Progress is good. After completing development on Money Mouse I have had a few, quieter, playing around with things weeks. Shovel Duck II is still working through the Proof of Concept stage; and the "working things out in my head stage" of how things work.

One of the core features is going to be the scrolling platform sections that fall between the explore and puzzle solve sections. The scrolling  section I'm currently trying a "once you get so far down, the screen advances" as opposed to the previous, "scrolls every second" as this gives a different feel and makes opportunities for more of a "space panic" situation than a "race to the bottom"

In the downward scrolling sections, there are worms to avoid / trap (next POC will focus on getting this in place and show it working); you should dig holes, trap worm, hit worm with shovel, worms turn into money/ gold/ diamonds/ coins (TBC).

I'm very happy with my slopes implementation. Think this is much better than the first Shovel Duck game. Also like that the walking enemies now climb and fall; which should make for some interesting sections.

To do:

1. Some bugs in the dig mechanics need to be worked out.
2. Worms! The worms should move when the scrolling isn't happening. Currently they're zippy placeholders, but they should become a threat.
3. Fire! Fire will be deadly. Previousl POC showed it moving left or right. I'm thinking it will move when we're not scrolling the screen. I'm also thinking of making it react to holes and falling through to lower levels.
4. Scrolling is currently advancing once a second. I might speed that up. 

Also, graphics and level design will change, but that might be when I move from POC to alphas. We will see.

Good progress so far. Still plenty to do.