Component Design - Movement of Grid of Alien Sprites

Please see the wiki that describes my detailed design of how to move the grid of Alien Sprites.

Movement of Grid of Alien Sprites

Ship Movement issues - Fixed

Thanks to Sajed and Mike I've fixed some of the ship movement issues that I mentioned in my last posting. I moved the actual ship movement (ship.left(), ship.right(), ship.fireLaser()) into the update loop (instead of in the event handler).

This makes the ship move much smoother but introduces an additional issue. The laser seems to be able to burrow though multiple enemies (and the entire barrier).

It was probably only working because I was doing something inefficiently, and now that I'm doing it right i've got a bug. I'll be working it.

I'll post an other screenshot tomorrow, I've got the different sprites working for the enemies now, and I've got the point model more accurate.

My Space Invaders vs Real Space Invaders

Tried to alter my HUD to make it match the real Space Invaders as much as possible. The "Credits" and "Score<2>" are just dummy values, as I'm not sure what they would be used for in a modern PC based Space Invaders.

Things that are left to do:

- Sounds, I've not implemented any sounds yet.
- Barrier "starburst" visual flourish.
- Having a difficult time getting the ship to move and fire at the same time. It does work but it's difficult.
- Having a hard time deciding how fast everything should be, the enemies bombs are really fast, and so is the laser.

Game Design - Part I

Control
* Firing Laser from Ship- Spacebar
* Moving Ship Left - Left Arrow
* Moving Ship Right - Right Arrow
* Pausing - Escape

Scoring Model
I don't fully understand the scoring model of the original game, but I propose the following:
Top Row - 50 points
2nd Row - 40 points
3rd Row - 30 points
4th Row - 20 points
Bottom Row - 10 points
UFO - 100 points
Completing Level - 100 points

Moving Objects
* UFO - Periodically traverses the top of the screen going either from left to right or from right to left. Only 1 present at a time
* Space Invaders - 5 Rows, 11 columns. Move as a group back and forth, dropping down 1 level each time they hit the edge.
* Ship - Moved by the player

Static Objects
* Barriers - 3 static barriers exist, can be destroyed by both enemy and friendly fire.

Space Invaders - class diagram

Just wanted to show my current/planned class diagram for space invaders.

Project idea: Size Scroller

I've created a web-page for Size Scoller here: https://sites.google.com/site/sizescroller/home

The brief description:
Size Scroller is a game that gets its inspiration from classics such as Mario Brothers and Braid. Size Scroller is a typical side scrolling action game with a crucial twist. As your hero (Psi) destroys enemies he grows larger in size. As he receives damage he shrinks.

The game is puzzle based, and some obstacles require Psi to be larger (to jump over an obstacle for example), and some require him to be smaller (to duck under a cliff). The challenge is to use the available enemies on the level to manipulate Psi's size, and overcome the challenges.

Space Invaders - Moving along nicely

Okay, as you can see I've got the laser firing, and I've also got collisions going on the aliens. My next things to work on:

- Collision on the barriers
- Aliens dropping bombs
- Scores
- Levels
- Adding more alien sprites (right now I only have the 1 alien with the 2 poses).

Having tons of fun!