Anyway, just thought I'd give an update on my progress (if anyone cares :P)

Danse Machina IS STILL being developed. I ain't giving up on it. However, I'm totally swamped with university at the moment (I handed in my fourth assignment in four days today, and its only week 2!) so DM can only be worked on when I get the precious time.

A couple of things you may find interesting.

I'm considering changing the lighting system to Phoenix's system, rather than Luminaire. Apparently it's faster, and it looks almost as good. The shadow system is also easier to implement, and looks a little better too.

The servo-arms are being modified. I felt they don't offer enough of a choice compared to a second weapon. So you will always carry a servo-arm, which will be activated with the spacebar. This gives me room to simply work on weapon designs for arm hardpoints.

I'll be looking at fixing the rather bad physics system in place for the servoarm. I'll get back to you if I fix it.

The first level, while not finished (or really started) yet, is nutted out. I'll be sketching it up soon, and then working on it. The levels are HUGE though, so don't expect anything for a while. Each level is broken up into smaller rooms, so speed won't be a problem.

On the topic of speed, I've found another way to speed things up. Well two actually. Joewoof was kind enough to share his idea of a 'frame-skip' feature, which could speed up the game on slower computers, although it runs poorly on fast machines. The other speed enhancer I've decided to implement is bigger use of masks and tiles. All obstacles will now be masked under the one sprite, or group of sprites. Then I'll be using tiles to fill in the walls etc. That should speed things up considerably, as well as fixing a few issues I've been having with the AI.

I'm also going to implement an upgrade system to the weapons. This will work through a 'hardpoint upgrade' system. The two hardpoints, as well as the chassis, can be upgraded as you obtain hardpoint upgrades during missions. This works almost like experience. You achieve hardpoint upgrades by killing enemies and completing mission objectives, but there will also be pickupsalong the way, so check out the crates and computers! The upgrade points will be accrued, and between missions you can add them to weapons or systems on the hardpoints. For instance, you could upgrade the rifle on the left hardpoint, or you could upgrade the speed or health of the chassis. Lots of options await!

Here's a list of weapons I'll be adding by the next demo, so you can check them out then (it includes existing weapons, and the upgrades that I've thought of):

rifle - the default weapon as seen in the demo. Good power, accuracy and speed

upgrades: speed, power, twin-link

pulse array - a powerful plasma weapon. slow-medium speed, good accuracy

upgrades: power, splash damage, twin-link

carbine - medium ranged shotgun weapon. powerful, slow speed. Better accuracy than you'd expect

upgrades: wider dispersion, denser dispersion, twin-link

long rifle - a 'sniper-rifle' type weapon. highly accurate and powerful, but little speed. screen follows mouse slightly with this gun

upgrades: further mouse-look, speed, speed

quark cannon - a fast firing plasma weapon. excellent speed, low power, medium accuracy

upgrades: accuracy, power, twin-link

mass driver - another long-range weapon, the mass driver is slower but more powerful than the long-rifle

upgrades: speed, further mouse-look, splash damage

rocket-propelled grenade launcher - fires grenades that bounce and explode on impact. They are incendiary weapons, so erupt in flames. Powerful but unpredictable

upgrades: speed, stronger splash damage, shrapnel

missile rack - Fires multiple rockets. Slow firing rate between volleys. medium-powered rockets. Accuracy is low-medium

upgrades: more rockets, stronger splash damage, accuracy

shield arm - a protective shield that envelops most of the frontage of the machine. Has a recharge time

upgrades: longer activation time, faster regeneration time, larger shield

buzzsaw - a large spinning blade for close quarters fighting. Very powerful

upgrades: power, thrust attack, power

minigun - spinning chambers increase speed of rifle, but at reduced accuracy

upgrades: speed, accuracy, twin-link

autocannon - a slow-firing cannon. high damage but low accuracy

upgrades: speed, accuracy, splash damage

plasma emitter - a flame-thrower. Medium range

upgrades: range, range, dispersion

shard cannon - cross a shotgun and a minigun and you get the shard cannon. Fast firing rate, low power and accuracy, but the shards bounce

upgrades: speed, accuracy, power

Laser cannon - very fast firing rate, low power and excellent accuracy

upgrades: power, faster regeneration time, twin-link

There will be more weapons in the final version, but these will (mostly) be in the next demo. A few may be too buggy to include but I'll try. In order to keep things from being confusing, I'll be reworking the code in most of the game, so the next demo will be quite some time away.

Anyway, sorry for the long rant, I got carried away. The major points for the next demo are:

new guns

new level (big one)

better coding (good for me, same for you)

hopefully smarter enemies

faster!