A weekend update. I said I'd be working on worms and fire, and worms and fire is what I've been working on.
(Although I do keep tweaking the scroll routine; so long as there are enough empty blocks, the player sprite shouldn't need to flicker so much; it does do a little "jump up" ... but I currently think that is better than the flickering. I might change my mind / work out a better way of controlling / optimising the sequence.

Fire grows left and right and will drop through holes. Currently I have player kill disabled while testing but should lead to some nice "Panic! Run away!" sequences in the "Space Panic" styled "descend to the next level" stages.

Worms move. Worms fall. Worms get trapped.

Currently the Worms move slowly (advancing every couple of seconds). I'm in two minds to speed this up, but I might wait until I've actually designed the descent levels so I can see whether a slow, inevitable plod of worms is more threatening to the player than speedy worms.

At the moment, the worms cannot be killed. If they're trapped they will take a couple of seconds to dig themselves out, falling down a level if able or jumping back onto the level they were. It should be easy for me to add the "Is it a trapped worm? Splat it with the shovel!" code to the player... Again, this might depend on whether I feel I want to splat the worms or just like that you delay them. Maybe Bill is a pacifist.

Next few weeks will be spent.

1. Designing the first few "descent to the next level" stages. I'm anticipating 2-3 descending stages. Might be more, memory allowing.
2. Designing the adventuring side of the game sections that are connected by these "Space Panic" style levels.
3. Coding a proof of concept for the adventuring sections.
4. Potentially working towards a downloadable demo or alpha version to share "what we have so far".

I think I'm making lots of solid progress. Just need to get the main body sorted and then we'll be well on the way to a game!