The Final Stretch

A lot of time has passed and a lot of work has gone into this project. Day after day the constant reality check of the Skype chat telling us that it's already the next day. But after all this work, our time is almost up and the coming week will hold the moment of truth for us and our baby. Time is running out and every second wasted brings us closer to the reality of how much work goes into each and every plan we made. It's amazingly easy to come up with great ideas and the game is awesome in every way until you have to make it a reality and the deadline is closing in. Even though we already decided that we were dropping the network play and focusing on AI to save time, it's difficult to see what we will be able to get done. A factor that adds to this is that we have another moment of truth in the coming week: a Mathematical Logics exam (which makes no sense as we have concluded over the course of this period). It might be that we won't have a boss battle, no power-ups, no pixel based wall explosions. But as I look at the things I just listed again, they're all extras that could possibly add some depth to the game. But what we do have is a solid base where the primary actions are possible. And isn't it much more interesting instead of looking at what we might not have, to look at...

What we do have
We have revamped our tank graphics. We knew they weren't optimal and over time, the base and the turret did not even match anymore. Also, the player's tank and the enemy tanks were identical. In fact, all tanks were identical. So Jorden did a great job at designing some very special tanks for both the player and the enemies. We now have three tanks for the player to choose from: a Speed based tank with a slick, smooth, aerodynamical design, an armored Defense based tank which is quite bulky and beefed up to look its part and lastly an intimidating Power based tank that will blow the enemies' brains out (literally). But not only the player got new tanks. Our enemies can now be Speed, Defense or Power based. All with matching designs naturally. And of course our Play button redirects the player to a 'Choose your tank' screen to pick their favourite.
Our menu got an upgrade. Now equipped with slightly more attractive buttons that finally portray what they are supposed to do, and a neat, exciting background (that I made, just sayin'), topped with an awesome job by Alexander, who made a cool logo sporting a tank and a pudding and hand made Japanese signs to spell out our sub-title ('Itadakimasu!!' or 'Let's eat!!' being the traditional saying in Japan before a meal, which we figured would match our pudding theme) and the official Pixel Pudding logo in the bottom-right corner.
Our enemies have been equipped with health bars for the player to deplete. And as I'm starting on health bars, of course the player has one too. This is visible in our added side bar. This side bar shows the accumulated score that the player has earned by firing his way through the enemy tanks, the player's lives or how many times the player will still be able to respawn after his own health bar has depleted, the current level and my personal gem and as such, my personal favorite: the Pudding. A lot of work has gone into getting this screen where the player can see how the Pudding is holding up. This happens in relation to the health bar underneath the screen. Every 20% of health that the Pudding loses will make the Pudding respond. The saddest part is that the best reaction is in the final 20% when you can see the Pudding crying, but sadly, should the player have the slightest skill in the game, he/she will never see this awesome animation. If you've read this, make sure to let the Pudding die at least once, to see all the responses.
One thing that weighed heavily on my mind was that firing a bullet is no fun at all if you don't see anything happening. So that's why I managed to draw up an exciting explosion to make our bullets hit with style. I mean, what are tanks without explosions?
But even that is not all, because our game now comes with amazing music! A great and epic tune befitting the epicness involved in protecting a pudding from evil people that do not want you to be able to eat your pudding. The best part is that everyone can relate to our uhm... story, because everyone obviously loves pudding!

As this final post comes to an end, we're inching ever closer to our deadline and ever closer to finding out what the response to our game will be. We can't wait and hopefully, neither can you.