With Sub Commander finished, it’s time to get started on Wasabi Defense again! I’ve had plenty of time to get everything ready for the new start, and believe me, it will almost be a completely new start. I’ve decided to dump most of the graphics, lots of the old code and basically start over. The good news is that I’ve already completed all the graphics for the base, and even a lot of code. Here’s what the finished base looks like:

I’ve decided to follow a different approach than last time. When I started developing the game, I designed everything I wanted in one level and then moved on to the next one. This means I designed a base building, a weapon for the player, a few enemies and then put them together in a level. This time, however, I’m gonna design the base first, then the player and all the weapons, next the enemies and finally build the levels. I think this will make planning a lot easier and avoiding the huge mess I ended up in last time.
I will also start storing as much of the game data externally in XML files instead of hard coding them. Things like hitpoints, weapon strengths, movement parameters, etcetera, will go in XML files. This will make it easier for me to modify them, since I won’t have to digg through the source code for the correct variable, and it will also make it possible for players to change them, making the game harder or easier!