First of all, if you are here, thank you for taking the time to read this. In here we'll try to post weekly updates to the advances of REalM.
After a full weekend of work, we could finally set up the foundation to show REalM to the world. Some concept art, some gameplay (which is to be unveiled in the next week tentatively), some actual in-game animations and some more art (don't worry, you'll get to see everything) is what currently comprises REalM.
After a full weekend of work, we could finally set up the foundation to show REalM to the world. Some concept art, some gameplay (which is to be unveiled in the next week tentatively), some actual in-game animations and some more art (don't worry, you'll get to see everything) is what currently comprises REalM.
Currently we have walk, idle and jump animations, which are unique to each side (left, right, no mirrors), that in full make an outstanding 276 sprites (30 for walking, 46 for idle and 62 for the complete jump animation, for each side).
As to how is the game play going? We back at JARA(parent of Authentic Illusions, or rather AI is the video game division at JARA) had worked on an 2D animation engine for Unity, so we are ahead in that department, or so we thought.
After starting to put up Iris' animations on Unity using our tool, we realized that it wasn't as good as initially thought. Since we are no art developers, there were things we didn't considered when making such tool. We couldn't handle looping from a middle sprite in the animation, and always ended the animation on the last sprite (except when told to stop).
Although we had a StopWithInertia() method to let animations blend in better without abruptly changing, the fact that the animation ended on the last sprite ment that if the right button where to be pressed by error, the full animation would play (you could walk left with no problem, but if you wanted to stop, Iris would just keep walking).
Not only that, but when changing direction, animations would just start over, which was not that obvious when walking for example, but when jumping, changing direction mid air ment the animation would just start over. The last straw was the fact that we had no way of knowing when to play the landing animation part of the jump.
So we passed the week practically leveling up the animation code, and after a few days of hard work, it finally shined. The Unity tool had so much changes that by this point we could even say its a 2.0 version. Managing animations from now on would be a breeze (after that curve ball of jump animation that we had absolutely no idea how to make work with the previous code, the tool is now prepared).
The following image only presents the animation, the level it is in is not part of the game.
As to how is the game play going? We back at JARA(parent of Authentic Illusions, or rather AI is the video game division at JARA) had worked on an 2D animation engine for Unity, so we are ahead in that department, or so we thought.
After starting to put up Iris' animations on Unity using our tool, we realized that it wasn't as good as initially thought. Since we are no art developers, there were things we didn't considered when making such tool. We couldn't handle looping from a middle sprite in the animation, and always ended the animation on the last sprite (except when told to stop).
Although we had a StopWithInertia() method to let animations blend in better without abruptly changing, the fact that the animation ended on the last sprite ment that if the right button where to be pressed by error, the full animation would play (you could walk left with no problem, but if you wanted to stop, Iris would just keep walking).
Not only that, but when changing direction, animations would just start over, which was not that obvious when walking for example, but when jumping, changing direction mid air ment the animation would just start over. The last straw was the fact that we had no way of knowing when to play the landing animation part of the jump.
So we passed the week practically leveling up the animation code, and after a few days of hard work, it finally shined. The Unity tool had so much changes that by this point we could even say its a 2.0 version. Managing animations from now on would be a breeze (after that curve ball of jump animation that we had absolutely no idea how to make work with the previous code, the tool is now prepared).
The following image only presents the animation, the level it is in is not part of the game.
As for the actual controller for Iris, some weeks back we were working on a platformer controller tool for Unity. After the changes to the animation tool, the controler was also upgraded to be able to cope with the changes, and the needs. The controller specifies the current state of the character, and we actually never though about a landing state. So the changes made to them made possible to have a working, playable version of Iris. Nevertheless, since we are still finishing the showcase level, we can't show Iris' actual movements.
The final part of the week included making the Facebook page and the website, and finally, writing the first entry in the Developers Diary.
Well, it was a long week, if you got here(after reading everything ¬¬), thanks if not, well also thank you for visiting our page, have an excellent day :D
If you have any comments, you can sound them off here or in the forums.
- Lex
The final part of the week included making the Facebook page and the website, and finally, writing the first entry in the Developers Diary.
Well, it was a long week, if you got here(after reading everything ¬¬), thanks if not, well also thank you for visiting our page, have an excellent day :D
If you have any comments, you can sound them off here or in the forums.
- Lex