Weapon animations!
Added 2021-06-21 02:54:59 +0000 UTCGetting attack animations and the coding for really good feeling combat is something we've been working on all year. We're actually very interested in hiring another programmer/developer dedicated primarily to establishing our combat and finding the fun balance within it.
Because we are isometric 2D, animations are hand made, not using 3d bones. But because we have such a massive diversity of weapons, from swords to spears, and rifles to slingshots, there is a ton of ground to cover in making them modular enough that modders can still make their own sword art and slide them into the art folder with no headaches, and still b easy enough for us to make it look & feel good.
Ranged weapons like these above are easy -- They have 8 facings, each containing a few frames of animation.
Each face has 45 degrees where it can rotate around its axis to aim, before it swaps to the next facing. (the bow and arrow demonstration shows this.)
Melee weapons are trickier. And that's where I'd like to consult another dev and get their experience doing Sword & Shield 2D combat. Lots of games have this feature but few do it well. And without Arms & Legs, our static player characters are in a place where they may struggle to communicate to the player what their intentions are -- unless we rig the melee weapons in such a way that it really sells their intent to attack, power attack, block, parry, etc.
My first draft was making these 2D characters rotate within a 3D capsule, and a 3D sword rotated around them. Next I made that sword 2D instead which really helped reduce workload, but had a lot of complications. (seen above with the earliest test character art.)
We aren't totally without animations, the faces and animals have some basic animated features, and it's still possible we may hire a full time position for animated arms & legs later on. But that depends on a lot of factors.
Today is father's day, and my baby girl is turning 1 year old in July. :) I will be in Wisconsin for July til August. So updates may be a little slow but I'll make sure more images make it online as I travel.
Good luck!
