Hello All, 

As suspected we missed last weeks blog so this week is 2 weeks worth of updates. These past 2 weeks I concentrated on converting all graphics from pixel artwork to vector images.  The main reason why I decided to go this route is because of scaling.  This game is being developed for IOS.  I want to be able to hit all devices including as small as the iphone 5C all the way up to the Ipad Pro.  While I could have certainly accomplished this with keeping the artwork pixel, I started experimenting with vector images using InkScape.  I immediately loved the program and how it made the images look.  The good news was I did not completely re draw all images.  I used InkScape to import the .png pixel images.  Then i used the trace tool in InkScape to convert the images into a vector drawing.  At that point I was able to scale the image much larger without loosing any quality.  I was then able to make edit's and touchups to the drawing.  Next I exported the image as a .png.  I had to export it this way because gamemaker only accepts 1 type of vector extension and it happens to be the one type that InkScape does not support as an export. 

Once it was imported into gamemaker I changed all the sprites to the vector images and made sure all the objects were calling the correct sprites.  Then on most objects used within the game I only had to set the image_xscale = X and image_yscale = image_xscale (with X being the percentage of the image size). Now when it came to drawing actual sprites to the screen, like in the game gui controller, I had to use the draw_sprite_ext() function.  Now I ran into some issues where I was using image_xscale to flip the sprites image, like when the player was running left, so i had to re draw that sprite and call it with the sprite_index call as I needed to use image_xscale for scaling the player object.  

If people are interested I could write up an entire tutorial on how I accomplished this.

Overall it's a huge upgrade to the games graphics and we really feel like it's a huge advancement forward.  

We also squashed a lot of bugs.  Also may I add it is very hard and aggravating to duplicate certain issues to see if you fixed a bug when the game is completely random!! 

Added some new features as well like:

• Smoke trails following the Flying Germ's Fireball (we are very excited about this and will be doing more with effects like this)
• Completely re drew the explosion animation and increased the speed.
• Made it so you can no longer pick up hearts if you are at full health.  If you cannot pick them up you will push them out of the way. 
  • Now that I have written a script for this, this same script is going to be used for future puzzles where you have to push obstacles out of the way and or too certain areas to complete puzzles. 
• Added new font to the game. 
  • shout out to Soluna Software for the assets, he did an amazing job!
• We now have an official logo.  The logo is also now on our website (sos-cc.org).  With the new logo I have updated the title screen of the game.  Now the view size of the title screen is the same resolution as the rest of the game.  The menu options are now centered properly in the game and the logo is centered above.  I have the background of the screen set to black right now as I do not have any artwork yet to display nor do I really know what I want to do yet. 
• Changed the save game feature.  The game now saves when all enemies in a given room are destroyed.  There was a bug in the previous method that made me have to change this.  The bug allowed you enter a new room then quit the game and when you hit continue all enemies would be destroyed.  

That is all I can think of right now, other than the massive amount of bug fixes.  Below is a gameplay video to show off everything discussed above.  Just FYI I am purposely playing horrible to show off certain features ;).  Next we are going to be working on the procedural generator engine so it designs the rest of the game rooms and is different every play through.  

Thank You!!