Some of my thoughts on Flare's animations. I made most of them and I'm open to specific critiques. I'd like to work on new upscaled core art soon so this kind of feedback is valuable.
The animations are better than a ton of other indie games. I see lots of games like this that look great in stills but look awful when moving.
Some of the creatures have poor animations (e.g. the skeleton especially). Given infinite time I'd redo some.
I don't like the hunched over male pose. That's probably the oldest animation in the entirety of Flare. The female's stance is a bit better but is unnecessarily feminine (she stands and moves like a model, not like a warrior).
The attacks could all use some unrealistic momentum, if the game needs to go that direction (fast-paced gamey combat). The wind-up and swing should be all moved to the first half of the animation, and the second half should be follow-through and rest. I noticed this a lot in Diablo 3, and how much it added to a aggressive crunchy combat feel. This is harder to do with only 4 attack frames.
I don't do a great job of moving all the bones when animation. So a lot of the running feels more like sliding than actually a heavy stomp wearing full armor. I'd like to study the running animations in Dark Souls cause I think they nailed it.
Finally it's a question of how much detail is retained when rendering the heroes at ~60px tall. We don't expect these animations to e.g. work in 3D third person. They just need to look nice for the output sprites.
Some animations don't work (for heroes) at all with the current layer system. E.g. can't have a spinning attack because that required reordering layers per frame, instead of how it's currently done (by facing direction). Even the attack animations have to be crafted in a way so that they don't violate draw order. We could change this if and only if the actual requirement comes up (support per-frame layer orders).
What's lacking with the current animations? Just lame style? If so that's understandable. But the amount of work to re-render everything is probably too high a cost at this point.
We can't really add more frames of animation if that's what you're considering. All the permutations for 8 directions, several animations, and all the equipment means the game already takes a considerable amount of memory. If we roll out the "hdcore" version with no new frames the game will require 1GB of video memory which is steep for such a simple 2D game. (actually more than my dev machine has).
Random map generation isn't part of the goal for Flare 1.0 but maybe it will be for later versions. I also do want to try pseudo-random maps: e.g. making four versions of each map so that most playthroughs will have a different feel
yau: Sounds like you're enjoying the game. That's great!
The Ring of Invisibility pretty much is a cheat code. If players are simply unable to avoid the temptation of using it we'll just remove it from the game.
Hopefully the "getting stuck on zombie corpses" is actually an IceClaw Zombie attacking you with his melee freeze. It will Immobilize you for a few seconds. There is a debuff icon that shows up next to your health, but we really really need a status overlay on the hero (e.g. feet encased in ice).
The Aether Walkers are just an alternative to the blinking skill. They're just an example of putting a power on an item instead of on the power tree. It's not a great example, and we may change the way those boots work.
Great tutorial. I must try this. Most of my absolute favorite low-spec 3D art uses this style. If I ever venture into making a 3D game I'm going this route.
I know the original track was meant for a synth/space theme. But my choice of it for Heroine Dusk is absolutely intentional.
I was looking for some really 80s futuristic synth for Heroine Dusk when I found this track. It's not so much that my game is about space at all, but it reminds me of the kind of music popular when this genre of game was popular.
Everything about the design of Heroine Dusk is purposefully slightly off genre. The font shouldn't work for a fantasy game; this song shouldn't work; the colors shouldn't work. But put all together and it has this slightly off, dissonant, excellent atmosphere.
Some of my thoughts on Flare's animations. I made most of them and I'm open to specific critiques. I'd like to work on new upscaled core art soon so this kind of feedback is valuable.
The animations are better than a ton of other indie games. I see lots of games like this that look great in stills but look awful when moving.
Some of the creatures have poor animations (e.g. the skeleton especially). Given infinite time I'd redo some.
I don't like the hunched over male pose. That's probably the oldest animation in the entirety of Flare. The female's stance is a bit better but is unnecessarily feminine (she stands and moves like a model, not like a warrior).
The attacks could all use some unrealistic momentum, if the game needs to go that direction (fast-paced gamey combat). The wind-up and swing should be all moved to the first half of the animation, and the second half should be follow-through and rest. I noticed this a lot in Diablo 3, and how much it added to a aggressive crunchy combat feel. This is harder to do with only 4 attack frames.
I don't do a great job of moving all the bones when animation. So a lot of the running feels more like sliding than actually a heavy stomp wearing full armor. I'd like to study the running animations in Dark Souls cause I think they nailed it.
Finally it's a question of how much detail is retained when rendering the heroes at ~60px tall. We don't expect these animations to e.g. work in 3D third person. They just need to look nice for the output sprites.
Some animations don't work (for heroes) at all with the current layer system. E.g. can't have a spinning attack because that required reordering layers per frame, instead of how it's currently done (by facing direction). Even the attack animations have to be crafted in a way so that they don't violate draw order. We could change this if and only if the actual requirement comes up (support per-frame layer orders).
What's lacking with the current animations? Just lame style? If so that's understandable. But the amount of work to re-render everything is probably too high a cost at this point.
We can't really add more frames of animation if that's what you're considering. All the permutations for 8 directions, several animations, and all the equipment means the game already takes a considerable amount of memory. If we roll out the "hdcore" version with no new frames the game will require 1GB of video memory which is steep for such a simple 2D game. (actually more than my dev machine has).
tcauldillg: wut.
If this is satire it's over my head.
Anything is possible if you believe in yourself!
Random map generation isn't part of the goal for Flare 1.0 but maybe it will be for later versions. I also do want to try pseudo-random maps: e.g. making four versions of each map so that most playthroughs will have a different feel
dssi3332 Yes you can use this commercially. CC-BY art is often reused in commercial projects.
Note that technically all of the art on OGA can be used commercially. We can't accept submissions to OpenGameArt that have a non-commercial clause.
The trees are still a bit undercooked. I think as we develop the game more we'll figure out and correct some of those weak spots.
Ah, for the Aether Walkers you should be able to wear them AND drag them onto the action bar to use as a power.
yau: Sounds like you're enjoying the game. That's great!
The Ring of Invisibility pretty much is a cheat code. If players are simply unable to avoid the temptation of using it we'll just remove it from the game.
Hopefully the "getting stuck on zombie corpses" is actually an IceClaw Zombie attacking you with his melee freeze. It will Immobilize you for a few seconds. There is a debuff icon that shows up next to your health, but we really really need a status overlay on the hero (e.g. feet encased in ice).
The Aether Walkers are just an alternative to the blinking skill. They're just an example of putting a power on an item instead of on the power tree. It's not a great example, and we may change the way those boots work.
The title really doesn't say it all :(
Great tutorial. I must try this. Most of my absolute favorite low-spec 3D art uses this style. If I ever venture into making a 3D game I'm going this route.
This has sort of become the theme song for Heroine Dusk. http://heroinedusk.com/
I know the original track was meant for a synth/space theme. But my choice of it for Heroine Dusk is absolutely intentional.
I was looking for some really 80s futuristic synth for Heroine Dusk when I found this track. It's not so much that my game is about space at all, but it reminds me of the kind of music popular when this genre of game was popular.
Everything about the design of Heroine Dusk is purposefully slightly off genre. The font shouldn't work for a fantasy game; this song shouldn't work; the colors shouldn't work. But put all together and it has this slightly off, dissonant, excellent atmosphere.
Pages