Cruiser-X 79: Having green fingers

 This week was almost a week that wasn't for Cruiser-X 79. I was using the weekend to make a V1.2 of the SEUCK Title Screen Maker. However, I wanted to improve the utility and created a V1.3. Basically SEUCK Title Screen Maker is a utility that allows you to create a brand new front with a nice logo, with optional hi score table and music in the background without needing to code. Then replaces the old SEUCK title screen with something more colourful. After I thought I was done with V1.2, I replaced it with V1.3 by fixing the music player bug, and SFX missing channel bug. Everything else was working and I was very pleased that it was final.

If you fancy trying out the SEUCK Title Screen Maker V1.3 please check this link below:

https://richard-tnd.itch.io/seuck-title-maker

Anyway, this blog entry is NOT supposed to be about the SEUCK Title Maker. Instead it is about “Cruiser-X 79” and its progress. I had a week's break from it last week, as I felt a bit unwell with a heavy cold. It is more or less the Easter holiday, and I thought I should work on level 5 for the game. I have been thinking about it for some time. So far I had a level based in space, a level inside an enemy base, a diamond world, and also a bubble world. What was in store for level 5? … Vegetation.

Yes, that's right. I wanted to make an inner alien base, which also contains vegetation. Due to the limited number of collision characters. I did not want the vegetation to become a deadly background. Instead, they are background. I also created some brown zig-zags as the main background, rather than space. This is because I want that part of the background to have a static effect while the rest of the background was scrolling over it.

The design of level 5's base is based on the very first level. However there are to be some form of vegetation/plants bordering some parts of the background. The enemy base is also a mixture of green, brown and grey. I also wanted to add some boundaries, in which the player should avoid crashing into. Loads of them in fact. After I scanned through the whole map in Charpad. It took me about a couple of hours, if not more to carefully construct the level. Unlike level 4, the boundaries which the player can crash into are thicker and nastier.

After feeling very happy with the level design. I saved the background graphics and then exported the character set, tile and map data as a raw binary file for compiling and testing in the game. Before I compile and test everything, I decided to work on the music. I loaded up Goat Tracker V2.76 (enhanced version) and I worked on the main in game music. It is a thumping in game trance soundtrack. You can hear the whole tune (without the sound effects) in the video below. I think it fits into the level of this game quite nicely. The music was then imported into the game project source.

I modified the build parameters of the game code and the build batch file. Then I compiled and executed the project and gave the game a test run. The result turned out great.

If level 5 is cool. Wait until I work on Level 6. It's going be a cold themed level that is for sure. For now, enjoy the game play video of level 5 and also the music uninterrupted by SFX.