A dedicated audio session. All remaining “ready to wire” sound effects were wired in, a full in-game music system with 18 shuffled tracks was built, the Settings menu was overhauled with three independent volume sliders replacing the fullscreen toggle, and several bugs introduced during audio wiring were fixed.

• Wired: All remaining SFX: mothership shot, asteroid hit, crystal pickup, power-up pickup, nuke explosion, ship purchase chime
• New: Persistent menu music starting at the splash screen and playing through all menus
• New: In-game background music: 18 tracks shuffled and played sequentially, stopping when gameplay starts and resuming on return to menus
• New: Enemy unit and mothership ambient engine hum (looping, low volume)
• New: Player death, shield activation, ship level-up, and rank promotion sounds
• New: Settings menu volume system: Master Volume, Music Volume, SFX Volume sliders with individual bus control
• Fixed: Three bugs: Array[int] type error, velocity variable shadowing, nuke physics flush error

All “Assets on Disk: Ready to Wire” sounds from the Session 10 audit were wired via the central GameManager.play_sfx(stream) helper. This dispatches a self-freeing AudioStreamPlayer on the GameManager node so sounds survive entity destruction.

Ambient Enemy Hum: Per-Entity Looping

Enemy units and motherships now emit a continuous engine hum for the duration of their lifetime. An AudioStreamPlayer is created as a child node in _ready() so it is automatically freed when the entity is destroyed. The finished signal is connected back to play() to loop.

New Menu music previously started when MainMenu.tscn loaded, meaning it restarted every time the player navigated back to the main menu. It has been moved to GameManager so it starts immediately at the splash screen and continues uninterrupted through all menus.

Architecture

• A persistent _menu_music: AudioStreamPlayer lives on GameManager (survives all scene changes)
• play_menu_music() plays from the start; no-op if already playing (prevents restart when navigating between menus)
• stop_menu_music() stops cleanly
• _menu_music.finished connected to _menu_music.play for seamless looping

Scene Hooks

New 18 gameplay music tracks were added in a new res://Sounds/Game Music/ folder. The original files had long descriptive names; all were renamed Track 1.wav through Track 18.wav for clean resource paths.

Shuffled Playlist

The music system in GameManager shuffles all 18 track indices at the start of each gameplay session, plays them in shuffled order one at a time, then reshuffles and repeats when all tracks are exhausted. This avoids the same track playing twice in a row.

func play_game_music() -> void:
    # Lazy-initialise the player on first call
    _game_track_order.assign(range(GAME_MUSIC_PATHS.size()))
    _game_track_order.shuffle()
    _game_track_index = 0
    _play_game_track()

func _on_game_track_finished() -> void:
    _play_game_track()   # advance to next; reshuffles when list exhausted

NewChange The fullscreen toggle was removed. In its place, three independent volume sliders were added using existing neon UI assets from res://Game Assets/UI/Loading/.

Layout

Volume Maths

Each bus receives the product of the master and its individual level, converted to dB:

func apply_volume() -> void:
    var music_db := linear_to_db(master_volume * music_volume) if master_volume * music_volume > 0.0 else -80.0
    var sfx_db   := linear_to_db(master_volume * sfx_volume)   if master_volume * sfx_volume   > 0.0 else -80.0
    AudioServer.set_bus_volume_db(AudioServer.get_bus_index("Music"), music_db)
    AudioServer.set_bus_volume_db(AudioServer.get_bus_index("SFX"),   sfx_db)

Setting any slider to 0 sends the bus to -80 dB (silence) rather than -inf, avoiding a Godot AudioServer edge case.

Slider Styling

Sliders are styled entirely in code via _style_slider(slider: HSlider) called for each of the three sliders in _ready():

• Track:StyleBoxTexture using settings_volume.png (neon cyan outline)
• Fill:StyleBoxTexture using settings_volume 2.png (solid teal)
• Grabber knob: Programmatic 36×36 px cyan circle drawn via Image.create() and converted to ImageTexture at runtime, so no separate asset needed

Persistence

master_volume, music_volume, and sfx_volume are saved to user://save.cfg under the settings section. All default to 1.0 for first-run players.

Array[int] Type Assignment Error

FixGameManager.play_game_music() raised a runtime error on first call:

-- Trying to assign an array of type "Array" to a variable of type "Array[int]"

range() returns an untyped Array in Godot 4. Direct assignment to a typed Array[int] variable fails. Fixed by replacing _game_track_order = range(n) with _game_track_order.assign(range(n)).

velocity Shadowing CharacterBody2D Property

FixPlayer.gd line 1098 declared var velocity: Vector2 inside the death effect loop, shadowing CharacterBody2D.velocity. Renamed to fly_vel in both the declaration and the timer lambda closure that references it.

Nuke Physics Flush Error

FixPowerUp.gd _fire_nuke() called get_tree().current_scene.add_child(missile) directly inside _on_body_entered(), a physics callback. Godot 2D physics forbids modifying the scene tree while queries are flushing:

-- Can't change this state while flushing queries. Use call_deferred().

Fixed by changing to add_child.call_deferred(missile). The missile is still instantiated and configured immediately; it is only added to the scene tree on the next frame.

Four new sound files identified in the Sounds folder were confirmed and wired in.

The remaining audio files on disk (explosion-36210.mp3, futuristic-ship-ambience-494000.mp3, Powerup.mp3, PTModelSound_ID193943.mp3, Rank Up.wav, sci-fi-explosion-09-190268.mp3, science_fiction_spaceship...mp3, Spaceshuttle_Rocket_Steady_LV.mp3) were reviewed and confirmed as unused, with no game event to assign them to at this stage.

Change The Achievements screen was rebuilt from scratch to match the Settings menu visual style. Consistency across all menus is a core UI goal; every screen should feel like it belongs to the same game.

What Changed

• Removed the old StyleBoxFlat flat-blue panel and star parallax background
• Added the same window_whole_alpha.png panel frame used in Settings
• Same space background (background_01_parallax_01.png) and planet decorations (top-left and bottom-right) as Settings
• “ACHIEVEMENTS” title in identical neuropol font, size 48, same colour as “SETTINGS”
• Scrollable achievement list fills the frame content area
• Achievement name font size increased 22→28, description 16→20, row height 72→88px for readability

Navigation Consistency

Both Settings and Achievements previously used a centred CLOSE button at the bottom of the panel. This was replaced on both screens with a ◀ BACK button in the top-left corner (offset 20, 20, identical to CharacterShop and LevelSelect). All four screens now share the same navigation pattern.

MainMenu: BtnAchievements Label Fix

Fix The hover label beneath the Achievements icon button was visually clipping the trailing “s” from “Achievements”, displaying “Achievement”. Root cause: the button is 200px wide and font size 22 left no margin for the 12-character word. Fixed by reducing the font size from 22 to 18, which gives the text comfortable room within the button bounds.

New A global achievement popup system was added to GameManager. Calling show_achievement("Achievement Name") from anywhere in the game triggers a full animated notification without requiring any scene setup.

Behaviour

• achievement.mp3 plays immediately on trigger
• window_top.png bar slides up from off-screen bottom with a springy ease-out over 0.4 s
• Text reads “ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED” for 1.5 s
• Text swaps to the achievement name for a further 1.5 s
• Bar slides back off-screen with ease-in over 0.35 s, then the CanvasLayer is freed

Architecture

• Creates a temporary CanvasLayer at layer 50, renders above all game UI and menus
• Popup Control is 1920×260px; window_top.png fills it proportionally
• Label top offset 40px pushes text into the visual centre of the bar graphic
• Font: neuropol 32px, colour Color(1.0, 0.95, 1.0) (soft white-pink)
• All nodes self-clean via layer.queue_free at the end of the tween sequence

Debug

Press F6 during gameplay (debug builds only) to fire a test popup with the text “Asteroid Slayer”. Added alongside the existing F5 (Level Complete) shortcut in GameScene._unhandled_input().

## Usage — call from anywhere:
GameManager.show_achievement("First Flight")

New A controls reference section was added to the Settings menu below the volume sliders, showing the keyboard layout for movement and firing.

Layout

The diagram is built entirely in code via _build_controls() called from _ready(), keeping the .tscn clean. A ControlsSection VBoxContainer node was added to Settings.tscn as the anchor point; its position was tuned in the editor to sit neatly beneath the sound rows.

Key Box Styling

Each key is rendered as a PanelContainer with a StyleBoxFlat: dark navy background (Color(0.02, 0.08, 0.20)), 2px cyan border, 6px corner radius, matching the existing UI colour scheme. The SPACE bar uses a wider minimum size (200px) to visually distinguish it as a bar key. The “or” connector between WASD and arrow clusters is rendered in a muted grey to reduce visual weight.

Why it’s invisible in the editor

The controls diagram is invisible in the Godot scene editor because _build_controls() runs in _ready(), which only executes at runtime. In the editor the ControlsSection node exists but is empty. This is the same behaviour as the slider styling; it is expected and not a bug.

Fix The Main Menu button in the Settings screen had no effect when pressed. The BtnMainMenu node existed in Settings.tscn but was never referenced or connected in Settings.gd.

Fixed by adding the @onready reference and connecting it to a new _go_main_menu() function:

func _go_main_menu() -> void:
    _gm.play_ui_click()
    queue_free()
    get_tree().change_scene_to_file("res://scenes/menus/MainMenu.tscn")

The Settings overlay is freed before the scene change so it does not linger in memory.

The current Game Over panel lives inside HUD.tscn‘s CanvasLayer alongside the score widget, health bar, and pause button. Because they share the same layer these HUD elements render through the game over panel making the screen look cluttered.

Proposed Fix

Extract Game Over into its own dedicated scene (scenes/menus/GameOver.tscn) on a higher CanvasLayer, the same approach as how Settings overlays the game. The scene will use the same full-screen background style as all other menus (space background, planet decorations, window_whole_alpha.png frame). When game over fires:

• HUD hides its live elements (LeftWidget, PauseButton)
• GameOver.tscn is instantiated at a higher layer, rendering cleanly on top
• Retry / Main Menu / Ships buttons sit inside the panel frame

This completely eliminates the see-through issue and brings the Game Over screen into visual consistency with all other menus. Implementation pending confirmation.

A comprehensive release readiness review was conducted with the goal of shipping on Steam and recovering the £100 listing fee. All dev logs (Sessions 1–13) were audited to answer open questions and surface gaps. Key findings below.

Platform Decision

Steam first. Mobile (App Store / Google Play) only if Steam sales cover the additional listing fee. This defers AdMob, IAP, GDPR, and mobile joystick work entirely.

Ship Mechanics Confirmed

• Viper: Fast nimble fighter: rotation 300, thrust 3000, max speed 750, friction 0.85, zero drift. Snappy turns, no slide.
• BGS-1 / BGS-2: Slow capital ships: rotation 50, thrust 600, max speed 260, friction 0.90. Always-firing 3 front guns plus 6 side guns per side unlocked progressively by ship level. Side guns fire at 90° to heading. 13-blast death sequence.
• Gap: BGS standalone level-up benefit not implemented. Viper level-up benefit not designed.

Level Design

99 levels are algorithmically scaled, not hand-authored. Wave composition (asteroid count, spawn interval) increases with level number. Enemy units enter at level 4; mothership at level 21; dual mothership at level 41. Mid-game (levels 30–70) has not been validated for feel, and that is the biggest unknown.

Known Blockers Before Shipping

• DEBUG_SHIP_SCALE must be set to false
• DEBUG_AddCoins button must be removed from HUD
• F6 achievement popup debug shortcut is gated behind OS.is_debug_build(), safe to leave
• Gun barrel positions need visual verification per ship variant
• Collision polygons: 18 ship variants still need hull geometry
• Full clean end-to-end playthrough must happen before submission
• Game Over screen see-through issue must be fixed
• Steam store assets: capsule image, header, minimum 5 screenshots, trailer, description, tags: none exist yet
• Privacy policy required by Steam

New A one-time tutorial overlay was added to GameScene. It appears automatically the first time a new player starts Level 1 and is never shown again after dismissal. Tested and confirmed working.

Behaviour

• Shows only on current_level == 1 and only when tutorial_seen == false, never shown in endless mode
• Blocks wave start until the player actively dismisses it (any key or mouse button)
• On dismiss: sets tutorial_seen = true, saves to disk, calls _start_wave()
• After dismissal the flag persists in the save file, so the overlay never appears again for that player

Visual Design

The overlay uses the same key-box visual language as the Settings controls diagram (dark navy background, 2px cyan border, 6px corner radius) so the style is consistent across both places a player sees the controls.

• Dark semi-transparent backdrop (Color(0, 0, 0, 0.72)) covers the full screen and blocks mouse input passing through
• Centred card panel with dark navy background and cyan border
• “HOW TO PLAY” title in neuropol 42px
• WASD cluster + “or” + arrow cluster → “Move”
• Wide SPACE bar → “Fire”
• Wide ESC bar → “Pause”
• “PRESS ANY KEY TO BEGIN” blinking on a looping tween (opacity 1.0 → 0.2 → 1.0, 0.55 s each leg)

Architecture

• tutorial_seen: bool added to GameManager persistent data, saved and loaded under settings/tutorial_seen in user://save.cfg
• _tutorial_layer: CanvasLayer var on GameScene, non-null while overlay is active
• Overlay lives at layer 30, above the game and below the achievement popup (layer 50)
• _show_tutorial_overlay() builds all nodes programmatically using two helpers: _tut_make_key() and _tut_make_action_label()
• _dismiss_tutorial() frees the layer, sets the flag, saves, then calls _start_wave()
• _unhandled_input() catches any key/mouse press while _tutorial_layer != null, calls _dismiss_tutorial(), and returns, so pause/debug input is unaffected after dismissal

NewChange The Game Over panel was extracted from HUD.tscn into its own dedicated scene, scenes/menus/GameOver.tscn. This completely resolves the HUD see-through issue where the score widget, health bar, and pause button were visible behind the panel.

Root Cause of the Old Problem

The old GameOverPanel and GameOverOverlay were siblings of the HUD score/health elements inside the same CanvasLayer. Because they shared a layer, the semi-transparent overlay could never fully hide the other elements; they all rendered at the same depth.

Solution

The Game Over screen is now instantiated as its own CanvasLayer at layer 15, above the HUD layer, from GameScene._on_player_died(). The full-screen space background (background_01_parallax_01.png) is fully opaque, so no HUD elements are visible underneath. No overlay hack required.

Visual Design

Matches all other menus: identical background, planet decorations, and window_whole_alpha.png panel frame:

• Full-screen background_01_parallax_01.png, same as Settings and Achievements
• Semi-transparent Dimmer ColorRect added by user in editor for depth
• Planet decorations top-left and bottom-right
• window_whole_alpha.png frame centred (351→1597, 16→1041, identical to Settings)
• “GAME OVER” title, Score label, Best label inside the frame
• Continue button (hidden by default, shown only if the player has ≥ 100 coins on desktop)
• Retry button
• Main Menu icon button, top-right
• Settings icon button, bottom-right (added in the editor)
• Ships icon button, bottom-left

Architecture

# GameScene._on_player_died()
func _on_player_died() -> void:
    is_game_over = true
    _gm.play_sfx(preload("res://Sounds/Spaceship-large-underwater-explosion.mp3"))
    await get_tree().create_timer(1.0).timeout
    var go: CanvasLayer = load("res://scenes/menus/GameOver.tscn").instantiate()
    add_child(go)
    go.setup(_gm.session_score, _gm.best_score, _gm.coins)
    get_tree().paused = true

GameOver.gd has process_mode = PROCESS_MODE_ALWAYS so buttons remain interactive while the scene tree is paused. All button handlers unset get_tree().paused before any scene change.

HUD Cleanup

All game over code was removed from HUD.tscn and HUD.gd: GameOverPanel, GameOverOverlay, all their child nodes, the five StyleBox sub-resources, all @onready refs, show_game_over(), and the four button handler functions. HUD is now purely a gameplay overlay: score, health, rank badge, pause button, mobile controls.

New All 12 achievements are now fully wired. The popup and sound already existed; this session added the unlock logic, lifetime stat tracking, persistence, and live display in the Achievements screen.

Design Decisions Confirmed

• Coin Hoarder triggers on lifetime coins earned (not current balance), so spending does not reset progress
• Asteroid Slayer counts all asteroid destructions including split fragments (every _on_asteroid_destroyed event)
• Endless Pilot: 10 waves in a single consecutive endless run; counter resets on death/scene reload

New Data in GameManager

Four lifetime counters added to persistent data, saved under a new [stats] section in user://save.cfg:

A fifth new field, unlocked_achievements: Dictionary, is saved under [achievements]. It is keyed by achievement name (string) with value true. Existing save files default to an empty dictionary, so all achievements start locked for current players.

Central Unlock Method

func unlock_achievement(achievement_name: String) -> void:
    if unlocked_achievements.get(achievement_name, false):
        return   # already unlocked — never fire twice
    unlocked_achievements[achievement_name] = true
    save_game()
    show_achievement(achievement_name)

The one-time guard means it is safe to call on every score add, every coin add, every wave; it only acts the first time the condition is met.

Trigger Map

Achievements Screen: Live Data

Achievements.gd was updated to read unlock state from GameManager.unlocked_achievements at build time. The PLACEHOLDER_ACHIEVEMENTS const (which hardcoded "unlocked": false for all entries) was replaced with ACHIEVEMENTS, names and descriptions only. Each row now checks _gm.unlocked_achievements.get(name, false) to determine its star colour and label colour. Locked achievements show a hollow grey star (☆) and white-blue name; unlocked achievements show a filled gold star (★) and gold name.