Presentation and Graphics

At this stage, all the art assets and particle effects used in the game have been those created for the original Spacewar! and I intended to continue using them to keep the overall theme of the game consistent. If time allowed, the plan was to overhaul the theme of the game, to align better with the concept art from the initial concept document once the core gameplay had been finalised. One area that needed to be entirely reworked however, was the starfield that serves as the backdrop of the game. With the addition of a dynamic camera, the starfield now needed to be much larger, and follow the camera as it moved through the scene. Replacing the static constellations was a scrolling starfield that emphasises the ships motion.

To accomplish this, rather than simply generate new star particles to fill in the empty space, I wrote a complicated script that recycles each star as it moves off screen, repositioning it on the other side to create the illusion of an infinite galaxy. In addition, the initial pre-baking of particles is also performed manually, to allow for pseudo-randomization of the number, size, position, velocity, and luminance of each star. This creates a parallax effect that adds visual depth and variety to the scene. Fine tuning these variables was necessary to set the backdrop apart from the ships, weapons, and particles effects present in the foreground. During this process, I noticed I was repeating the same functions across multiple scripts to gather information on the bounds of the camera and calculate random positions on the screen, so I added a global camera utilities script to remove unnecessary repetition of code.