Lots of my starters for my garden look wavy. Maybe ill try to take some pics
Got around to watching that old video on making the radio crystals. Very interesting. I like what you had to say about contrasting the high tech final product with the simplicity of many of the individual steps like spooning out the grinding solutions.
it's easier to dodge enemies now - the game screen is a bit larger especially the edges & the collision box is smaller. it doesn't scroll faster till later. also there's a special attack that costs 5 ammo.
that game is fun and runs great. minor suggesstions from a gameplay perspective to up difficulty. make hitting ground take away 2 HP points. consider minor symbol rather than color to code the various power ups. consider making gun / jump / hp powerups to only appear (sometimes) after killing a red. Only ammo should spawn on the map, otherwise its really easy to survive forever.
maybe give the main guy a little face somehow so you know which way he's facing when shooting. Anyways, those were my observations. I think the ammt of HP powerups now just makes it super easy to live forever. Old games were brutal.
also I personally would like the main guy to be a little more slim, i kinda dont like controlling a square, but i mean, its okay. Golden ratio type ratio for main character might work bettter.
thanks for the feedback. I made those changes. hp only spawns 3 times in a single game, collectibles have text on them, player has a dot (not quite a face), upgrades require shooting enough reds to appear, upgrades aren't as strong, game is more difficult at higher score (no changes after 24001 points which just scrolls screen faster).
played it again and it's real fun. more suggestions you didn't ask for (haha feel free to ignore or take). when your chr is on a platform pressing down could make you crouch a little bit to help dodge close reds. Also when I got to like 4,500 points, the speed increase made it so i couldnt really keep up. I think before when there were way more jump and speed upgrades I could keep up with it.
The Yosemite National Park in California, USA does look just like the Valley of Salt from the bible, the resemblance is uncanny. The USA is probably biblical lands (Real Israel, Real Egypt etc.), this is really interesting stuff.