Hypership Progress Update 3
It's been just over a month since my last update on Hypership Out of Control! and while I haven't been as active posting here, I've definitely more than made up for that on progress with my game. I've really been concentrating on getting this release done and I expect that time to come much sooner than later.
One of the cooler new levels, where the walls come crashing down on you.
One of the bigger and more welcome changes to Hypership comes in the number of waves. Originally I was just going to do about 5, then the number went to 7, and finally I raised that to 10. The reason for the change was two-fold. First, with the addition of moving blocks to the game, I wanted to add some new waves that really took advantage of them. That meant making brand new waves. Having 7 waves largely done at this point, I opted to go up to 10 and have a nice round number. The second reason was that one of the complaints about Abduction Action! (a complaint I personally do not agree with, especially since the game is only $1) was that it wasn't long enough. New waves aren't overly difficult to create for Hypership so adding enough to make it a good value to every game was kinda a no-brainer.
Another large change (and one that recent playtesters have yet to see) is that I've made coins worth something more than just points. Collecting 100 coins adds a multiplier to all non-speed related scores you get (collecting coins and destroying debris). You can increase this multiplier up to 5, meaning that something that was previously worth 100 points now becomes worth 500 points (100 x 5). This multiplier lasts for only the duration of your life, so if you die you go back to 1. This not only puts a greater emphasis on collecting coins but also makes staying alive for long durations much more important.
While I revamped the graphics pretty considerably just a while back, I've done so yet again (though to not as dramatic an effect). After comments on the forums at IndieGamer.com (which I have found to be the most critical source of feedback for Indie games and I completely mean that in a good way) about my graphics and some suggestions, I've updated mainly colors of blocks but I'll be going back shortly again to update a little bit of everything. I also just went through all the menu headings and updated those to look more like they belong in an 8-bit game, as previously their anti-aliased, beveled look seemed to bit too new school (like a 16-bit game).
Lots of yellow, lots of blocks, lots of coins, lots of fun.
Another new mechanic I've implemented is increasing the ship's top speed at the conclusion of each wave. When there were only 5 waves, it was much easier to get this increase after finishing all the waves. With 10 waves now though, many gamers will never see an increase (most of the time I do not anymore and I have been playing this game to death for three months straight). Increasing speed with each wave is a good way to not only make the game a bit more exciting but also to progress the game's challenge with each new wave at a more even pace (rather than an immediate jump in difficultly as the game previously had).
There are still some performance related bugaboos left in Hypership but I'll soon be ironing those out too. It's mostly garbage related. I'm hoping that I can seamlessly do this but its possible I may need a garbage collect ever wave. If that's the case, I'll probably add some sort of end of level summary and do the collection in the background when everything is stopped and no one notices.
I generally don't have fo
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