Major update with your playtest feedback

A few days before the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, I updated the playtest build with a massive update thanks to all of your feedback.

Here's a summary of the major changes:

New features and game updates

• The aesthetic of the game incl. TileMap, space background, and ship have been overhauled

• Player's ship now pays homage to the Electro Havoc logo (though still in progress) includes a thruster burn "tail" that reacts to the player's movements

• Player's ship now rotates to direction of input

• "Enemies left" counter added to help keep track of wave progress

• Power-up compass indicator added that points you to off-screen power-ups

• Enemy splash damage now has more unique animations and aligned color palette

• Added "back button" support to controllers

• Added Godot logo on start-up

• Increased the map size and game resolution (from 720p to 1080p)

• Enemies no longer cluster awkwardly close together or on TileMap boundaries

• Enemies no longer "stick" to the player as easily, draining their life; instead they are repelled back upon initial damage

• Added screen shake when enemies hit you

• Spawn indicators now differentiated between power-ups and enemies to avoid confusion

• Added damage numbers that appear above an enemy's head when your bullet collides with them

• Introduced a critical hit capability, and corresponding Steam achievement to match

• Extended the power-up time-outs on the map to give you more a chance of snagging it before it expires

Bug fixes and performance updates

• Steam profile names no longer truncated

• Shader updates to player's ship

• Splash damage now only visible when it should be

• Resolved A-Star pathfinding performance issues that could result from use of navigation elements on individual tiles vs. using a nav region

• Upgraded TileMap Nodes to TileMapLayer Nodes for improved performance

• Enemies no longer get stuck to player as easily

• Enemies no longer spawn at power-up locations

• Power-ups now consistently spawn after hitting "Try Again"

• Enemies now completely self-destruct after game end, no longer leaving 1-2 stragglers

• Addressed a few visual artifacts, spawn portals not visualizing in the right spots

If you haven't given the playtest a shot, please jump in and let me know what you think in the comments.