I haven't given up! Today, this morning, I managed to get a decent nights sleep (more or less. fever dreaming about code is not fun e_e; ) but I felt rested and energised and had another crack at damage mechanics, sprite flashing and such. and i got it working PERFECTLY! It's a little hacky, maybe, but it works great. :D so now I can focus on other things!
Still need to work on lives, and some more enemies, music and sound (that takes a far lower priority though really), and a boss. I also got a neat idea for a special attack as well, which I won't spoil. I'd post a gif or something but it's not at a good enough state to show off the work on it and it's difficult to clip it right at the moment. I got a lot of background objects that will be invisible still showing as I test things out. ^^;
Soon though, I promise I'll release something soon. Even if it's not complete it's getting closer to a "playable" stage!...still gotta work on that UI >_>;