19 AUG 2023:
Sometimes game design requires you to move backwards to move forwards.
Though the game is 90% done now, there were a good handful of bugs that were impeding progress. I also didn't have any code for a critical aspect of the game: proper scaling for different screen resolutions. Instead of trying to fix bugs and implement scaling in a project with nearly 12,000 lines of code, I decided to "start over" -- which only means that I am starting with zero code and slowly adding things back in.
And so far the results are amazing and well worth it! I've been putting in several hours a day so that has helped as well.
- The game now scales properly up to the max screen resolution of 2560 x 1440.
- The game starts in a Windowed Fullscreen mode that leaves the taskbar accessible. A press of the F key toggles Fullscreen mode.
- For the first time, you can exit the game or go Fullscreen while the game is loading. I accomplished this by embedding an "input listener" within each DO LOOP that loads the graphics.
- The settings screen has a nice little keyboard animation based on the keys the player actually presses. I had tried this before, didn't like the results and took it out; but the new version is pretty much perfect.
- The sound and audio adjustment sliders don't have the "echo" effect bug if you hold down an arrow key for too long.
- Text of any size can now be properly centered on the screen. (Last time I was just guesstimating the positions).
- New troubleshooting tools include a logfile, a new buglist and an in-game overlay that can be toggled on and off. It has already helped me solve a few problems.
- In-game timers to keep track of how long it takes graphics to load.
- 1,000+ lines of code have already been transferred over and re-worked. So it's going pretty quickly.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"Sometimes you have to move backward to get a step forward." -- Amar Bose
Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your week!