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[Kentz]

So I've been working on a platforming engine these past few days, and now I'm trying to solve this little problem: my attack animation (which should play when I press the Z key) is acting quite strangely. If I press Z while standing or jumping, it plays the first frame and then returns to the previous sprite. If I press Z while walking, it plays a random frame (from a total of 4) and then returns to the walking sprite. I've googled it multiple times but none of the answers I found worked.

Here's the animations code:

Code:

if (hspd > 0) { 
    image_xscale = 1;
} else if (hspd < 0) {
    image_xscale = -1;
}

if (state == "walk") sprite_index = spr_walk;
if (state == "air") sprite_index = spr_jump;
if (state == "idle") sprite_index = spr_idle;

if (state == "attack") {
    canAttack = false;
    sprite_index = spr_attack1;
}

And here, the states code:

Code:

if (hspd == 0 && on_ground) {
    state = "idle";
}

if (hspd != 0 && on_ground) {
    state = "walk";
}

if (!on_ground) {
    state = "air";
}

if (keyboard_check(ord('Z')) && canAttack) {
    state = "attack";
}

This is probably a pretty simple question, but I'm stuck. I'd really appreciate any help!

[andyfromiowa]

I see you've been waiting a while for help on this, so I will take a crack at it.  Full disclosure: I am far from skilled when it comes to debugging code just by reading it online.

My best guess here is that you have multiple state checks that are simultaneously true.

For example:

Code:

if (hspd == 0 && on_ground) {
    state = "idle";
}

This statement does not take into account whether you are carrying out an attack or not.  So, your character is "idle" when standing still and also "idle" when standing still and attacking.

Generally speaking, the step event will write your state to "attack" because that line of code is last.  However, every step, it's first changing it to one of the other states before it overwrites it as "attack."  This is my best guess as to what's causing the flickering and incomplete animation.

[mokesmoe]

1. your state system doesn't seem to be checking if you are doing an attack, so it puts you back to either idle/walk/air next frame

2. When you change sprite_index it doesn't automatically reset image_index to 0, which is why the walking attack uses different frames (whatever frame the walking animation was on)