April 2nd, 9:00 AM. "Scoring system," Chris declared, whiteboard marker in hand. "Time to make those explosions count."
Max had already researched the Label node in Godot. "We can use this to display the score. Just need to update its text whenever an enemy is destroyed."
He created a Label in the corner of the screen, initially displaying "Score: 0".
Chris focused on the connection. He added a signal to the enemy's "death" function (the one that triggered the explosion). This signal would send a message to the main scene, telling it to increase the score.
Tyrone, meanwhile, was busy designing a more visually appealing score display. He chose a bold, futuristic font and added a subtle glow effect.
The first attempt…almost worked. The score increased, but it jumped by random amounts, sometimes by 1, sometimes by 10, sometimes by 100.
"What's going on?" Chris frowned, inspecting the code.
Max realized the problem. "We're sending the signal multiple times per enemy. The collision is triggering it repeatedly."
He added a simple check to ensure the signal was only sent once per enemy. Problem solved. The score now increased by a consistent amount (they settled on 10 points per blob).
By 9:00 PM, a functional, visually appealing score counter graced the screen. It was a small detail, but it added a crucial element of feedback to the game.
"Now, its a little bit more arcade," Chris said, looking at the UI score.
Max is satisfied, finally can combine all he learn to the project.
"Good, now the sound," Tyrone smirk.
April 3rd. Sound and music. Tyrone's domain. He'd already downloaded a collection of free sound effects and background music tracks.
"First," he said, "background music. Something epic, space-y."
He added an AudioStreamPlayer node to the scene and loaded a looping music track. The game instantly felt more alive.
Chris focused on the sound effects. He added AudioStreamPlayer2D nodes to the spaceship, the laser, and the enemy. He assigned different sound effects to each: a "pew pew" for the laser, a satisfying "boom" for the explosions, a subtle "whoosh" for the spaceship's movement.
Max helped him connect the sound effects to the appropriate events: the laser firing, the enemy exploding, the spaceship taking damage.
The first few attempts were…a bit overwhelming. All the sounds played at once, creating a cacophony of noise.
"Too much!" Tyrone shouted, covering his ears.
They adjusted the volumes, tweaked the timings, and added some spatial audio effects (making the sounds quieter when they were further away).
By 9:00 PM, the game had a complete soundscape. The background music set the mood, the sound effects added punch, and the overall experience was much more immersive.
"It sounds like a real game now," Tyrone said, a grin on his face. Master on combining sound effect, now is time to focus on implementing a good background and art visual.
Max nodded. "Sound makes a huge difference. It's like…the final layer of polish." Learn more about how audio works.
Chris was pleased with the overall effect. "We're getting there. One more day, one more mini-project." He start to felt like a real beginner game dev.
Two days, two milestones. They'd added scoring and sound, transforming their simple shoot 'em up into a more complete and engaging experience. They were ready for the final push.