Mobile Game Update #5 (Sprites, Backgrounds, Ukulele Music)

The great advantage of being slow to update my blog is I now have loads to show you guys. I tried improving things and shifting stuff onto the classes last time and not long after I made that blog post I made a new project, copied the code I KNEW worked and started from a less class dependent game but one that actually worked. From having something that worked, I decided to keep within the boundaries of my knowledge and only really use classes when it makes complete sense and I know exactly what to do.

That's how the project is going to continue from now on, probably. I'm still learning so much though including the do's and don'ts of XNA and game programming. I know where to add to declare lists and where to add to them. I know when you should pass something into a class through a parameter and when it's best to make a static value. 

These aren't things I would have learned on my own though. I have been lucky to have guidance from some of the most friendly, helpful and intelligent colleagues a university undergrad could ask for. Some of my rough ideas were refined and ideas were bounced off each other. The University of Hull is a very productive environment when someone gains interest in your project and points out your mistakes. 

One thing that was a welcome improvement was the concept of a vector controlling the boat at all times. A constant force that the player controls manipulate rather than the player manipulating the boat directly, creating many possibilities and looking so much better. One advantage was the boat now smoothly goes towards the center and bobs around it. This just makes it so much more fun. The adaption from my original code is rather simple and the effect it really nice.

Another thing added was working differences between air, underwater and surface enemies. I have done this in the worst way possible: I have copied the code from the generic enemy into three different regions and applied different textures and values to each of them. I know there is a better way to do this and I can mostly understand how I would go about making it better but have failed to do it better so far. This is something I definitely intend to learn about. This doesn't affect the player in any way though so it's more of a matter of good practice.   

The last thing I have to note is that I finally created a sprite for my boat. It's sort of inspired by the things in the Wipeout games series. I use the term "speedboat" very loosely but it's not like a Super Awesome Multidimensional Speedboat is going to look normal. You can see the player scientist has made plenty of modifications to the boat. Two possible weapon slots and upwards booster. Wires are strapped onto the boat with duct tape. When passing through dimensions at record speeds, only the Doc's special duct tape will do!

Can you tell I haven't done 2D for very long at all?

I think this is enough to make a another video to show how all these things are working. 

Hang tight for Ukulele music to accompany the less than fascinating video. Youtube takes their time to process this. Blogging all of this has given me a big motivation boost despite the Windows Game Ambassador deadline suddenly approaching. Too tired right now. Nap, and then when I wake up, I code.