The challenge

The game as presented is cute and fun to create, but it does not represent very much of a challenge to play. For the challenge section I want to have you consider adding more features to the game to make the game play more interesting and challenging.

Here are some ideas:

• Have a different type of more powerful bomb. I suggest the 'B' bomb. If a 'K' mine is placed on top of another 'K' mine it becomes a 'B' bomb. It explodes immediately and if the space ship is within one space of the bomb (vertically, horizontally or diagonally) then it is destroyed and you lose a life and must start over at 1,1.

• How about an overload of the power storage system if you continue to sit in one place and harvest energy after you have reached the 485 gJ limit. When the system overloads then your ship is destroyed and you lose a life and must start over at 1,1.

• Another really obvious idea is a larger star field. I think a good size would be at least 12 x 12. Maybe even 15 x 15 would be fun.

• How about if when you passed through the stargate you advanced a level. An new level would be played on the same map, but an element of greater challenge would be introduced. Each level could have more and more pre-planted mines making them harder to complete for instance.

• What if you harvested less and less energy the more moves you took to complete the map. That combined with multiple levels might be interesting.

• The final thing would be the addition of scoring and the tracking of a high score.

Of course this is not a comprehensive list of improvements. If you use your imagination I am sure you could come up with you own ideas. I would be most interested in seeing what people do with this. It is fun and an interesting diversion. Give it a shot. If you feel like sharing any of your creations, then post them to the FTP server at: [http://babek.info/libertybasicfiles/lbf_menu.html] - save the file as starquest-??????.bas and we will know what the file is for. And post a notice in the one of the forums when you upload too - the forums are at: [http://libertybasic.conforums.com/index.cgi]

One last note about this challenge. In the next issue I will not be showing you how to add each of these things to your program. We will add scoring and high score tracking to the game. We will also begin our foray into true windows programming by creating a window and working with graphics! It should be fun.

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