New art/idel anim question...

Here is some of the latest art from our game. The robots pictured are both computer-controlled AI enemies.

I do have a question, looking for your opinions: How important are idle animations in a game to you (as a player)?

Not important as long as it can still look good eg with good graphics

Quote:

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Here is some of the latest art from our game.

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I take it you mean you and your son, right? I think that's really cool what you are doing; I'm sure you guys are having a great time doing it, too.:)

On-Topic...

I think the art looks incredibly amazing. Which leads me into the idle animations question. Personally idle animations don't mean much to me at all. In fact they slow down the game a lot, so I usually prefer to turn them off. Animations for attacking and moving are nice, though.

Keep the good work up, and btw, I can't wait to finally see a "true" demo. Do you expect to release one in the next couple of months?

Ooops, I didn't quite understand your question. I don't look for idle animations, although they are a plus.

your art looks great Idle animations are good, but don't spend all your time on them, coding and gameplay are more important

Tech, yep, same game. As far as a playable demo, we hope to have the level editor complete and ready for release in October. That way people can create their own levels and we're even considering having a small contest where the best level submitted will be made a part of the single-player campaign. The one thing that everything is depending on now is getting the art finished for at least 2 more Bots and 3 more POWs.

A playable demo should follow the level editor after just a few months. Most of the gameplay algorithms are already written out but we want to have all the tools finished before we work fulltime on a playable demo.

blackrat, the code for the idle anims is already done so it won't take away time that could be spent on gameplay, etc. Also, each Bot/POW who's art has already been finished already has 1 idle anim, but we're considering adding a second one, just to breathe a little more life into the characters.

If anyone wants updates as well to download the latest tech demo you can visit our site from the link in my signature. We've also got tutorials/code snippets for you to download. The site is in it's infancy (only a week old) so we only have 4 snippets/tutorials up so far. We expect to have several more up by this time next week.

hey all,
i consider idle animation very important (as long as its not overwhelming) it makes your game much more alive and less dull. your graphics are amazing as usual :P keep it up and i can't wait to see more of the game :D

Hm... I guess that would depend on the type of game. idle animations would be stupid for a 3d game, a little better for an RPG, ok for a 2d shoot-em-up (though nothing great), and a little better for strategy. Unfortunately, your artwork isn't popping up on my computer for some reason, so I can't really comment :D

But in general, don't bother with idle animations unless you really really want to squeeze out every bit of impressedness out of your target audience... instead, I'd just try to make an idle image in which it probably wouldn't be moving around (i.e. don't have it look like it's gonna topple if it doesn't move or something... if it's a guy, have him have his feet planted in a solid stance or crouching or something). I mean, just so long as the idle image is interesting enough by itself, it's fine.

The game is going to be a turn-based squad combat game so only 1 (2 at the most) characters will be acting (shooting/defending/moving/etc) at a time. The idel anim's are to add a little life to the rest of the guys. The code for the idle anims is already in place as well as much of the artwork. We were just trying to decide if we should include 2 or more different idle anim's per character to add a little more life to them.

Hunter, try this link

For those not familiar with TBS squad combat games think X-Com. Like chess, except your players are humans/robots with guns and their movement isn't limited to specific patterns, there will be walls/terrain you can blow-up, if one of your soldiers gets injured bad enough he may drop his weapon and run to hide or if he gets scared enough he may freak out and go into friendly fire, etc. etc. etc.

And with gameplay like that there will be periods where the player may sit back and think out his next move, that's where the idle anims come in.

Sort of like having 3 responses for a unit when you click on him. He might say "Yes, sir!" 50% of the time, "I'm on it, Sarge!" 45% of the time and "You want me to do what?!" 5% of the time. So the rare 5% that the trooper is disrespectful is a suprise and adds a little more depth to the game.

Ohhhhh, I get it :) Well, if the code and stuff is already in place... Go for it!! (p.s. hurry up and finish! I wanna see it!)