I now have a working power up system in place. I added a second button to the game. Z key is still for flying, and now X key lets you use a power up ability. The way it works is when you collect an egg, it adds 1 point to a meter and when the meter fills up it activates an ability. Then each time you use it, it depletes the meter. I haven't finalized exactly how I want it to work, whether you have to collect different power ups in the game, or have the meter activate more powerful abilities as you fill it up more.
So far I have one power up working, the Speed Dash. Speed Dash makes you shoot forward a short distance. An enemy will die if it's hit with Speed Dash whether you're above it or not, as opposed to having to land on the bird from above to kill it normally. Sort of like a really short invincibility. Here's a pic of the Speed Dash in action:
I made the HUD objects smaller (scores, lives, etc) so as not to clutter up the screen, especially now that I have an egg meter. I haven't finalized the graphics for the egg meter so I am waiting before I post a pic of the new HUD.
In other news, I added a bit of music to it, but I'm not uploading a revised demo yet. I want to wait until I have a lot more substantial stuff in the game to test.
Edit: Forgot to mention I redid some of the sound effects with ones that sound a little better, and not quite as harsh as what I have in there now.
Played the demo and thought it was solid so far. Just needs the gameplay fleshing out now (which i see you have started by adding special power-ups) so good luck with this, i'm keeping an eye on it
Thanks! Yeah I still have a ways to go. I'm not sure why I picked 40% complete as that seems a bit high right now lol. I think I might adjust that. But coming along nicely so far. Need to work on more enemies and hazards. And not all the levels are going to be on one 800x600 screen. I plan on making larger levels you can fly around in. Hopefully that works out well.
Sounds like how Gradius' power ups work. I always liked Joust as a kid, keep it up man! You should have a power up called "Bird Bomb", which is (you guessed it) white bird poop that you can launch straight down and nail other birds with it.
P.S: How's about a metal power up so you can't get bumped from above? Make it last a limited time and probably be one of the top power ups available.
P.P.S: Either that or a Firebird one where you're firey and can kill other birds that touch you from any angle.
Suggestion: Make the bird hop when they walk on the ground, it'd look better. The way you have it now worked before with the ostriches of Joust because they had long legs but these are finches and they hop
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Shawn_S 
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