One of the key things that is an important part of any game is the optimization of resources available on the system, meaning CPU, Ram, GPU, and more. This will be a point of future focus an will be a complex and challenging core part of the system to fully implement however at this time I needed to get it started so that it can be a part of the project framework and will be gradually added to over time. Currently, in the latest version of the new Client, you will see this visually in that there is now a Loading Screen that will transition from one screen to another and will eventually be used to create the object pool which I will not get into at this time.
The Idea with the Loading screen is very standard and I will improve on it over time but currently, it will do some loading and provide a random game tip.
An important part of any game is the ability to provide methods of input from the user to interact with the gaming device regardless of the device. In a previous dev journal, I have covered this to some degree and at this point, I've implemented a good portion of it but there are still some ways to go before the input system can be considered complete. My goal with the input system is to have fully functional input that can be used on any supported device to allow touchscreen, keyboard/mouse, and gamepad. Currently, the game room input works partially with Keyboard and gamepad in that the user can move around, place bombs, and use all items that are picked up during gameplay. Due to layered input complications I have not yet implemented the on-screen control for touchscreen devices, this will be a part of future development with no specific date commitment.
With each step of progress, we are getting closer and closer to one of the first landmarks that I have set which is a playable game room. It doesn't have to be perfect but I intend to have a playable game room because the game room shares a lot of key components and functionality with the World, meaning because they share components by building out the Game Room I am also contributing to some degree the development of the World.
For those who are on the beta testers, you will see that some animations have been added while others are still not yet implemented.
The power-ups have been moved to the top right corner of the screen as it seems like a more appropriate location to illustrate this content and the bombs that can be placed have been illustrated as bomb icons in the bottom middle of the screen instead of the previous client version that shows a numeric value.
Thanks for reading and there will more great updates in the future. Have a great weekend :)