Hey guys,

As i was play testing the game, I noticed that the menu titles were not the same for every menu, nearly, but not quite. I noticed that some had a slightly different font, some had a slightly thicker border, font sizes were different. I have now to go round them all and get some sort of consistency. That`s what i get for not writing down the font,sizes or styles used, and relying on my memory.

Im also starting to create more levels for the final release of the game, hopefully i can make these more challenging as the game progresses.




Improvements:

• Changed all the menus so that they have a standard look.
• Added game save facility, so that your progress in casual mode is saved along with how well you have done in each level. 

Changes:

• Changed size of the settings screen as it was too big and i was changing size within code. This has now been made smaller so it will save space and not needing to resize in game.
• stars collected were not being displayed in casual mode, this has now been fixed.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed: progress in levels was not saving correctly.
• Fixed: sound for extra life was being played when sound was set to 0% in settings

Known issues:

• Game still crashing sometimes when loading new level in pc version, not as much as before though.
• Cant enter a space when entering name in high score screen on mobile version.

Hey guys,

been working on the IAP for the game, which takes ages as you have to upload any adjustments you make to google play then wait for a couple of hours before you can test the new code. Slowly getting there though.
I am also tidying up lots of little things in the game, i have variables being displayed, co-ordinates being displayed, pause game slightly to see certain things happening, fps being displayed etc. I am now getting rid of all these things as game is nearing completion.
 i have still to implement the game save state, so that when you return to game it knows the levels you have completed and how many stars you got in them, so you can continue in casual mode.


Improvements:

• Added a background image to the level select screen.
• Added a main menu button to the level select screen.
• main menu button on level select screen now works.
• Added IAP to game to get rid of adverts, still testing at the moment though.
• Added credits screen.

Changes:

• You now get an extra life when you collect 100 stars in arcade mode.
• added some particle effects when you get an extra life.
• Added hi score to game hud. So you can see what to aim for, in arcade mode.

Bug fixes:

• fixed an issue where the score was not counting down to zero when adding time left bonus to score in arcade mode.
• fixed the issue with sarah as an angel not appearing in the mobile version. I had saved the image in a format that AGK (App Game Kit) did not support.

Known issues:

• Game still crashing sometimes when loading new level in pc version, not as much as before though.
• Cant enter a space when entering name in high score screen on mobile version.

Image of Credits screen

Hey guys,

Started work on the In app purchases. this is just to get rid of ads for the moment. This might take me a while as i have never had any IAP in any of my apps before.




Improvements:

• Created sprites to animate for death sequence.
• implemented death sequence.
• Had to turn physics off when sarah died and turned into an angel as she could not fly through the tiles.

Changes:

• Game now checks if you have an internet connection when loading high score table. Game would previously crash or hang until one was found. It now checks for 5 seconds before continuing without the high scores.
• fixed a glitch when playing casual mode score was being added up before going to score screen as well when it got to score screen.

Bug fixes:

• when viewing high score table before playing, in game score is set to lowest score in table. this has now been fixed.
• Small glitch fixed when score was not being reset when starting new game.
• The score was not adding up correctly in certain situations, now fixed.
• Fixed a bug where entering name in mobile version was not working.

Known issues:

• Game still crashing sometimes when loading new level in pc version, not as much as before though.
• sarah as an angel does not display on mobile , ok when testing on pc.

Hey guys,

everything seems to be coming together nicely now, the high score table is now working although i have to design some graphics for it to be displayed. I was having a bit of trouble with this as new high scores were only being displayed when you started a new game, but managed to sort this out.

hopefully will be able to release game at end of August. But not promising anything at the moment as these release dates tend to be off a bit.

My to do list doesnt seem to be getting any shorter, as soon as i can cross something off, something else needs to be added. At least its not getting any bigger and should start to get smaller very soon hopefully.  :-)


Improvements:

• Added a back button to the high score table, to take you back to the main menu.
• You can now enter your name when you get a high score.
• created graphics for high score screen.
• Tidied up the high score name input screen, now looks ok,and name centered as you type it in.
• High score screen now finished, all data formatted so that it looks good when printed to screen.

Changes:

• Added a "loading..." message after splash screen whilst the game is being initialised

Bug fixes:

• The game crashed when displaying the high score table which contained less than 10 entries.  now fixed.

Known issues:

• Sarah seems to float about for a while when you reach the end of a level.
• Game still crashing sometimes when loading new level in pc version, not as much as before though.
• when viewing high score table before playing, ingame score is set to lowest score in table.

Here is a new video of the latest version of game. This shows you the arcade mode being played.

Sarah in Candlyland

hey guys,

I had an issue when the game was crashing every now and again when it was loading a new level, I think i have found the  offending code, which i have now deleted as it was redundant anyway and did not need it. Still testing though. not sure why the code was producing a crash and it didnt even happen all the time. after playing several times and no crashes hopefully this has been sorted. The crash only happened in the pc version of the game and had no effect on the mobile version.

here is the recent work i have done.

Improvements:

• Changed the way Sarah flashes when she has been hit, had an issue when she was invisible for too long in certain situations, this has been fixed.
• Changed the length of time and frequency Sarah flashes for after being hit, as the length of time was not constant before.
• Sarah was hovering slightly above platforms when walking, adjusted her positioning  so she now stands on platform correctly.
• Added a different sound when you collect a jewel.
• All sounds added to level complete screen.

Changes:

• Got a basic version of the online high score table working, just need to create some graphics to display the table in the game.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed a crash when new levels were being loaded in pc version.
• Fixed: When played casual mode , then arcade mode next game the select screen menu would appear when it should not. 
• When played casual mode the arcade mode next game it would always start at level 2, this has now been fixed, starting at level 1 now.
• Fixed: When playing arcade mode level select screen would be updated when it should only be updated in casual mode.

Known issues:

• Sarah seems to float about for a while when you reach the end of a level.
• Game still crashing sometimes when loading new level in pc version, not as much as before though.

Hi guys,

Still coding away i am concentrating on tidying up the menus just now, for the first release.

Additions and bug fixes

• Making the buttons on main menu flash when clicked. This will give you a confirmation that you have pressed the button, so you can visually see it.
• Fixed a bug where the stars and jewels  collected were resetting to zero after every level in arcade mode where they should not have been.
• Padded out the scoring by adding zeros to the front of score in the level complete screen in order for all scores to align correctly.
• Created a function to pad out scores by adding zeros in front of them. (eg a score of 123 would be printed out as 000123). the function is flexible as you can specify the total length the score should be. so a score can be 4,6, 10 digits  in length or anything that you specify when you call the function.
• centered scores in level complete screen by adjusting position.
•  aligned text and padding out scores in arcade score screen.
• aligned score in main game screen.

Hey guys,

I`ve decided to implement the two game modes for the release version, i feel releasing with one then adding the other would take away the fun from the game and many users would miss out, as they probably would not download again after playing and uninstalling the game.

Bug fixes and additions

• Designed casual mode and arcade mode buttons.
• Added casual mode and Arcade mode buttons to main screen.
• Gave buttons a slight wobble when they have been picked so you can visually see selection.
• Fixed bug where you were not taken to level select screen after you started another game after death.
• Casual mode now works as it should. (This mode is the game as it stood, but fixed a few bugs). 
• Fixed bug where jewels collected were not added to score.
• Moved the on screen scores depending on mode of play.
• Arcade mode now works. Levels load ok. 
• Fixed a bug in the rate me screen.
• redesigned the final score screen for the arcade mode.
• Fixed bug where score in arcade mode was reset at start of every level.

I thought implementing two modes of play would be difficult to implement, but turned out easier than i thought, took a bit of time but was easy to figure out what needed done. Still need to sort the scoring screens, and the final score screen for arcade mode, along with the high score tables.

 Its funny how coding tasks that you think are difficult to implement turn out easier than first thought and vice versa.