The road to 2.0

We have ten weeks until we showcase Snake-A-Roid 2.0 at 4TG in Aberdeen... and I've only just managed to block off some time to get really focused on Snake-A-Roid's update.

It's slid over into full rewrite territory, and being done in GameMaker Studio 2.
This brings some benefits ( much cleaner code from the outset ) and some caveats as well ( it's a full rewrite, so it's not a small undertaking... )

It does mean that the extras that I was planning will be easier to write; that of the bosses, and Arcade Extra game mode. I also get to spruce it up a bit, and have already experimented with colour, rather than plain black and white, and it looks good. I'll still keep the option to go back to black and white to keep things accessible... as although it is an Arcade-style game, I want to make as many concessions for people as possible.

So, Week One... the plan is to get the basics up and running again.
That is the Snake moving around, shooting and expanding, with asteroids dotted about to collide with.
This is the core of the game, and was quick to put together last time, so don't expect much trouble second time around.
Once that's done, bring the arenas over and see about sprucing them up a bit.. I've a few ideas of having them bigger than one screen and wrapping them.. we'll see how that works out. I don't want to spend too long on experimental bits as I have a tendency to get carried away with them and there's just no time anymore.

Week Two will look into the Bosses, and getting the game loop working to accommodate both the arena mode and the boss mode.

Week Three will add the power-ups back in, and any tweaks they'll need.

Week Four will add in the Arcade Extra mode, allowing you to store your power-ups and use them when you want, rather than as soon as you eat them.

Week Five will be UI work

Week Six and Seven will be additional sound and music

Week Eight will be spit and polish

Week Nine will be porting to Mac and Linux and promotional bits and pieces

Week Ten will be packing things up, heading to Aberdeen, and showing it off... 

That's the rough plan anyway.. with the hope of at least a weekly post to detail what's going on.