A4: Enemies at Your 12 Launch!

Yo!
Much like A3 with all the UI changes, A4 was a not so quick update. In A4 (ALPHA 4) I introduce to you ENEMIES! But not only a variety of enemies but also new status effects from damage! And a good selection of other features added in just for combat. This update was scoped up again, and again; and again! Even with all the new additions in content and features plus the general increase in polish; I still don't feel satisfied with this update.

But this all took a while but is well worth it! I did this for my BIG reveal TONIGHT! Well, it was planned for Christmas but burn out hit hard.

Pretty sick right? It was designed and created by Fantasy Team! Whom I plan to go through to get expansion art in the future!

Also, a sad but true disclaimer:
This update doesn't have EVERYTHING I once wanted in it and may have performance issues. These issues and cut content/features will be added in subsequent updates after this one. I was going to jump into a world generator and finish the last weak point of the game so I can confidently push To the Moon into BETA. But, I can't do that knowing there's still foundation to lay and patch up.

I was grinding through the update and even with setbacks the game was being crafted really nicely! Even my slow days I still got quite a bit done. But, after a month of every day putting in 4+ hours on top of my normal 9 hour work day, cleaning my apartment, other human responsibilities; and maintaining a healthy sleep and rest schedule.
I got burned out.
This is really common and just means the game hit a week or two of almost exclusively zero days. But the work continues!

Currently there's one faction for enemies planned for this current stage of development; the Terra Government.  So, I made up some sick government ship ideas and coded them into some cool enemy variations!

Fighter Drones!
These are a very basic enemy that move on a pattern and shoot at you. They're not special but they're the primary enemy in the earlier stages of gameplay.

Sky Mines!
These are placed in hopes you go near them so they explode you!

You can even arm or instantly blow them up with your weapons! Not only are they a hazard but also a weapon to those with precision and big brains! 

There's also different types of Sky Mines such as...

Corrosive which is like poison damage for these metal air/space crafts! It'll deal damage over time and put a visual on your ship.

Status Effects can be applied to any other hazard or enemy that I want! Pretty sweet! Right now though they don't have any visuals for them which makes them feel meh. This will be changed very soon! The only current status effect also used in game is Corrosive. Unfortunately due to the update scope changes and life events I couldn't take 2 months to put out an update. So, these will be added into the next few Al 4.X updates!

Enemy hurt and death animations are also now a thing!

As well as an enemy wave generator! The wave generator carefully creates waves of enemies for you! It's endless so you can finally blast your way through some enemies in this update!

I  worked on the current in-game weapons to create cool visuals for them and sounds! As well as some new variations! I figured if I made enemy weapons I might as well add them in for the player to unlock! I may make the enemy variant weapons unlockable later on; but for now have fun with them.

So, the Cerberus Cannon is a SUPER powerful weapon (not yet added) that I didn't think you should be able to just purchase and equip. But since this weapon in particular is going to be a big enemy if not boss weapon; why not add enemy drops to the game? This way you won't just be saving up to purchase an insane weapon, but you can find weapons as drops and you just need to pay to repair them. I mean after all they were blasted off their former owner.

In fact after reworking and designing how progress will work enemy drops are crucial! Every enemy will have X parts they can drop. Once you collect a blueprint you can repair it aka purchase it then equip it! Duplicates I recently changed to detect if the player has collected it already, if so you get currency!

To get all these enemies looking slick I had to jump ahead of the road map and do some more Workshop upgrades! 
I had to cut up all the sprites I'm using from Kenney's Ship Mixer and assemble them in a master file. This is so I can import each section of each part as a separate sprite so it can be modulated (colored) in Godot piece by piece.

This is the file!

Lots of empty space that will be filled in over time with tons of updates! Some of these are old parts already in game; and some are new for this update.

This is the result of the new sprite setup and coded system to update their colors in-game!

Versus the old way this would've looked which would've been just a flat color of orange with some bumps in darkness. Really bad looking.  Now  there's a whole customization suite available and being updated!

Modules are also coded and in the game, but they're not completely setup for usage in play. They're another piece of content coming soon in a 4.X update!

Yup that's right! I did a WHOLE redesign! This includes the menus! Check out this retro style! 

I knew after redesigning the entire menu system and getting a new font; I need to redo the title as well. I talked to my friend M about it and he thought it was a good idea! I was worried I wouldn't be able to pull it off, but I found some good farm assets I could purchase and use and it fits together pretty well!

There's also all new tunes with this update too! Made by yours truly :)

After knowing I was going to remake the title having a new start area was important! This actually went through several redesigns but I like this one.