I did make some update videos over on my YouTube Channel , but those weren't advertised here on Itch, so I'll include everything from those as well!
All objects in gameplay now have white outlines, letting the graphics pop in a way they couldn't before!
You can't see them too well in the gifs, so here are some screenshots for a before and after :D
路 All UI now sports a pixelated theme, text included! Level Completed, Game Over, as well as the Title Screen texts also have their own animations!
路 Laser Brickz have charge-up bars now, as does the player! Other UI has been added to make the Laser ability more clear to the player.
路 The No-Balls-Lost achievement for every level is now directly described to the player! Earn this achievement on all levels for a secret reward...
Here's a general before and after of the UI :)
The shop's gone through many visual upgrades this year, and now that we're at the close of it, I'd say I'm pretty satisfied!
Some new shop items have also been added.
Every level up to the final boss has at least been conceptualized!
The laser mechanic is the main focus of Levels 10-19, and the Teleportation mechanic is the main focus of levels 20-29.
A variety of new foes have been created in 2022. Brick Factoryz and RoboBrickz are 2 examples!
The Level 20 boss, Victor, has been completed and polished. I'm also planning to go back to Level 10's boss to remake it into a less buggy, better paced level.
There's now an official Combo System for Ultimate Space Escape! It's a time-based score multiplier, represented by a UI element in the middle of the screen. Get the combo up high enough, and you'll even see some nice coin bonuses! Balls can now also be charged; hit the ball with momentum to bring it to lightning speeds!
Although I've decided to cap the game at 30 levels, at least for the main campaign ;) , I have plenty of ideas for other ways to expand the gameplay experience! Multiple new modes have been thought up, although I'm doubtful all will see the light of day.
Wait... Did you read that right? Yes you did! I've been experimenting with both voice acting for characters in my game, as well as a story that gives some personality to the brick-breaking paddle-ship drivers, as well as the Bean Bois in the shop.
Sprite art, some character animations as well as a dialogue system have already been made, and in 2023 these will be utilized to implement a fun, wacky story into Ultimate Space Escape's main campaign.
Throughout the year, I've tackled countless bugs left and right. This makes the gameplay experience much smoother than in the demo released... Oh man, was it really over a year ago?? Time flies!
For my AP Computer Science A course, I designed a word game using Java and Processing. With three different modes, this is by far the most complete experience I've made in a short time frame (less than 1 week, with school full-time)
This is a game that was teased quite a while back, and has still yet to see the light of day. It's a collaboration with Tassilo in his game NSRB, said project also having plans of a stand-alone release. Progress was smooth at first. However, some game-breaking bugs/faults brought it to a halt, and all efforts to fix it have failed. I may come back to it in 2023, whether that means fixing what's broken, or remaking the entire thing! :D
(Here's a low-quality sneak peek for ya!)
One weekend I decided to dive into the Python programming language using a borrowed Raspberry Pi 2, and started making a very simple Sugar Cookie Clicker clone. I only worked on it over that one weekend, where I made the main mechanics and two upgrades in the shop, but I may come back to it in 2023 for a fun little browser release!
Starting around November, I had an idea for a dumb android application, where you'd put in an object and it's general dimensions to compare it to the size and mass of other objects (example: 1.3 million Earths could fit in the Sun!)
Although this may never be released, it did teach me many important facts about file saving, transfer, etc that will be applied to future game projects.
Wow, honestly looking back at this year, I hadn't realized I'd done so much! Sure, only one of the 5 projects I've worked on has actually been finished, but plenty of learning was had nevertheless! 
(And of course, I can always come back to them >:D )
Despite a relatively quiet 2nd half of the year, due to both family life and then intense schooling, I'd say that TheTominator has seen some great growth this year!
Plenty of views, many downloads on the surprisingly successful Dictionary Glory (46 views 9 downloads and even a donation!), a few follows, and even some donations from friends and strangers alike!
Another thing to note is that my Discord Server officially hit 50 members this year! Thank you to each and every person that's joined and helped to grow and nurture this wonderful community of diverse game developers :)
Something that's plagued me throughout the development of Ultimate Space Escape was not having the complete vision. However, I do now! Yep, final boss and story and extra modes are all sketched out and written down. This, combined with plenty of unfinished projects as well as future projects whirling around in my mind, is allowing for my work on Ultimate Space Escape to be MUCH more motivated. I have decided I won't work on any other hobby projects until USE is complete, and so I believe that Ultimate Space Escape will come out this year, both on Steam and on Itch.io.
I've got some ideas for non-game-development projects in 2023, such as a device that handwrites on paper through typed prompts, but we'll see if I get to those this year! 馃槄
If I鈥檝e got the time, and anyone has recommendations I may go back to other projects and update them :D
I hope you all enjoyed this 2022 review! What鈥檙e you most excited? What projects do you have planned this year? Comment down below!
Have a great year everyone! To a wonderful, exciting 2023,
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