April 15th, 9:00 AM. Chris's bedroom, now less a bedroom and more a crucible of game development, hummed with focused energy. Leftover energy drink cans had formed a precarious, leaning tower.
"New enemy!" Chris declared, brandishing a marker like a weapon. "Tyrone, what fresh hell have you cooked up for our unsuspecting players?"
Tyrone, surrounded by sketches that looked like a cross between a spaceship and a nightmare, grinned. "Meet the Seeker. Fast, agile, and it fires homing missiles."
Max, already hunched over his laptop, was deep in thought. "Homing missiles… Okay, I think I can use look_at() to make the missile track the player. Maybe add a slight delay before launch, give them a chance to dodge."
They spent the morning bringing the Seeker to life. Tyrone created the sprite: a sleek, angular ship with glowing red engines. He also designed the missile sprite: a small, fast-moving projectile with a fiery trail.
Max tackled the AI. He implemented the homing behavior, carefully tweaking the missile's speed and turning radius. He also added a "warning" animation to the Seeker before it launched its missiles, giving the player a visual cue.
Chris integrated the Seeker into the enemy spawning system, carefully balancing its appearance rate and difficulty. He made sure it didn't appear too frequently, especially in the early levels.
The first test run…was chaotic. The missiles were relentless, pursuing the player with unnerving accuracy.
"It's…it's like they have a personal vendetta!" Chris shouted, frantically dodging a swarm of missiles.
They spent hours tweaking and refining the Seeker's behavior. They adjusted the missile speed, the turning radius, the launch delay, and the Seeker's health. They wanted a challenging, but not impossible, enemy.
By 9:00 PM, the Seeker was a formidable, but fair, addition to the game. It added a new layer of tension and excitement to the gameplay, forcing players to stay on their toes.
"Nailed it," Max said, satisfied with the AI implementation. He is pround.
Tyrone was already sketching new enemy variations. "Maybe a Seeker that fires multiple missiles? Or one that explodes into smaller Seekers?" His creativity knew no bounds. He is more creative.
Chris just groaned. "Please, no." He need to rest.
April 16th. Save/Load system. Max's domain. "Time to let players take a break," he announced. "Without losing all their progress."
He researched Godot's file I/O (Input/Output) system. He learned how to write data to a file and read it back.
Chris designed a simple save system. The game would automatically save the player's progress (current level, score, lives) at the end of each level.
Tyrone created a "Save Successful" message that appeared briefly on the screen, providing visual feedback to the player.
The first attempt…didn't work. The game saved the data, but when they tried to load it, everything was reset.
"What happened?" Chris frowned, inspecting the code.
Max realized the problem. "We're saving the data, but we're not loading it correctly. We're overwriting it with the default values."
He fixed the code, carefully separating the save and load functions. He also added a check to ensure that the save file existed before attempting to load it.
By 9:00 PM, the save/load system was working flawlessly. Players could now quit the game and resume their progress later, a crucial feature for a multi-level experience.
"Finally, bathroom breaks are allowed!" Chris exclaimed, stretching dramatically. He is relieved.
Max was pleased with the implementation. "It's basic, but it works. We can always add more features later, like multiple save slots." He is learning on implementing save feature.
Tyrone was already planning a more elaborate save/load screen. "Needs more…visual flair!" He make the save more alive.
Two days, two significant milestones. They'd added a terrifying new enemy and a crucial save/load system. The Nebula Gauntlet was becoming a truly complete and polished game.