The first stage in the development pipeline of the re-write is to get a fully dynamic environment platform in the game. This means having many parts to each level, I'll go into them in a bit, and dynamic code for each level to produce overlays and background animations that fit with the style of the level.
Each area in the game will have a variety of sub-area's, each being farther out into the body of water the level is set on, each only being accessible with higher level equipment. All of this is yet to be implemented, but you get the picture.
Now, each sub-area has it's own collection of pieces which makes up it's level. It has a background, background overlay, sea floor background, sea floor, sea floor foreground, water and sun. The sun layer will be used for different looking suns and possibly moons, while you can guess what the rest are for.
After all of these are plugged in, the level can then run it's own functions of animation. These are all programmed independently of each other, and multiple can be called in one level. The two animations I've made so far are water_glisten and water_sunrays. The former makes the background water glisten in the sun, while the latter makes the foreground water have varying sunrays shine through it. You can see both in action here:
(image scaled down)
What this means is that I can use multiple effects across areas and sub-areas without limitation, and when more animations are implemented (such as falling leaves, possibly choppy water, anything really!) it means each sub-area will really feel alive and unique.
That's all for now. Work on levels will continue for a bit, then I'll be moving on to populating the levels with visible fish, and work on the player.
The shimmer...is incredible