Game progress has been a little slow lately. I’ve been doing a bit of contracting work in the evenings and I’ve also had a pretty intense training routing on the go for the last few months in preparation for a Spartan race which I am participating in this week. That doesn’t mean I haven’t tried to put effort in wherever possible though! This post will detail the latest general progress update.

I’ve been working on general updates, bug fixes and feature additions to the game, as well as some graphical enhancements. Here is a list:

Bullet/weapon system with enough customisation to diversify enemy and player bullet/weapon systems. You can also download this on the Unity Asset store now too, as I’ve released it there (as well as right here on my site!)

Dialogue bug fixes with layouts and buttons not responding at some resolutions

Better spawning system created for planets/random objects – the new system uses a ‘probability’ factor in the XML configuration files. So you could for example specify that a level has 5 different kinds of asteroids that spawn every 0.5 seconds, and of these 5, the 3 x smaller ones have a 90% chance of spawning (30% chance for each type), whereas the 2 x larger types split their chances of spawning, so each has a 10% chance to spawn. I implemented this system using C# Generics and an interface, so it is fairly flexible and can be used for other purposes too.

More graphics! I’ve created some new parallax layer pieces that are used for certain layers in the scenery. These are space ship / hull / space station interiors, that give you the illusion of flying through old creaking, damaged space stations. I think they look great, but I’ve still got to figure out how I’ll use them exactly. My plan might be to use them for certain game events/tasks during game play to add to the story. Some of the pieces have moving bits like platforms that rotate back and forth, or ‘power core laser beams’ that arc across sections.

Fixed some bugs to do with parallax layer ordering – these were simple to fix, as you define backdrop/parallax scenery layer configurations in simple XML files for each level, and I had simply specified the incorrect layer IDs for some parallax planets/asteroids (planets were appearing in front of asteroids instead of behind)

A few interesting bits and pieces for visual flare – for example, small miner nodes that hover around some asteroids and ‘mine’ them in the background.

Here are some recent screenshots…

I am hoping to have a development / progress video log out again soon – I’ll need to work on a name for the game first though!