Sunday 9 March 2014

Into the 4th Hive

8th March 2014

After a successful backup and restore process on Thursday, and Friday when moving to Win 8.1 on my desktop PC. I was ready for yet another programming session. Last time, I managed to get 2 levels set up, now another 2 levels were to be built up. 

I setup the position and enemy types for levels 3 and 4. Once they were positioned, and all pointers were setup for them. I decided to work on something completely new. When enemies moved left and right. They were facing exactly the same direction as they were moving. So a major tweak was required. Frames should change if an enemy changes direction. We don't exactly want a game in which an enemy moves forwards and backwards without flipping sprite frames. A solution to this problem was built. I programmed a few subroutines, which checked if a sprite was moving left / right if it is a worm, a bird or a hornet. If the low byte of the chosen frame was stored to the actual low pointer of the frame. The subroutine should point to the correct low / hi bytes of the frame of the enemy. 

After I tested this subroutine routine, enemies moved correctly, and the frames changed correctly. No enemies look as if they are moving forwards or backwards. The all move forwards instead. I also thought about setting tables for the background colour, as I am pretty much sure that Wayne wants a different background colour according to level. Yogibear also did some sub game tunes. So I created a table that switches between two different in game tunes. 

Since I now have 4 levels set for the game, I think it is time for me to tweak the background graphics slightly more. Ste86 has given me some mock screen examples of the graphics that could be used as an update to the game. His idea is to help me as a guideline - I'm not really a GFX person :) The trees look much better than mine. So after my morning walk, and my lunch, some time tomorrow afternoon will see the design process in action.

Stay tuned

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