The Skytunnel, alpha 2 demo released news

New Release!

It's was already time for a new release. It's still just another demo version but a lot better one. Here is something that looks like a change log but I've most certainly missed a few things:
• I've included the power-ups. Some of them might be a bit overpowered.
• The game badly needed a new UI so I've also built a new UI which is far more superior than the previous one.
• I've changed the background generator. It's 1000% faster.
• Optimized some gfx code. Gfx should be faster.
+ Other small changes.

The game just got better, and runs faster.

Download Page

Other Details:

I've coded some debugging and statistics tools for myself.
In a typical game when everything is running at 60 fps.
22% of the CPU cycles are eaten up by collision code.
55% of the CPU cycles go to the graphics code.
23% is goes to the rest. (movement, controls, level generation ect)

So I guess the graphics code should be more optimized. But this ratio is not consistent throughout the whole game. When the game gets more overwhelming that final 23% should go up and force both frame-rate and the amount of cycles that go to the graphics code to go down.

If you play around with the motion blur setting you can get something that looks like this:
Indiedb.com

In future:

Next in my list of adding features are new level elements, better level transitions and a brand new menu with a proper settings sub-menu.
I should: add a tutorial level, sound-effects for the power-ups.
I also want to add new enemies, better soundtrack, an intro when the game starts and an ending. Yes an ending. Or at least a boss. This way the players actually have a goal they can pursue.

Q: When?
A: Some questions don't have an answer or it's better not to answer them.