It has been a bit quiet here on the production front recently due to being extremely busy. I am still awaiting new graphics for the game. Anyway, some more good news related to Honey Bee. I am back on track with programming of this C64 game.
Today I have been working on an indicator to check whether or not the bee has cleared all the pollen, before it can drop it. The indicator consists of the bee hive in the status bar. I programmed some subroutines which disables the player from using the fire button, if not enough plants were picked up. The fire button is then re-enabled if no pollen are in any of the flowers. The bee hive then flashes - to indicate the screen is clear. The player must then make its way to the hive, and drop the pollen into the entrance of the hive.
Although that is the actual goal. I came up with another idea. Since the player picks up the pollen and has to carry it all the way to the hive (once all flowers are empty). What if the player drops the pollen in the wrong place and loses it. I have a cunning plan. Actually it works. I added a routine, which will check whether or not the pollen is dropped inside the game area. If the player drops it where it should not fall. Then a FAIL message will appear on screen. The player will then have to start the whole level all over again, without losing any lives.
The idea works pretty well, still some more things to do. Although I got the lives counter working. I need to set up routines for the bonus time, and also the scoring counter. This will be done soon, but not today. Of course.
I am also awaiting the finalized versions of Ste's new background/charset graphics. I saw a preview of the ground/rocks graphics, and I really love them. They look stunning. Once the graphics are finished I will then be ready for level designs.
