Hey there.
Polish can easily be overlooked when developing a game. It’s that last 10 percent or so where you smooth out the rough edges, focus on the intricacies of mechanics or functionality, and sharpen up audio, visuals and feedback. Polish is what can turn a bad game into a good game, and a good one into a great one, all else being equal.
A bit of progress has been made to add polish to Brickout. Let’s demonstrate what’s done so far.
Added particle effects to broken bricks.
Getting into Phaser’s particle system wasn’t too difficult. I created a simple graphic that represents a broken piece of the brick, and used that as the particle. Every brick has its particles that match its own color.
Extra Impact to Bomb Explosions
When a bomb explodes, it now produces a screen flash and tremor.
This one was a lot of fun to add. The flash made use of Phaser’s graphic primitive functionality. In this case, I used a colored rectangle that fills the entire screen.
The tremor was super-easy. Interestingly enough, there is a “shake” method on Phaser’s Camera object that you can call, and specify the intensity and duration of the tremor. In previous games I’ve made for clients, I’ve always had to do this manually, and I was expecting to do that here. Thankfully (or unfortunately, if you’re a crazy coder (: ), that’s a task I’m relieved of for this game. (:
There is also a “shattering” sound that is played if the bomb happens to clear any bricks within its blast area.
Saver Blocks Gradually Appear Instead of All at Once
When the saver bridge is forming itself, it now does so once brick at a time. So, you’re not out of the woods yet, and you can still lose a ball while the bridge is forming!
Also added particles to broken saver bricks as well.
Adding Labels to Identify the Item Collected
When you collect gems, an animated label will briefly appear. For some items, such as the bomb or saver bridge, this is not necessary.
Alright! Let’s see this shit in action! 😀
Now, more work to do!
– C. out.