Level design time!

I'm at the stage now where the vast majority of the programming is done and most of the work is creating the fine details of the stages. There are  currently 15 locations for the planned 28 stages, but filling a literal empty space so each experience is fun is a lot of work! 

Some locations are returned to in later stages, with different mission criteria, events, and entities present, and one locations is used for three different stages, with the player having a differnt role based on who they align with.

Here's a quick rundown of the mission types in the first group of stages:

• Deflect/destroy asteroids that are heading for a ship
• Clear debris and asterodis that are stuck in orbit
• Collect water from ice asteroids and scan other asteroids for mining potential
• Mine metalic asteroids for valuable metals
• Navigate an EMP minefield to rescue another pilot
• Mine uranium for asteroids to fuel a reactor
• Sneak up to a rivan corporation's mining operation, scan their tech, and sabotage the operation

The "asteroid field" stages started to feel quite samey graphically, so each field type now has its own color scheme and asteroid types: blue for ice asteroids, red/yellow for metalics, brown for rock/carbonate, greenish for silicate/nuclear. There are currently 776 asteroid sprites!