Over the past month and a half, I've been working hard on getting some new features into the game and getting a new version of the demo out. One of the first things I worked on was adding a level loader so that you don't have to start from the first level every time you close and open the game. Plus it is really helpful for testing since I can easily make playgrounds and add them to the game. In terms of gameplay features I added a new networking system, and started the works of a current system so that you can have things like pressure plates releasing a current that can open and close doors or fire bullets from a turret.
On some non visible features that I've worked on to help develop the game better, I've been working a lot on how my level construction works. Previously I was constructing my entities by hand in json, which was great because I could make entities really flexible with my entity component system, but got tedious when it came to making levels with many entities. Now, I've added a parser to read object properties from the tiled editor so that I can construct the entity components from inside the map editor! It has been a massive help, and I've now updated all the previous levels to use this new system.I have a few focuses for the next release that I would love to get done. I am planning to start putting out new releases at the end of each month.
- get some better art into the game
- add a new puzzle and level (probably to do with circuits)
- polish the older levels and split up level 1 so it isn't so long
- polish up level 4
- bug fixes