Day 100: Somethingtron 2084

Today was a big day to wrap up the basic PC build of Robotron and respond to feedback. Today, the feedback was relatively positive; we just need a start/game over screen, lives, a wave counter, a no-spawn rectangle, and an effect to begin the level in a non-abrupt fashion.

The tricky part came when we had to come up with a substitution effect for the scanline blast that was so prevalent in the predecessor. The arcade itself had a custom graphics processor that allowed the lines of a sprite to split apart in a dramatic fashion, but that would require an insane amount of overhead from us when the project (in Xbox form) is due in a week. What to do? A fade-in effect, employing the transparency that the original game lacked, helped us immensely.

There was little I did for capstone today, but firmly established that since MoveTo for locations is not functioning for my enemy character, using waypoint actors in lieu of locations is a much more intuitive and better scheme for proper patrolling.