My extended battle with the spawner is finally over. It now spawns stars up to the limit when some go offscreen. However, on the way this did happen:
But it's behaving nicely now, not 2001-ing so hard any more.
I've been working on the visuals a little since, adding some movement to the background as it felt a bit static. I've replaced the background with a gradient that goes from light blue to black, and created some animated clouds and birds to moved across intermittently. It does make it a little more lively looking, along with some wind sound that gets more prominent as the kite goes faster.
Current look: http://imgur.com/a/Gn71o
There's a win condition too now - when you get all the way to the moon, you win (aim high). Everything is basically working now, and looking okay, so next steps are to make the gameplay a bit more varied.
Immediate goals:
- Stop the birds spawning in space
- Create 2 new, trickier target types (possibly one you have to hit from a certain direction, no other ideas yet)
- Final target to hit on the moon to trigger a win
- System for target groups (ones that spawn and interact - like maybe you have to hit them all within a certain time to get any lift?)
- Victory animation