April 13th, 9:00 AM. Chris's bedroom, now a permanent fixture in the indie game development landscape (according to a hastily drawn sign on the door), was filled with the sounds of clicking, typing, and the occasional frustrated sigh.
"Main menu!" Chris announced, pointing at the whiteboard with a flourish. "Time to give this game a proper front door."
Max, already deep in the Godot documentation, was researching Control nodes and UI layouts. "I think we can use a VBoxContainer to organize the buttons, and a HSlider for the volume controls."
Tyrone, armed with his trusty sketchbook, was designing the visual style of the menu. He opted for a clean, futuristic look, with bold fonts and subtle animations.
They spent the morning building the basic structure. Chris created the buttons: "Start Game," "Options," "Credits" (a page listing their names in increasingly grandiose titles), and "Quit" (a button they hoped no one would ever use).
Max implemented the options menu. He added sliders for music volume and sound effects volume, and a checkbox for toggling fullscreen mode. He even added a rudimentary key rebinding system, allowing players to customize the controls.
Tyrone created the background for the menu, a swirling nebula that subtly shifted and pulsed. He added animated transitions between the different menu screens.
By 9:00 PM, The Nebula Gauntlet had a professional-looking main menu. It was clean, functional, and surprisingly stylish.
"Now that's an entrance," Chris said, admiring their work. He is starting to learn more about UI.
Max was pleased with the functionality. "Everything works! Volume control, fullscreen, even key rebinding." He is learning on making a good UI.
Tyrone, ever the artist, was already planning more visual enhancements. "Needs more…animation!" He is getting better at making UI.
April 14th. Multiple levels. Chris took the lead. "Time to expand our universe," he declared. "Three levels. Three distinct environments. Three times the challenge."
They brainstormed level concepts: an asteroid field, a nebula cloud, and a space station interior.
Max implemented the level transitions. He created a system that loaded a new scene when the player reached the end of the current level. He also added a brief loading screen (featuring Tyrone's swirling nebula animation).
Tyrone designed the visual layout of each level, using different TileMaps and backgrounds to create distinct environments.
The first playthrough of the multi-level setup…was a bit jarring. The transitions were abrupt, the difficulty spikes were uneven, and the levels felt disconnected.
They spent hours tweaking the level order, balancing the enemy spawns, and adding smoother transitions. They added visual cues to indicate the upcoming level change.
By 9:00 PM, they had a three-level structure that felt cohesive and challenging, but fair.
" We are making a whole game." Max jokes.
"It's starting to feel like a real game," Chris said, a sense of accomplishment washing over him. He is pround to make this progress.
Max was pleased with the level progression. "It flows much better now." He get how to make a game flow.
Tyrone, ever the perfectionist, was already planning more visual refinements. "Needs more…detail!" He want to make the game look good.
April 15th. New enemy. Tyrone's time to shine. "Let's introduce a new threat," he said, a mischievous glint in his eye.
He designed a new enemy: a fast, darting ship that fired homing missiles. He called it the "Seeker."
Max implemented the Seeker's AI. He used look_at() to make the missiles track the player, and added a short delay before the missiles launched, giving the player a chance to react.
Chris integrated the Seeker into the enemy spawning system, carefully balancing its appearance rate and difficulty.
The first encounter with the Seeker…was terrifying. The homing missiles were relentless, pursuing the player across the screen.
"It's…it's like they're alive!" Chris exclaimed, frantically dodging a barrage of missiles. He is getting good on enemy implementation.
They tweaked the missile speed, the turning radius, and the Seeker's health, trying to find the sweet spot between challenging and frustrating.
By 9:00 PM, the Seeker was a formidable, but beatable, addition to the enemy roster. It added a new layer of challenge and excitement to the gameplay.
"Perfect," Max said, satisfied with the AI implementation. He can do more AI implementation next.
Tyrone was already sketching even more elaborate enemy concepts. "We need a…swarm enemy. And a…laser grid enemy. And…" His imagination was running wild. He felt this is it.
Three days, three significant milestones. They'd added a main menu, multiple levels, and a terrifying new enemy. The Nebula Gauntlet was growing in scope and complexity, becoming a truly impressive (for beginners) shoot 'em up experience.