Level System Infrastructure

This week's work has been put into the level system.

On the technical side, levels are now loaded from an external file. In retrospect it may have been better to keep them as xml files and let the system parse them into objects as I load each level. Sadly, I did not consider that option a few months ago when I sat down and wrote my own parser. Seeing as I already have a written parser. It does not seem like there would be much benefit from moving to xml based levels at this point. So the levels file is just a simple text file with a string representation of levels.

On the functional side, the levels menu can now hold an infinite(ish) number of levels and is scrollable. This was my first chance to implement gestures. it took some doing but I'm quite pleased with the results. Basically, when a touch event occurs, I mark its location, when it moves I calculate its distance from the original point. If it is above a certain threshold, I interpret it as a swipe. Otherwise it’s a click (on a level button).

Naturally the graphics for the level menu is, like all the game's graphics, in the placeholder/programmer art stage. Once I'm satisfied with the level of the content in the game the art work will begin. (i.e., still a long way down the line).

On the content side, a tutorial level for the new element (fan) has been created. This brings the current level count to 19. Next I will be adding another element that goes hand in hand with the fan, and then some more level design work. I also have some plans for an interesting graphical enhancement, but that one I'll keep secret till it’s done.