Hours 1 - 6

• Project layout starting from the AtomZ game.
• Some code refactoring to separate FSM and reorganize assets.
• Started work on particles and shells.
• Got the basic code for particle, explosions, background lighting and motion blur working.
• Particle creation will need some serious optimization to avoid lots of useless object allocation.
• Added fountain emitter. Code crawls when there are too may particles. Thought of a different mechanic:
  • Accumulation bitmap for motion blur & light fx.
  • Main bitmap for particle drawing.
  • Particles are not sprites, they are just simple stuff drawn on the main bitmap (simplest case, just dots).
  • A ParticleManager class handles all the active particles to avoid allocation problems.
  • An additional sprite layer can be added on top of accum & main bitmaps to support effects like glares, etc.
• Still working on new particle manager
• Particle manager now working, performance much better.
• Started experiments with flicker support to increase realism.
• Added basic support for shell selection.
• Chain links working.

Hours 7 - 12

• Revised gameplay, now based loosely on the Fantavision Playstation 2 gameplay.
• Some additional experiments with particle system and effects
• Particle system revised into more generic code.
• Added moving background
• Rethinking particle appearance, less realistic more 'stylish'
• Added trails.
• Working on new version of explosions
• Added glow.
• Added background

Hours 13 - 18

• Revised chain linking.
• Finalized firework explosion appearance for different levels and colors.
• Added steps to game stage.
• Some errors on later step and game over.
• Added success rate computation.
• Some fixes.
• Points calculation & formatting
• Set game speed using time, not frame count.
• Game balancing
• Finalized the level panorama graphics for all the three levels.
• Added next level, success screens and game end screen.

Hours 19 - 24

• Revised game code to introduce mid /act sequences.
• Game fully working through levels. Transition between acts now looks better.
• Game slows down too much in last two acts.
• Fixed speed problems, it was depending on glows apparently.
• Added background music, explosion and launch sounds.
• Added new sounds, applause, boo, and music looping now works correctly.
• Added sound enable / disable button
• Finalized Main and guide screen.
• Done next level and level success screens.
• Removed game finished screen.
• worked on some last minute fixes.
• Linked to new leaderboards.
• Game now gets directly to new game after game over without passing to main screen. This was done mainly to avoid a couple bugs that showed up in the main screen after a game over.

• Initial work was not on gameplay but on appearance, because in this game eye candy was particularly important.
• Lots of trial and error on visual side. Initial approach (realistic fireworks) was totally on the wrong road. Creating more cartoonish in style was both easier and visually appealing.
• Initial idea about gameplay has been changed, I didn't have to try it to to understand it was worng so luckily I did not spend a lot of time implementing it. Being able to analyze gameplay without requiring a fully working prototype can really save time. Something similar happened with atomz but in that case I had to see a working version to realize it was not fun enough.
• The Game screens for next level, start game, game over etc. were not as polished as I wanted to, but I was out of time.