I will add that when I add a menu system.

I don't remember if the last one had it but water and lava now exist. Also slime will. Right now there's no penalty for going in. I hope to make it so if you fly across the water low it does what Starfox does where it has a neat wave behind the ship. And if you're near lava you will take damage. And if you're not waterproof (I plan on having water levels once you get a submarine update) you will die. And of course you will die in lava no matter what.

It's rudimentary but right now if you hit the ceiling you bounce off. Shitty bounce not really a bounce. Also the floor the same. In the future I hope to make it based on your speed when you hit like in Starfox when you fly down too fast you bounce and take damage, but if you go slow you just slowly hover along the ground or ceiling. (I'm borrowing a bunch from SF, aren't I? Maybe the sequel to this game will be 3D using my 3d Starfox engine. Maybe.)

You can use either the arrows OR WSAD to move. Left Shift OR Space to fire and the left Meta key (Command on OS X, I assume Windows Key on others.) to activate the shield as well as G for Genocide. At least until I get powerups in place.

Score Multiplier. Every 10 enemies adds to the multiplier. Dying resets it to 1. Genocide also uses both the multiplier and a second multiplier for each enemy destroyed which is pretty neat.

New explosion animation. Nothing special right now but it's prettier than a plain circle. I like it. Almost looks like a flower. It's orange.

To test the scrolling speed variance the level gets random "speed up" flags that will set the scroll speed to a random amount. In the final game I would use this for effect. Slow when you enter a cave, fast when it needs to pump you up. It can be used for anything.


Future Plans:

More enemies. Bosses. I want to make a third type that lives in the water and jumps out then flies towards you. And another that hangs on the ceiling and drops when you fly underneath. And some that cling to the ceiling and floor and fire at you. Maybe also some that actually drive along the floor.

Powerups. Need to make weapon upgrades. Items you can use like the Genocide and Shield.

A delay when you die. Will be easy. I just haven't put it in.


So far it's fun as it is. I find myself in a trance playing occasionally during testing.

Genocide is nice, but I want to give it an animation so I plan on having a bunch of missiles fly out of the player ship and head on a collision course for each enemy seeking them out like a missile. It'll look much cooler than just explosions.

Darn, I liked it when you could shoot excessively fast.

You can. Press 2 for the super double weapon. But don't mind because I have a new version I will be putting up tonight. This one has an actual boss fight. More to come.....

So there's no way to quit?

Command+Q or Alt+F4 or whatever is normal for your OS.

The next version does have a menu system and quitting.

If you don't like the fullscreen you can just change the Config file to make it windowed. Also change the resolution. 800x500 is the native world size. But the game will scale to whatever screen size you feed it. (So you could set it to fullscreen on your giant monitor at the native resolution and it should have no problem depending on your video card.) There are no images in the game at all. It's all vectors.

A new version to play with. This one has powerups. But it's only rudimentary and random so you might not find one every time. I am working on it and it'll make more sense when the levels and enemy placement is set rather than random.
Still to do:
Make real end of level fanfare with stats and stuff. End of game congratulations. Etc.

More enemies. The sample boss is a good start, but I need to get some actual scripted and planned enemies that move in patterns. Others that will come on screen, fight you and fly away if you don't destroy them.

Powerups need to be fixed. Right now the only one is a white circle that sets you to the second weapon. Like how in Super R-Type the first enemy wave you destroy gives you a speed item. So you can choose to ignore it if you want to play the game slow or grab it to move faster.

Nice background. The boss needs to give feedback when it is shot, though.