next »

[ChrisLSound]

Agreed on the bangs - very very good!

[Ishi]

Gorgeous art in this! I think the skeletal animation was a good choice for the character animation. So smooth and all the little secondary motions are really fun to watch.

[hidingspot]

Agreed on the bangs - very very good!

Gorgeous art in this! I think the skeletal animation was a good choice for the character animation. So smooth and all the little secondary motions are really fun to watch.

Thanks! I think secondary motions and follow-through/overlap are my favorite part of animation
Squash and stretch is fun too, but not as many opportunities for that in these rigs.

[hidingspot]

I really want Luka to be able to chill in the chair, but the hard part is gonna be animating him in/out.  The "in" part should mostly work with a jump.  Might have to fudge the getting "out" part.

[JobLeonard]

You could have him slide down, like he's melting from boredom :p

[hidingspot]

You could have him slide down, like he's melting from boredom :p

It's funny you mention it, I spent last night doing exactly that (along with the hop on and idle animation)!  Not only is it an appropriate way for a kid to get off a big chair, but it was probably easier to animate than other ways.

[JobLeonard]

... you can't say such a thing and not share a gif!

I bet it lookes adorable

[hidingspot]

... you can't say such a thing and not share a gif!

I bet it lookes adorable

Haha, fair enough! 

[JobLeonard]

I won my bet

Looking great! I think there's a slight problem with the foot stand in front of the chair not blocking the view though - I would move it a bit further away as a cheap solution

[litHermit]

I think there's a slight problem with the foot stand in front of the chair not blocking the view though - I would move it a bit further away as a cheap solution

+1

[oahda]

Yeah, it confuses me about the perspective. But otherwise that is so cute and cosy!!

[hidingspot]

Looking great! I think there's a slight problem with the foot stand in front of the chair not blocking the view though - I would move it a bit further away as a cheap solution

Yeah, it confuses me about the perspective. But otherwise that is so cute and cosy!!

Good to know!  We'll probably just take the ottoman out to keep things simple 

[oldblood]

Just jumping in to say I really dig the look and feel. Will be following.

[hidingspot]

Just jumping in to say I really dig the look and feel. Will be following.

[ChrisLSound]

Welp, that's one of my favorite animations I've ever seen

[hidingspot]

I've been working on several dances for Luka.  One of the words to play on day one is the "Dancing" card, which can be used to fill a missing word in conversations with 3 different characters.  So, all 3 of those characters will need some solid dance moves depending on when the card is used.

Work it Luka:

[ChrisLSound]

[...] One of the words to play on day one is the "Dancing" card, which can be used to fill a missing word in conversations [...]

Hah, so does this mean you just peace out of a conversation via sick dance moves?

Looks good

[oahda]

 

[hidingspot]

Hah, so does this mean you just peace out of a conversation via sick dance moves?

Looks good

Well, it depends on the context that you play the card. I just realized that I haven't shared a big change that happened to how cards/words are acquired and played in the game. I'll follow up today with a post explaining this cryptic response 

[hidingspot]

Change to How Cards are Managed

The idea of making decisions by playing a word into a missing slot in the story has been core to the game design from the start. Most of the other gameplay elements have been designed around that concept. One element that probably has the biggest effect on how that core interaction works and feels is the number of playable cards, and how you acquire new cards/manage your deck of words.

Old Card System

For a long time, the player would discover new cards by exploring and interacting with the world.  This had a few benefits, but too many downsides.  The three biggest issues were
1: It complicated the story to a point of being unmanageable
2: It encouraged the kind of pixel-hunting-click-on-everything-to-see-if-something-happens that we want to avoid
3: It forced us to generalize the results based on the card category, as apposed to a full-fledged response based on the exact card that was played

New Card System

This third point above was the biggest reason for moving to the new system.

Each day, the player gets a pre-determined hand of cards.  Throughout the day, the player will be presented with several occasions to play a card/word into a missing slot in the story.  Every card in your hand is playable, and every card has a full-fledged custom result.  This result ranges from a written and visual response all the way to a story-branching change.



In addition to making choice results more significant, this change to the cards also addresses issues 1 and 2 above. In scripting the game's story, we now know ahead of time which cards the player will have for which days. And there's no more need to pixel-hunt and worry you haven't collected all of the cards.

Thoughts?

Does this sound like a reasonable solution to the issues listed?  Would anyone have solved this differently?  It's always stressful making significant changes to the game, but for me that's just a part of game development; finding the best version of what the game can be.

So far, the new system is feeling good but we still have a ways to go before it is fully integrated into the story.