the new 4-tone color swap palette format is coming together quite nicely, i think!
set up a new scene where I can tweak colors and save pre-fixe palettes for retrieval in game later - these "curated" color schemes will be mixed in with ones that get set from local star-system and planetary data as well as full randomization when things get really chaotic/exotic.
the palette test scene lets me do some color work while taking a breather from other, more logically-intense work. also is a nice quick thing i can sit down, mess with for 20 minutes, and walk away while still feeling like i've made some helpful progress on the project.
screenshot: sample sprites at runtime during palette test "gameplay":
moving from the 3- to 4-tone palette was inspired by learning some more about how the game boy color used to handle this stuff and what specific colors were used - i used to really enjoy the way you could modify the palette of the gbc when you booted up. playing pokemon red in some of the more wild palettes was a fun little change of scenery back in the day.
i even went to the lengths of looking up the baked-in palettes that the gbc had assigned to each d-pad/button combo and recreated those to see how the new shader would handle things and it was a fun trip down memory lane:
screenshot: in-editor look at the various color collections that have been added - each is a 4-color palette consisting of the original hex codes from the gbc boot palettes
the gbc color swap thing was always the inspiration for how color works for in-game entities - so getting this to look and function much more like the original tech that inspired it has been really fun
looking forward to continuing to search for interesting color combinations now that it's all running smoothly.
remaining items on the to-do list before a 0.1.9.1 WIDE release might hit steam:
level_wide palette collections and assignment
level_wide score display
level end screen (death, score, rebuy)
lasers for player ship
enemy ship spawn + lasers
asteroid spawn
collision and damage
I am guessing it'll be a week or two before I can confidently call all of that complete - still figuring out how long it takes to work through things so no promises but that's how it feels right now.
It won't quite bring The Widened version up to feature parity with the original version but will get it to be enough of a "game" that I can at least release it for play testing.
The goal for 0.2.0 is still to have some rudimentary version of Privateer Mode, the DS "campaign" or "career" mode, available to play. I won't start working on those pieces in earnest until after the 0.1.9.1 release is out - so we're likely still a ways away from the exciting milestone of having actual career progression in the game - but plans are being made and thoughts laid out in the meantime :)