Hello All, 

A lot of updates happened this past week, so this will be pretty lengthy.  Also I cannot believe we are already 1 month into this project. 

We have 2 more enemies that have been created.  We are now at a total of 3 enemies (Germs) that are attacking main player (Sarah).  We still have not really "officially” named them but they are:

• Germ 2 : This is the orange germ with two legs and no arms.  He hops around randomly.  He does not hop towards or away from the player he more of just roams.  However if you get to close to him spikes come out from his left and right side and hit you.  It's best to attack this germ from above or below.  
• Flying Germ: This germ is purple in color and will roam around the room.  However if you come within sight of this Germ and he sees you he will come straight for you, also has acceleration in his movement for this.  He will continue to chase you until you run or dodge out of his sight where he will then roam.  He tries to ram into you doing damage.  It's best to come in quick, hit him, and dodge away. 
• Shooting Germ:  This germ can fly but also shoot.  He looks the same as the flying germ but is blue in color and has lighter color wings.  If this guy sees you he will shoot a fireball towards you. He will not chase you, he is a roamer.  

Fun Fact: Germ 1 was created and imported prior to Germ 2 but later scrapped after the creation of Germ 2.  So there currently is no Germ 1 in the code. 

I have one more Germ that I am working on.  He is practically done just need to do some coding for him.  This enemy will have no movement to him, he will be a room hazard.  He will look like a puddle of slime on the ground, I think we are calling him mucus.  If you happen to walk through him he will harm you and possibly even slow you down for a period of time.  There will be no way to destroy this enemy, he is only there to provide you aggravation.  

This will be the variety of enemies for world 1.  Now we just need to start thinking about a world boss and some new enemies for world 2 and world 3.  

Also did some more work with collision.  The player now collides with all enemies, this way you can not just run through them.  Some enemies, when collided with will harm you, others you will just bounce off of a little.  Also the enemies have collision between them selves.

Also made another Room!  You can now move from the starting room to another room.  I set this up using warps in the door passage way.  Also you can only move from one room to the other room once all the enemies in the current room are defeated.  Until the enemies are defeated there are closed doors covering the passage way, once all are defeated these doors are destroyed and your path is open.  Now that this code is done, and I have a parent room, making the rest of the world layout will be quick. 

I have also started adding "props" to the world.  These are normal objects that you would see in a house.  I am adding these to give the rooms some life and depth but the biggest reason is to provide obstacles for the player to maneuver around as there is full collision with each object.  So far the only ones that can be destroyed are cardboard boxes.  When these are destroyed they have a chance to drop either coins or hearts.  Which leads to the next thing we implemented which is the random chance for hearts and coins to be dropped from defeated enemies and cardboard boxes.  Right now I have the chance set at 90% for testing to see them actually drop but this will be changed down drastically as they will be rare drops.  

Also have started working on the UI.  Right now the UI displays the amount of coins collected, players health, and the players stamina.  This will not be the final layout of the UI or even the final artwork.  I am still learning how to properly position, code, and get the desired results I want, but it's good for right now.  The next thing implemented was stamina.  What this is and I want to be very clear, is only for items being used.   So right now the user has two power ups.  These power ups are the ability to dodge (roll) and the ability to use explosives.  These power ups use an X amount of stamina each time they are used.  Why did I implement this?  I did this because you will have unlimited amount of explosives.  So this prevents the player from spamming explosives.  Right now the timer to refresh 3 stamina, which is the max amount and also the required amount for the explosive, will be ready after a used explosive is detonated.  This way you can only use 1 at a time.  Also this prevents the user from spamming the dodge feature but timed just right for refresh that you can get out of a sticky situation.  

As for these power ups.  Well you will not start the game with them, they will have to be acquired.  There will be more than 2 power ups in the game as well.  There is a rudimentary inventory system in place at the moment, this will be improved upon.  The inventory system will display your collected power ups and allow you to equip 2 of them.  You will only be able to equip two power ups at one time.  

My coding skills are getting very strong and I am really getting comfortable with the game maker engine and how it works.  The next thing I need to work on is my sprite art work.  I will be concentrating more on this as I feel it could use some work.  I have a training class that I will be taking to improve my skills in this area. 

I believe those were the big milestone achievements that were made with many little ones in there.  

Attached is a gameplay video.    Please excuse my skills I am horrible playing with a keyboard.  Right now movement is W, A, S , D keys.  

EDIT:  Found a great video recording program that records over 30fps, it's called Monosnap for OSX.  Here is a new video uploaded to our youtube.

Thanks for reading, following, and commenting.  We want to hear from everyone so please drop a line!  Till next week. 

To view the Alpha gameplay please see our youtube channel: