DEVLOG - UI/Polish

This week has been about making the game work better as well as making sure the UI is all completed. I have finished all the scenes; these range from the main menu to the winning screen. Improvements I made to all scenes was increasing the size of the text, this was to make it easier to read as the font was not easily readable when small. I have also changed the instructions test back to its default font.  I was not able make it bigger without the text overflowing the entire screen. The UI buttons now also highlight red when the mouse goes over the top, GIF 1. This is because it was difficult to tell if the player was able to click with the button activating due to its black background. A reset screen has now also been implemented into the game if the player needs to pause. I have done this by making a canvas (the reset screen) over the scene and turning it off. The canvas was then given a script that stops time in the game and turns the canvas on when “R” is pressed. With the screen allowing the player to continue playing or go back to the main menu.

In the top left corner of the screen there is also now three red hearts to show the players life. I have given a script to the player where when they lose a life it just deletes the game object. The hearts used are designed by (Entertainment, 2017) with the licenses CC-BY 4.0 (creative commons, n.d.) and CC-BY 3.0 (creative commons, n.d.)

Improvements I have decreased the speed and shrunk the dash radius that the striker ghosts. I was unsure if these ghosts were too powerful, during testing this was confirmed. I have also decreased the spawn rate of them as there always seems too many to get passed. This now makes it a lot easier for people to play. In case the game is still too difficult I am going to add a mode where the player has infinite lives, so it is still playable. The player still needs an animated sprite. 

references:
creative commons, n.d. Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0). [Online] Available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ [Accessed 2022].
creative commons, n.d. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). [Online] Available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ [Accessed 2023].
Entertainment, F., 2017. OpenGameArt.org. [Online] Available at: https://opengameart.org/content/heart-pixel-art [Accessed 2023].