After getting the basic effects and physics working for TCOK2, I moved onto the thorn NOBODY likes to think about– The infamous HUD. So many choices to make, so little time.. Should it go on the bottom or the top of the screen? Left corner or right corner? should the healthbar run vertically or horizontally? how to display lives, and active powers? Eventually, I settled for the HUD in the screenshot below:

<img src="http://64digits.com/users/Game%20Fortress/TCOKww1.gif">

I like the special effects I made for losing health (too bad you cant see them in a screenie) and I like the way it looks.. Chances are rather high that it will be revamped before the final game. All things considered, the HUD in the first game was pretty lame, so I cant settle for mediocrity.

And then on to pause menus.. Right now I am using a system that takes a screenshot of the room and then takes you to a seperate room. I like that system because then I dont have to worry about adding controls to freeze all the objects and I dont have to use the stupid/tacky default message boxes. There are still alot of descisions to be made, but all in all i think the pause menus are easier then HUD's