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[nicked]

Update 29th May 2011
    
It's a busy bank holiday weekend which I've been using to work on Gun Bastard! Today I have:

* Finished the background for the ruined city streets level. I wasn't happy with the original background I made, so I did a new one based on a freeway clogged with abandoned traffic.
* Implemented the background for the subway tunnel level.
* Put the subway tunnel boss in - it's a train that's been retrofitted into a deadly weapon by the aliens.
* Did a lot of "invisible" work behind the scenes making everything neater - things like High Scores and Options now save into the main ini file for ease of access.
* Put in some new sound effects such as explosions when enemies die.
* Swapped the enemy and player laser colours to match the bullets - not sure why I did this the wrong way round anyway...
* Made the most common sounds randomise their frequency each time they're played, for more aural variety.
* Put in two volume sliders for music and sound effects on the Options screen. These work exactly like you'd expect... 
* Changed the Bastard meter attack. The game no longer forces a special attack after 5 seconds of full Bastard meter, so you can save it up for when you most need it (at the expense of it taking longer to refill next time). However, it resets to 0 before each boss fight to prevent the players from defeating a boss in one hit.

[nicked]

Update 4th June 2011
    
Some great new stuff has gone into Gun Bastard this week, including:

* You can now play the game from start to finish (all of the levels load and complete successfully, although half of them are currently devoid of enemies).
* Most of the art is now in. All the main levels have backgrounds and only a couple of enemies still have to be drawn. Also, Gun Bastard himself is getting a redesign once we've nailed down his look.
* Many new boss fights are fully implemented now, including the abominable Snowman pictured.
* Foreground elements! To make the graphics look extra pretty, there's now scrolling foreground borders or overlays (such as the blizzard in the snow level) for most levels. In some levels this can affect visibility so difficulty might need tweaking.
* Started adding proper cutscene graphics. The cutscenes are all going to be hand-drawn sketches on a roll of parchment (also pictured).
* Got boss timers working - if you defeat the boss in record time you get a time bonus.

[nicked]

Update 11th June 2011
    
* Implemented enemy waves (e.g. the gameplay) for subway, city, military base and arctic tundra levels.
* Added the background for the military base level.
* Implemented the third boss of the game - Heart Bastard (see if you can beat him, hurr hurr)
* Tidied up the sound effects and which channels are used for what, and made the sounds consistent between the side-scrolling and top-down levels.
* Add some new enemies, including a hijacked tank for the military base level, and some snow-covered bunkers for the tundra level.
* Drew some more cutscene graphics. Still loads to go though...
* Fixed a few minor bugs with enemy behaviour.
* Started thinking about (hey, thinking counts as work!) the challenges (e.g. achievements) - might have a bonus level that unlocks if you complete all the challenges.

[nicked]

Update 16th October 2011
    
Been a while since the last update, but I've now got back to work and implemented almost all of the UI and backend stuff (the boring grunt work!). I went with a classic red, white and black bold, blood-soaked theme for it, which I think has come out quite nicely.

So now in:

* New Main Menu with keyboard selection
* The Bastardex - a complete codex of monsters that get unlocked as you kill them
* Challenges - 14 challenges (like achievements for XBox players)
* A functional Pause menu with options to resume the game or quit.
* New Replay Level menu with keyboard selection.

[nicked]

Update 19th October
 
Added, tweaked and mostly finalised the last main level, set in space. It's about three times as long as the other levels and is epically hard!

Also tweaked a few things like the Bastard meter filling up too easily.

[nicked]

Update 22nd October 2011
 
* Finished animating and implementing the new look Gun Bastard (the previous was only a placeholder).
* Slightly changed the player's weak point to be more easily visible.
* Added a Tutorial level to show players the game mechanics.
* A few tweaks and bug fixes.

[nicked]

Update 1st January 2012
  
Had some time off work, so worked on Gun Bastard instead.

* Finished alpha effects for Mind Bastard boss graphics.
* Implemented Mind Bastard fight.
* Completely rewrote the cutscenes so the scrolling text works better, and changed the graphics to show head-shots for dialogue, with proper anime-style abstract whooshing lines in the background.
* Tweaked the challenges, removed an impossible one, added a "Kill 10,000 enemies" one in it's place.

[Windybeard]

This game looks awesome, ive been watching it over at DC for some time, Keep it up!

[nicked]

Update 2nd January 2012

* Added a Difficulty selector. There are four difficulties to choose from. At the moment, they only change the player's maximum health, but I'm thinking of adjusting the frequency of enemy fire, number and health of enemies and maybe adding more boss waves depending on difficulty.
* Added a challenge for completing the game on the hardest difficulty.
* Changed the way level scoring works to take into account the difficulty. The harder difficulties have higher score multipliers, so to get the really good scores, you have to play on the highest difficulty.
* Few other tweaks and necessary changes and bug fixes as a result of adding difficulties.

Have a couple of screenies - one of the difficulties, and one of the secret level, Infinite Graveyard.

[nicked]

Aaand, I made a trailer. To see if I could. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m2KdQaedPw

Yeah I know, I'm too cheap to buy a real copy of Fraps...

[Sar]

Yeah I know, I'm too cheap to buy a real copy of Fraps...

You also seem to have a different idea of the meaning of 'soon' to the rest of us!