No new demo but I do have some cool news as far as development goes:
Reworked quite a bit of the code to be more optimized. Everything was being handled/drawn/updated in one game component. I did that for testing new code and whatnot. Now, I have added a new component - backgroundManager. Anything dealing with the player for now is handled via the spriteManager. The scrolling backgrounds are handled via the backgroundManager. This is not only easier to navigate but will be easier when loading up the different levels. Once other things such as the lives,score,money,etc get started, that will be handled by it's own manager that would be accessible throughout the entire game.
I also added a title screen! ...animated!
You press enter and it goes correctly to the testing level 1.
From what I have learned through experimenting, my general game flow should go as follows:
TitleScreenManager(includes the initializing global variables such as lives, which character was selected, etc)
to
Level Select(simple level select screen - levelManager)
to
Shop(simple shop/selects plane and weapons - shopManager)
to
Level(this will contain the meat - spriteManager,backgroundManager,enemyManager,statsManager,or anything else that is needed for a working level)
Everything will basically go through a loop from Level Select to Level. If the lives are 0, then there will be a game over screen to implement.
At this point, just the titleManager and part of the Level phases are started and working.
I must say that I am having a blast programming in C# and XNA. Feels so much more rewarding when something works and feels a little bit more "hardcore" than Game Maker. Actually feel like I am doing more entry level professional programming rather than hobbyist home Game Maker stuff.
Don't know if that is a good way of putting it but it just feels awesome! I honestly wish I would have jumped into this with a better mindset a few years ago when I first messed with it. For some reason, regular languages such as C++ or C# just seemed too overwhelming after messing with the easiness that is Game Maker. Now I am starting to understand why you good programmers hate on it.
