A small diary entry to celebrate the New Year!
In my haste when coding the the enemy movement code (see previous diary entry), I didn't think to include a timer to 'activate' the code. Basically, when the enemy movement routine was called every enemy sprite position was updated *every* frame. This had the effect of every enemy only being able to move 1 or 2 pixels (set by the sprite speed table) because any bigger movement made the sprite move too fast, which looked rather silly on screen. Also, because there were only 2 speed choices, the movement looked a little 'unnatural', with too many enemies moving in-sync because of their same speeds.
I've now enclosed the enemy movement routine within a timer, so it only activates every so many frames set within the code. Currently, the routine now runs every other frame, which means I can now have sprites that move 3 pixels without looking ridiculously fast. This means that the screen now looks much more 'natural' with enemies moving seemingly at their own pace.
As the game progresses, I'll play more with the timer and enemy speeds to see if I can introduce even more natural looking movements.
Next diary entry...
