Hi:
this is my version of Laser Defender.
I extended the game to two levels, added a boss at level two. hope you have fun playing it.
Update=========================================================
I added some features to the game by following @Rob 's advices, hopes you enjoy it!
Hi Ben,
Nice take on the Laser Defender game - well done.
I noted that I didn’t have to kill a specific number of enemies as such to progress to the second level, just needed 100 points (I guess that is a specific number of enemies), but on the second level it took me a few goes before I got to see your boss, I think I had a score of 1140 points when it changed.
On the first level, when I had the 100 points I flew vertically up the screen and the second scene loaded, but upon getting 1140 points, the level just changed, quite abruptly, just something I thought I’d share with you.
Not sure if you will be continuing with this specific game or moving on, but if you are going to do anymore on this one, here are some suggestions for things which could enhance it further;
Player Health / Lives indication - as a player I had no idea how many times I could get hit before I would be back to the main menu
Level Progression indication - if there is a set number of enemies I need to kill per wave, perhaps knowing how many could be useful to the player, showing " x / z " in the top right corner where “x” is the number of enemies destroyed, and z is how many remaining etc.
Boss Health indication - a display of how much more damage needs to be done to the boss before it’s destroyed
Thrusters - on the back of the player ship, might look nice if they were there all the time, flickering when moving side to side and perhaps grow a little bigger when moving “up” the screen and reduce a little when moving “down” the screen.
Explosions - might be a nice effect for when ships are destroyed
Also, I noticed this, the background doesn’t quite stretch to fill the play space (I’m running on 1600x900 but I wasn’t playing your game full screen
I hope the above is of use and well done again 
Hi Rob:
Thank you very much for playing my game and gives all those kindly and helpful advises. and sorry for my late reply, as I was distracted by something.
About the indication of player health, boss/enemy health and level progression, your opinions is very correct. let the player know what is happening and what is going to happen is one of the most important thing in game dev, it actually is the basic rule in game dev. The reason i missed those point is that I was busy for some other works at that time and just want to finish the project as soon as possible. yes , this is a excuse. what you said reminds me that, a serious game developer should never release a game without respecting those rules, even it is just a practice. I believe i will remember this lesson from you in my career. I will update a improved version base on your advices later .
about the size of background, it bothers me too, i tried to use UI image instead, but it will covered everything, the player aircraft , projectiles, and the enemy etc. I have adjusted its Z position, but didn’t work. do you have any idea?
Thanks again for your sincerely advices, they are very useful!
Ben
Hey Ben,
You are more than welcome for the feedback and I have just given your updated game a few tries, wow, what a difference!
I really like the player health bar you have added, that looks great and the timer at the top really helps to give the player an idea of when they can expect the level to end / next wave to start. The indications that the enemy ships have been destroyed also is very nice.
I don’t want to stop you progressing through the course obviously, but if you are interested, here are a couple of other items that you might consider;
Your waves are clearly timed, e.g. survive for this long, it may make more sense if that was a count down rather than a count up. You could potentially use something like a UI Slider control for this, perhaps working its way from left to right until it was the end of the wave, changing the handle to be a small version of the player ship and turning off interaction so that the player can actually move it themselves with the mouse
I like the expanding circles from the destroyed enemy ships, but the little piece of debris looked a little odd as they don’t move. I don’t quite think this quite fits with the rest of the game as, for example, the star field is moving, you could consider either removing the debris altogether, as the expanding circle actually looks very smart, or, have the sprite for the debris do something, either move down the screen a bit and fade out, or perhaps move across the screen somehow until it disappears, rotate and shrink, just something to make it look like it’s deris disappearing.
I’ve not tested this, but it’s something that occured to me… when the timer is met and the space ship is taken control of and flies up the screen, can the player still collide with an enemy ship which may, if the player health was low enough, trigger the “You Lose” screen? That would be a little frustrating if so, if not, it might be nice to highlight the fact that the player is protected during this flight, you could use the same explanding circle you used for the enemy explosions, but perhaps keep it larger enough to surround the player ship, maybe a nice electric blue or green and have it as a shield? Just a thought.
Updated Mon Nov 06 2017 12:17 - I just tested this, yeah, you can get dragged into laser / enemy ships and killed
It is possible for the player to lose and the health bar doesn’t update, this happened to me when I collided with an enemy ship, I was completely destroyed but still had health left on this “You Lose” screen;
The player health bar could perhaps also change from green to red when it gets to a certain point? This would emphasise to the player that they need to now be really careful.
The player’s lasers appear to be spawning at the bottom of the player ship, if you press the space bar and shoot fast enough you can just see them through/under the player ship, perhaps consider spawning the player projectiles from just in front of the tip of the player ship.
The same is true of the enemy ships, the projectiles appear to come from the top of the enemy ships and over them, again, you could perhaps spawn the projectiles just below the enemy ships when they fire.
On the second wave, I was able to complete it by just staying stuck to the far left of the screen, enemy ships never go to the extreme edges of the screen, so I was able to just “wait it out”.
By the way, wave three is a lot of fun, as shooting is now fairly redudant your game could really benefit from having a story, perhaps at the beginning you are waiting for your shields to be repaired, a message tells you this at the beginning, then before wave two it says something like “we just need a little more time”, then before the big boss it says “oh no, I’ve broken the lasers!” and prevent the player from shooting (as it doesn’t really do anything on that wave anyway as it’s about dodging)…
Again, just some feedback, all in all a great up to your game and I really enjoyed playing - thanks
Hi Rob:
Thank you very much for your valuable advices again! I do learn a lot from you: pay attention to the details of design, a serious attitude to the your game, respect player’s feeling etc. those are necessary nature for a good game developer in my opinion, and they are precious for me in my career future i believe.
About the aircraft may get kill when it is being dragged problem, it appeared in my mind for a moment, but i haven’t actually met one time when I tested it, so i just ignored it. this is no good, i could just add a code line to inactive the collider to avoid it. the same to the health bar after finishing playing problem, an inactive setting to game object should work.
your advices about the design of timer and the health bar, the story and the destroyed enemy ship pieces animation etc, , those features are really great for improve player’s experiences, i may not produce another update version for lazer defender in a short time, but i am sure i could use these skills in my other games in future. one other thing i learnt is really important to have a people to test your game. someone like you is priceless.
Thank you again for your playing and advices, they inspire me a lot.
Ben
Hi Ben,
You are more than welcome and I am happy to help. 
