Hi folks,

Last week of development is up, that means no extra features will be added after this week. Since there was still some stuff that needed to be included, there has been quite some movement behind the scenes. Speaking of movement, animations are being implemented for the characters, at last. Apart from that, we're laying the foundations for the necessary menus, implementing the second enemy model and adding UI to guide the player. The ship is given a nice and soft pack of clouds to rest upon and the baddies get a custom paint job for their ship.

Some of these have repercussions on the architecture of our system. The game manager needed a bit of an overhaul to fit the extra menus. Ditto for the enemy manager, when including the dinky bot (the unofficial name for the cute little bozo that will be throwing the cargo off the deck). Luckily due to our foresight earlier in the design process, these adaptations took us a couple of hours, not days.

The gameplay is being tweaked some more, as the pacing was still unsatisfactory. Throwing enemies and bombs overboard is now less punishing, and can be done without coming near the edge of the ship. The ammo box is being replaced by the cabin, which will periodically spawn bullets. The sign for ammo and its position closer to the camera should help players locate this valuable resource. Lastly, for some added quality of life, the grab box on the player is larger, to prevent having to twist and turn the bot in the exact right location to grab a box or help a friend get on board.

Some of the more observant among you gamers may notice that the animations don't transition very smoothly yet. We have run into more difficulty than we had anticipated in this area. Making sure that the right animation is called at the right time and the transition between them is smooth, is not as simple as we might have initially thought. Along with these changes, we have also been squashing bugs. Some were small and barely noticeable but others could have broken the game under certain conditions. A model for the bomb has a also seen daylight now. 

Thanks for tuning in,

See you later mateys!