Summary:
In which health may be upgraded; healing is done by percentage; the player's ship gains upgrades with abilities; the player's ship may be customised via collectible skins; a light-effect underscores acquisitions; and objects may be grabbed.
This week's screenshot shows a fully-upgraded health-bar!
The week just past was focussed almost entirely on the player and on their abilities and traits:
As shown in the screenshot above, the player's health-pool can now be upgraded!
While the basis for this mechanic was previously in place, in the week just past I implemented it more fully, including the addition of an item that confers the upgrade.
(I'm not yet sure that I'm happy with its presentation, however--those little spikes along the bar in particular.)
Approaching this did incur questions, as I recall: since healing is done via a consumable resource, does each heal perhaps become less valuable as the maximum increases, and how much does an upgraded maximum-health mean if one doesn't have enough healing items to fill it?
So, in the week just past I changed the manner in which healing is applied: instead of each heal restoring a flat amount of health, it now restores a
percentage of the player's maximum health. This means, to illustrate, that the same number of health-consumables are required for a full heal regardless of the player's current maximum health.
Prior to this update, you may have noted that the player's ship has looked rather simple: a circular setting of brass holding a spherical crystal, and two short prongs sticking out of the front.
This simplicity is due to the ship having thus far been only in its base, non-upgraded state--the intention being that the ship would be expanded and elaborated as the player acquired "metroidvania abilities".
In the week just past, then, I implemented that feature: as the player gains abilities, they also gain new parts to their ship:
And remaining with the player's ship, in the week just past I implemented a new minor feature: ship-skins.
In short, these provide alternate looks for the player's ship, and might be found as collectible glowing lights scattered across the game-world.
They have no mechanical effect, do note: they're just cosmetic options, and rewards for exploration.
And along with the feature itself, I implemented a basic menu-screen in which the player can select a skin from those that they've thus far discovered, and a simple "glowing light" item to serve as their collectible representation.
As to actual skins, I now have two: the base brass-and-crystal skin, finished (thus far) in the week just past, and a new "bone" skin made entirely in that week.
(Further, I tweaked the colouring of the brass in the player's ship: it's now a little more metallic-looking, I feel.)
Sticking with visual matters, in the week just past I added a bit of polish to the player's collection of items and acquisition of upgrades: these are now accompanied by a light-effect to highlight the addition.
Here below you can see most, at least, of the currently-implemented collection light-effects:

(Note that the above gif uses the old ship-texture, without the revised brass.)
And as to the player's "metroidvania abilities", I added one more in the week just past: the ability to grab non-rooted objects and drag them around.
While primarily intended for traversal and likely for puzzle-solving purposes, I can see this ability finding some other uses too. Especially as--whether advisably or not--enemies can be grabbed in this manner...
And once more, a number of tweaks, fixes, and changes were enacted that don't seem worth detailing here: a fix to the "lightning flail" weapon; a little bit of writing; design-doc work; and so on!
That, then, is all for this week--stay well, and thank you for reading! ^_^