Retronoid - Update VII

Wow, where did the summer go?

Largely over the health issues now, which is rather nice. Been a really busy summer though, between work (more hours), holidays, kid related stuff and some other issues, I've only just restarted work on this.

That said, plodding along nicely.

So, where are we at, following on from the last update?

1) Debug bat / Ball collisions.
Done! finally - new method is working really nicely, and no issues have shown up through about 50 test iterations (running through 5 very different game levels each time.

2) Add ball / ball collisions using same logic as 1) & debug.
99.9% done. Switched some code around and its now working almost 100% on a moving object, rather than recreating a static one. The small bug in the "in block" logic has been identified, just need to fix it, which should be relatively straightforward.

3) Bat movement tweaks
Still on the to do list.

4) Particles.
Basic engine is in. Added a couple of effects, one for a ball trail that gets longer / fades out as the ball gets faster, and one that generates a few sparklies on impact with an object.

5) Powerups.
Ive put some rough graphics for five powerups together. Just started adding the code to generate them. The powerups Im starting with are Grow Bat, Shrink Bat, Sticky Bat, Triple Balls & a Random Score Multiplier. Looking at what others to include, in two minds about whether to add lasers / shooting as I never really liked that mechanic.

Also did the following:
Tweaked the level transitions so that the ball remains in play until the last block has faded out, fixed some niggling little bugs, made a "to do" list that wasn't as big as I suspected it would be, and made a bug list which is currently quite tiny.

What's next then?

1) Get the basic powerups in & working properly.
2) Start playing with ball spin.
3) Add a switchable method for bat control so I can swap between mouse / keyboard / gamepad easily.
4) Start working on the to do list.

If I can work out how, may do a little game video soon - never really looked into that side of things :-)