Hello! It’s been 10 days since my last update, but despite the short time, I think I’ve made quite a bit of progress. Here are some of the improvements I’ve made to the game:

Ranking with Google Play Services

Although adding this might be a piece of cake for most people, for me, it was a nightmare. When I added the Google package, everything got messed up—I couldn't build the game anymore, and I had to remove it. Then I had to figure out how to get Google's ad package working again. It was a constant cycle of installing and uninstalling. If anyone runs into this issue and doesn’t know what to do, feel free to ask me. I’m not an expert by any means, but I learned a few tricks along the way. 😆

Particle System

I had issues with explosions and "sparks" when bullets hit enemies. I was either using free sprites with very low resolution (which I didn’t know how to make look good in my game) or all the explosions looked the same.

So, I decided to dive into Unity’s particle system. I had seen it before but always avoided it because it looked really confusing. When I first opened it and saw the insane number of options, I got overwhelmed and immediately gave up.

Additionally, I read on forums that the particle system consumes a lot of resources, and since my game is for mobile, I had ignored it. But eventually, I got fed up with the sprite limitations, and since I'm not the best at drawing, I decided to give it a shot. And wow, it solved multiple problems at once!

1. The sparks when bullets hit enemies now look much better and more varied.

2. I was able to create more visually appealing explosions with automatic variety, so to speak.

3. I even added small animations when defeating bosses. 😆

Honestly, I had a lot of fun experimenting with the particle system. I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but for "simple" effects, it’s amazing!

New Attack Patterns

I added new attack patterns for the bosses and also made modifications to their behavior, like making them stop briefly before performing an attack to create visually appealing patterns. I’ve realized that beauty is just as important as fun in games.

Level Creation and Balancing

I’ve balanced and created new levels. Initially, there was a boss at the end of every level, but I had planned to change that from the beginning. Now, I’ve added two extra levels between each boss fight.

I haven't perfected each boss yet, and honestly, after level 20 (or 7.1), the in-between levels were just copies of previous ones. But now, I have more room to create fun and unique boss fights with more diverse attack patterns. And with the particle system, I see endless possibilities to improve them!

Bullet Size Adjustment

I changed the bullet size for the main ships because, despite being a shoot ‘em up, the large bullets were cluttering the screen, making it hard for players to see enemy projectiles. I also plan to change enemy bullets that have the same color as the player’s bullets, but I didn’t have time to do that yet.

Well, that’s all—at least, all that I can remember! Until next time! 😃