Home Stretch

I've completed 30 levels for Birdy, which is the absolute upper end of my goal. As well as that, I've fixed a multitude of bugs, and finally added a preloader. It's looking great and I could almost call it complete. As such, play-testing shall begin soon.

From where I'm standing, all that really remains after that is to add an ending screen/cutscene, and the level code compression system.

1000 lines

I've added another item or two and 7 more levels, a complete menu system, and progress saving. The most exciting addition, though, is a level editor. That's right, you'll be able to create and share your own levels. The editor itself is great (even though I do say so myself), though the "save" and "load" sharing system leaves much to be desired.

A code for a simple level is this long:

0,0.4,0.8,1/0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0/0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2,0,0/0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2,0,2/2,2,2,0,2,2,2,0,2,2,0/2,0,2,0,2,0,0,0,2,0,2/2,2,2,0,2,0,0,0,2,0,2/0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0/0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

I definitely need to develop some sort of compression system.

Anyway, as well as the obvious advantage of having community created levels once the game is finished, the level editor makes it easier and quicker for me to make "official" levels. So, Birdy will probably be reaching that 30 level target in no time.

16 Levels

Progress on Birdy is going well. I have coded not only some more obstacles to overcome, but also some new power ups to keep you going.

As the title says the level count stands at just 16, twice as many as there were 2 weeks ago. But now I'm fairly certain I have enough items to call it finished, I just need to make the remaining 4-14 levels.

In other news, my laptop (on which I make the games) now has a new hard-drive and Windows 7.