He guys,

its been a while, so here's a quick update.
I am trying to implement the star map screen, i want to make the map be procedurally generated as i plan in having a lot of star systems, this is coming along slowly. I am able to generate the star systems and place stars on the map, but finding it a bit difficult trying to generate random star name, that sound like proper star names. I am continuing to develop this and is coming along slowly at the moment/ If anyone has any suggestions on how to generate random names for star system please comment, all suggestion will be looked at and considered.

I have been adding more content to the buy ship screen, been placing more images for ships lasers and engines. now i need to work out all the data for these systems. like power usage, re-charge times, rate of fire, max velocity etc. all systems have differences and you can add most systems to ships to customise them. Have to get the balance right between systems as well as price for the items.

lots to be done yet but should be a fun game when done eventually, its going to take a while before complete, because i want to add so much stuff to it, to make it enjoyable.
below are a few screenshots of the ships available so far, but i plane in adding loads more.

please feel free to send comments and suggestions, as well as some graphics and sprites which might get added to the game.(you will get a mention in the credits if anything you send is used in the final game).

These are the ships that are available to you at the start of the game ( the only ones you can afford)
these have various cargo capacities so you can start transporting cargo to different destinations.
These ships are by MillionthVector, you can check out his other work here

Been tinkering away at my rogue type game and thought i would show you all a short video of the main screen, nothing fancy but i have dded some randomly generated asteroids that fly across the screen, as you navigate the main menu.

Ascendancy main menu

I have also got an early video of the Create a captain menu in action along with the screen where you buy your first spacecraft

These are all early screens and will probably change a bit during development, but its just to give you an idea of what the game will be like.

Hey guys

I have been coding for a long while as i have started a new project that has nothing to do with app development, I have been busy researching how to make an arcade cabinet to run all the old arcade games. I now think i know how to make one but have to save a bit of money toget everything needed to make one.
I also bought myself an Arduino Uno and been learning some electronics so that i can eventually build some cool stuff.

Anyway, back to coding now and have been working on a new project and put the platform game on hold for the moment as i want to try something a bit different.
I am hoping to make a rogue type game which will be a bit of a challenge as i have loads of ideas for it. I think this will probably be PC only as it will be too big a project for smartphones, but ill see how it develops.

Here is a screenshot of the main menu so far.

I am going to add a few little animations to liven it up a bit. (maybe)
I`ll see what i can up with and show you an updated video when done.
The title of the game will probably change as this is just the beginning of the project and had to give it a name.

Probably not get much coding done in the coming months as work is really busy just now.

hey guys


Improvements made:

• Blocks can now be pushed left and right.
• Blocks now stop when they hit an obstacle.
• Blocks can now be pushed off of platforms and they fall to lower platform.
• Updated the message box function in editor.
• NPC function
• menu designed for NPC function
• can add characters to game that give you information/ help etc.
• now saves data to level data.
• can now delete NPCs.
• added edit function for NPCs.
• can reload NPC data into editor from level file.
• All functions for NPCs in editor now functioning. (I think)

next I have to add the function in the game that takes all the NPC data from the level file, and places everything where it should in the game. I will have to design a small screen that displays the NPC along with the text  that that is displayed as he/she "talks to you"

I also  want to add  a crusher that comes down from platforms above to crush you, these will hopefully have adjustable speeds and delays. i will have to create a menu for these within the editor to be able to place them.

Once this is done it might be time for a new game as i think there will be enough new features to make it better than the last game, and more fun, with more things to do.

hi guys,

took a little holiday from coding and now i`m back, i have been working on the placement editor.
i need to add all the code to the function for adding  blocks that can be pushed to the editor and in the game itself, so that i can add the blocks when designing a level and so that the game knows what to do with the new level data.

improvements made:

• Adjusted the code to make the blocks you can push work on touchscreen devices as well. 
• Optimized code for the baddies menu, should be a bit faster now
• .Movable blocks can now be placed in editor.
• and deleted (single blocks)
• and saved
• and reloaded
• and when deleting whole level
• Movable blocks can be loaded into game from file
• Fixed a bug where the end point and start point were not being recognized in editor when levels were being reloaded.
• Created new menu for delete all, which allows you to cancel if you change your mind.

Bugs fixed:

• Number of jewels was not getting reset when deleting whole level in editor. Now fixed.

hi guys

I have been working on the movable blocks, I was trying for ages to get this to work and just couldnt work it out, But eventually got it working and it was easier than what i thought it would be. I was trying all sorts of things to get this to work and it took me most of the day.

I can now make a bit more complicated levels with some sort of puzzle element as you will have to push blocks to certain places in order to get to out of reach platforms and collectibles.
The blocks can  be moved left and right for now, I want to be able to make them fall from platforms when pushed off, but i`ll leave that for another day. :-)

Hey guys

I am still working on the editor and my new platform game which i`m calling Sarah 2 for now.

Improvements:

• The editor now lets me rotate tiles, so that i can add more variation to the level layouts.
• changed the level data  structure to take into account the rotation of  tiles.
• added the new level data structure to game so that it can place rotated tiles.
• Added a tile properties menu to the editor from which i can currently just rotate tiles, but i will eventually add more functionality to this to change lots of properties for the tiles, like set to background, set to foreground and various physics settings etc.
• have tweaked the game play in  Sarah 2.
• tweaked the collision detection in game
• adjusted the positioning of the spikes in game.

have to test game and placement editor to make sure that the new changes work well.

I also want to add moveable objects to the game, so that you can push some blocks to better positions to achieve jumps to get to otherwise unreachable platforms. 1ll see how i get on with this task, might be a while before i can work out how to do it. having to think how to work this out as if you push a block too close to a wall you might not be able to get in behind it to push it back, so would i have a reset switch to move the blocks back to original positions, which might seem unnatural or would i allow Sarah to pull block as well. what if you push block off a level it is meant to be on and  falls? not sure how to tackle this,  but for now i think i might just settle for being able to push an object to where it is needed.

Hi guys

I have been working on the placement editor, tidying up some code, trying to make things work better and faster.

Improvements made.

• Editor now starts up faster.
• Deleted a lot of print statements that i was using to debug.
• Re-organising code to make it easier to follow and change.
• Adding some error trapping code to the editor, (i know  what to do and what not to do to stop editor crashing , but much more efficient if i can catch errors if i mistakenly do things the code doesnt like, and also much more user friendly so other people can use it eventually)
• Added a message box. so editor can display messages to help you and display error messages.
• All messages now display in message box.
• added current cursor position to the stats window.
• tidied up the moving platform menu, it was placing messages over the world display, now moved to message window.
• message window now a function so quicker to display messages.it automatically works out where to place text depending on text length and whether or not there are one or two lines to display. Original  function asked for co-ordinates and i had to work out manually, which took a bit of trial and error to get the positions right. you can also add rgb values for the text colour.

hey guys,

Adding some improvements to Sarah in Candyland.

Improvements:

• All stars now rotate, adds a bit more movement to the levels.
• Adverts now only appear every 3 levels , instead of after every level, which seemed far too much.
• monsters are now animated.

This has now been released to the google play store with the new features.

I am working on the game engine a bit more as i want to be able to do a lot more in the platform games.

Improvements to game engine i want to add.

• Add inventory so you can collect objects.
• to open doors
• to trade with npc's
• to work machinery
• add npc's to talk to, to get information/help
• add weapons
• add armor
• randomly spawn enemies
• enemies fire weapons.
• disintegrating platforms
• shops to buy items.

there are lot of other things that i want to add, but these are the main ones at the moment. dont know if all these will make it into the next game, depends on what i can manage to do, because i would like to release a game every 6-8 months.

I am also going to have to work with the placement editor so that i can add all the new improvements to it to use in the game.

I also want to start coding another game which will be a space combat/exploration game, where you can choose a ship and get missions to complete to earn money to upgrade your ship/ buy new ship.

Just mucking about with this to see where i will go with this at the moment.