Space Invaders: AI Firing, Game State and Player Lives

So motivation is really high at the moment, I guess It's because I can really feel this project progressing. I've managed to get quite a bit done in the last few days.

Player Life

​I started off dealing with the Player life and initially health as well. I then realised that Space Invaders technically doesn't have the concept of health for the player or the enemies. (You could argue that the  defense posts do but I will deal with that when I come to it). So after scrapping health I implemented the life component, fairly simple really and I am definitely getting used to the creation of new components and systems now so It didn't take long at all. I also integrated this into the Awesomium WebView so that It could be seen on the GUI.

AI Firing

​I then went on to deal with the AI Firing, I decided to break the sort of vertical lines of mobs down into a "Squad" each with their own Squad Number. So each enemy can now have a squad component and the AI Firing System is interested in this component. To decide who fires I pick one of the squads at random, then find out whichever enemy is at the front (because only the front-most enemy can shoot). This enemy then fires a bullet which has it's collision callback set to react with the player. 

I quickly moved on to game state after getting the AI Firing working. I now have a simple GameState and a GameStateChange Message. It is all really quite simple so I'm not going to bore you anymore with the details, here is the game in its current state:

I'm actually really impressed with how it is starting to look, I've already been thinking about how I can implement the sequential levels and also how to pre-generate them as well. 

What's next then: 

• Calculating more accurate Physics Boxes and Spheres for the bullets and Enemies.(The bullets hit when they don't actually seem to be that close)
• Look at altering the scaling of the enemies and player so that there are more enemies on screen and it is more difficult. 
• Implement the Speed up over time functionality (Should be fairly easy, I already have an AI Movement System)
• Looking at Implementing the defense posts to protect the player. (may need some time investing in artwork)

So there is still plenty to do but It should all take me no time at all. I'm hoping to be able to have a functionality complete game before Christmas.

Keep coding :)