It's that time again:


This week on 'The CORE Update', we show off the new credits display, present the 'upgrade' screen, and start up a new segment for the baddy in us all.  But first, lets take a break to listen to the audio side of development.



Now, from the very beginning, CORE has been about music and visualizing the playback...I mean, the entire Core effect is driven by music!  With that in mind, I felt it was time to explain some details about the audio engine.

In the game, there is a music folder where you can place any music you wish to hear during gameplay.


The following formats are currently supported thanks to FmodEx:
MP3, OGG, WMA, WAV, MOD, S3M, XM, IT, MID, FLAC

But that's not all.  Instead of moving your entire music library to the game's music folder, why not just make a playlist instead and drag that into the music folder.  The game supports M3U, PLS and even just a list of filenames in a TXT file.  You can even have multiple playlists stored in the music folder so you can easily organize your classical from your rock soundtrack.

And I didn't even get to the icing on the cake.  Don't have any good music on your Hard Drive, USB Flash Drive or SD Card?  Well, why not stream an internet radio station while you play.  Just give the URL and away you go (most net streams use PLS anyway, making it even more convenient!).

On top of all of that, you can easily manipulate the audio engine while you play.  Want to skip a track or change the volume?  No problem, keys are mapped (default are /*-+ on numpad) that allow you to do these operations at anytime during the game.  Want to change the game's music list entirely?  Just change the songs/playlists in the music folder and press the reload (default is page up) button to refresh the game's music library.  I am also considering options to shuffle the game music list, and drop a current song from the list, along with other media player goodies (You didn't think I'd waste all my media player experience now ;P)



Moving on, I now added the credits.  It's the usual fanfare, with text scrolling up giving accolades to everyone it should.  I felt the Core on the top left suited well.  Btw, I purposely took the image 'cutting off the credits' because I still haven't finalized who to include (WIP sillies).

Another thing you might notice is the fonts.  I finally got the fonts I plan to use (all monospaced) and should keep things legible while you blast the crap out of everyone.  For the curious, they are:

Fixedsys, SquareShooter, Bitstream Sans Mono

Originally the menu fonts were all image based, but this became too much of a hassle to maintain (went a complete 180 from a semi-AA'd font to a stiff as brick look).



Then came time to upgrade.  Above is a screen of the new upgrade window that appears after completing a wave.  From here, you can upgrade your defender orb to have a stronger attack, more health, increased energy or just learn a new skill or two.



Each menu item (or button) has a nice little help caption informing you of various information about selections.  This is also where specific skill information will be placed.

Skill points you earn after every wave.  Elite points you earn every tenth wave and allow you to convert an 'already learned' skill into a elite variation (For example, Scatter Shot (3-way shooting) will become Elite Scatter Shot (5-way shooting)).


Name That Baddy!
From here on in, I'll try to include a small spot where I explain a baddy from the game.  So, lets start out with the only baddy in the game currently!

[note:  All baddies are WIP and may change before the final build]



This is a Kamibox.  Their prime directive is to plow themselves into the heart of the Core, thus damaging the core greatly at the cost of destroying themselves.  At first, these guys are fairly weak and can be taken out with one shot of your energy blaster.  However, they get increasingly more powerful (both in endurance and attack damage) the farther into the game you go, requiring quite a barrage of energy in order to take them down.  A skilled player should make sure none of these make contact with the Core, or themselves for that matter.

And with that, I conclude another update.  Thanks for reading,
~Brandon

Looks, and sounds, awesome.

What Dako said. And it seems like you're going to get known for something else besides SXMS this time around :P

I wish everyone developed as horrifically slowly as me. :/

That aside, as ever, this is looking simply ridiculous. Awesome stuff.

This looks TEH awesome!!!

I laughed at what Kairos said because i know Shaltif more for his games than SXMS ;)

I hope so as well.  Although I am glad SXMS became as big as it did, I prefer to be known for my games.  As Chronic put it.  I have made hundreds of WIP games/applications, but very few have ever hit the public eye ;)

I'm amazed at how much I've gotten done considering my schedule now.  Last year at this time, I devoted 12 hours or so to the computer everyday.  Now I barely get 4 in a day.  Yet, I've made more progress in Core in less time then any previous work.

<intermission>
Don't you just hate when you accidentally spill soda on your computer desk?  Just now I tipped my Pepsi all over my mouse pad.  Luckly, that was the only thing I messed up, so wasn't too bad of a clean ;P.  Anyway.
</intermission>

Just wait until you play it ;)

~Brandon