April 4th, 9:00 AM. Mini-Project 2 day. The air in Chris's bedroom crackled with anticipation (and the lingering scent of yesterday's pizza).
"Alright, team," Chris said, clapping his hands together. "Let's make this epic."
Max, fueled by caffeine and coding fervor, was already outlining the plan. "We've got the elements. Enemies, shooting, scoring, sound. Now we need to put it all together into a cohesive level."
Tyrone, sketchbook in hand, had designed a simple level layout: waves of enemies, a few power-up opportunities (a concept they'd briefly discussed but hadn't implemented yet), and a final "boss" encounter (a bigger, tougher red blob).
They started by assembling the existing pieces. Chris created the level structure using the TileMap and added the scrolling background.
Max implemented the enemy spawning waves, using timers and arrays to control the enemy types and quantities. He also added a basic power-up: a "rapid fire" mode that temporarily increased the laser firing rate.
Tyrone focused on the visual polish. He refined the enemy and projectile sprites, added some particle effects (explosions, trails), and tweaked the background colors.
The first playthrough…was a mess. Enemies spawned too quickly, the power-up was overpowered, and the boss blob was pathetically weak.
"Too easy! And too chaotic!" Chris shouted, dodging a hail of red blobs.
They spent hours tweaking, balancing, and playtesting. They adjusted the enemy spawn rates, the laser damage, the power-up duration, the boss blob's health.
There were moments of frustration ("Why is this enemy spawning inside the wall?"), moments of triumph ("Yes! The rapid fire feels amazing!"), and moments of sheer hilarity ("Did you see that blob just…explode for no reason?").
Max implemented a simple game over screen, displaying the final score. Tyrone added a "restart" button.
By 9:00 PM, they had a playable, balanced, and surprisingly fun shoot 'em up level. It wasn't perfect – the boss blob was still a bit underwhelming – but it was a significant step up from The Wobbling Wonder.
"We did it," Chris said, leaning back in his chair, exhausted but exhilarated. He feel confident as game dev beginner.
Max nodded, a grin spreading across his face. "A real, working shoot 'em up. With enemies, shooting, scoring, and even a power-up!" He felt great because can implement his code to this small project.
Tyrone, ever the artist, was already planning improvements. "Needs more polish. Better boss, more varied enemies, maybe some visual effects on the player spaceship." He is getting ready to face a new 7 days milestone.
They played the game again, and again, and again, testing for bugs, tweaking the balance, and simply enjoying the fruits of their labor.
They'd come a long way in two weeks. They'd gone from knowing nothing about game development to building a (basic) but complete shoot 'em up game. They'd learned about nodes, scripts, signals, collisions, UI, sound, and a whole host of other concepts.
They were still beginners, of course. But they were beginners with a game. And that, they all agreed, was something pretty special. They can't wait to improve it in next 7 days.