It's been a good long while since I've last posted here! For a development journal, it sure hasn't been giving the impression that I've been developing much, has it? Rest assured though, plenty has been going on since I last inscribed an entry. Plenty has been jostling and bouncing around in my head as well about this whole iPhone game development venture as well, so consider yourselves forewarned for a bit of a brain dump on the whole ordeal.
Mounds 'o Progress
First, the most interesting tidbit, and certainly the item most apt to appear in here: my progress on ?Gundown for iPhone?. Last time I left off, the game consisted of little more than firing shell rounds off at little green soldiers who died as messily as they did noisily.
Given that phrasing, then I suppose things haven't advanced much further since then, heh. A bunch of new enemies were implemented, such as motorcycles, helicopters, and different flavours of soldiers. The UI is also looking much more complete, and some sound effects are in as well now.
What does that amount to?
(Me getting shredded by some pretty unfair opposition.)
Enemies are now also grouped into formations, which can be created arbitrarily without much difficulty. It makes the battlefield look a little more orderly, and the player should be able to rest a little easier knowing that the enemies' tactics can be somewhat predicted.
(Three different formations that will appear in the early waves.)
Furthermore, unlike the original Gundown, the game is to be divided into Worlds, which are, in turn, divided into Waves. After beating each wave, a progress screen will be displayed that marks off completed levels while also giving the player a notion of what's next.
I especially like the more organic feel that the marker-like indicators give against the far more rigid and mechanical table and text.
Overall, the game is beginning to feel quite solid. Only a handful of significant tasks remain, such as a weapon upgrade system and menu, saving and loading, and win/lose conditions. Naturally, more enemies and backgrounds will need to be created as well. It's rather nice to start to see some light at the end of the tunnel though. This project was SUPPOSED to be a quick 1-2 month affair, after all. =P
