Pretty Instructions

Today i finally got around to upgrading my Help/Instructions page. I already think it scrolls in a nice way, and also has a nice fade out and in at the top and bottom of the screen (or near it). I think it looks very nice and professional, however i have always though that my Instructions screen was a bit bland. The main reason for that i believe is the fact that the Instructions (every line!) are all single color.

So slightly off white text is the order of the day and it looks ok i guess. Anyone that has read this blog for any time will realise i like a bit of color in my life. So today i finally got around to fixing up some color into some lines. So far the system is a bit primitive. I am able to color any single, but whole line. So this is great for headings that are already Capitalized and are now in a more stand outish color.

I may go further and make it so i can recolor in the middle of lines. This isn't really too difficult now i have the String.substring() and String.Compare() under control. It was a bit of a trial to get right at first as i am a veteran programmer that started writing in machine code. So I tend to view memory as memory, laid out in whatever fashion it is. I do not really view data as types per se. This of course means i am a pointer using Freak, that it seems is TOO dangerous for folks to program with in Xna. To be honest i am sure it has more to do with managed language control than any useful prevention. So will i recolor partial lines? I don't know, maybe if i have a good reason too.

And that brings me to why the hell did i waste time on colorizing a few lines in the Help section of my game, that hardly anyone will ever read? The reason is of course that every aspect of a game should be given attention. Why should i short change people that want to read the help section. Same goes for the Credits section. It should be as good as you can make it. It oddly enough could be the deciding factor on why peolpe buy your game. Not overly likely i know, but what if even just 0.5% of people that picked up your game saw the excellent credits, would that make a large percentage of them buy it? I'll let you decide your own course. Mine is set... I want this game to be great quality and that means everywhere.

G'night

New Player Ships

This is what i saw when i got up this morning. Ok, not quite as i got up. But soon after my PC was on and i was looking at my emails. This one made me smile in a way that can be quite rare. I expected Terry to knock out some ship graphics for me, ones that cuold even have partially resembled what i had drawn myself. I never quite expected them to lok so georgous and faithfull to my original designs. check them out below.

The main reason for different designed ships is for the colorblind people out there. Yeah it's a bit of trouble, but i am Indie and control what is going into this game. So i control the fact i wanted to do something to differentiate between player ships. How hard would it be to play a shooter like this ith a friend or wife and fine you could never be sure which your ship was ? For none colorblind peolpe like me it is easy, and i just go with what color i am.

I sure hope these ships work, as i reckon they are lovely..

Any opinions, please let me know.

Laters