The afterlife gets a facelift!

Today I’d like to show the art behind one of the characters in Why Am I Dead 2, and use it as a bit of an example for what can be expected in the sequel’s art.

Meet one of ten major characters in the game, Alton.

As you can see, I’m sticking with the Earthbound-esque style of the previous game, which means bright colors, strong outlines, and simple shapes. However, I will be putting much more attention to detail in each sprite, making presentation better all around. This particular sprite above is the result of many iterations, and a lot of time spent learning more about pixel art. I’m generally not so concerned about visuals, but I really want to cram as much personality into each sprite, since the game is so character-centric.

But the part I take most pride in is the considerable improvements that all animations will have. In the first game, every walk animation had four frames, but with the huge caveat that two of them were just the regular idle frame. Doing that saved a lot of time, but it’s poor form and looks really shoddy. To demonstrate, let’s revisit the character Cricket from the first Why Am I Dead.

These animations served their purpose at the time, but would be a huge limitation going forward. You can probably notice that the legs come together and apart in an unrealistic way, which is the cost of recycling frames — and overall it’s a bit choppy. All of the new animations, however, will use six frames rather than four, and all of them will be unique, and they will have full-body animations, not just moving hands and feet.

(There will also be some bonus animations that I shall not be posting yet, but which will be in game!)

The one thing that the previous game did have going for it was that all of the animations were done ground-up for each character; I never used character templates to speed things up, which means that every character had a different walk, as choppy as it was. Quite a few people pointed this out, as it gave each character a different feel, and brought out their personality more — some ran, some hobbled, some sauntered. Well, that is a practice that I fully plan to continue for the sequel, as time-consuming as it is. So, expect to see more characters in the future, each with their own strut!

An Update List on Why Am I Dead 2

I was hoping to have an update sooner than this, but programming goes at its own pace and no one else’s. This should be the first, and last, major WAID2 update that lacks any visual or audible component, as I’m wrapping up the nuts-and-bolts development and moving into art and writing.

I’ve been on the fence regarding how early I actually start uploading material from the game. I’ve decided recently that I’d rather hold off until I’ve moved past art/writing/assets that are “work in progress” (or worse, place-holders!) before I do so — any benefits of a greater sense of progress for me are outbalanced by the risk of making a poor first impression.

So, sadly, you’ll just have to take my word that all of the following have been done:

Completely rebuilt how dialogue is handled, which means…
- Writing dialogue is way easier for me to write, and for others to read (hopefully)
- Looping dialogue; before, all dialogue options inevitably led to an end. Now some options can loop back around to previous parts of the conversation; convenient for menus or for revisiting information.
- In-dialogue variables (eg. <player> tag in script will be replaced with whichever character the player is controlling)
Save / Load Function! This would have been useful in the first game, but is a necessity for the second!
Game “props” (such as doors, tables, beds, etc) have some extra attributes…
- They can initiate dialogue when you try to talk to them, as sort of an “examine” function
- They store information about which character can “use” them. For example, some doors will be locked for certain characters, and open for other characters (who presumably have a key).
- Some props will have different dialogue results for different characters. One character might be bored by an object, and one might find it of great personal significance.
New possession ability mentioned earlier: some characters can be “fully possessed”, which allows you to talk as the Ghost through their body, opening up different sets of dialogues and effects!
Completely rebuilt how collision detection is handled, which allows for both smoother and more efficient movement.
Finished character AI, adding safeguards that should drastically reduce unwanted emergent behavior.

I think that’s all the major stuff, though there were some minor background changes that are much more boring. Sorry this update is so colorless, but I wanted to get it out anyway.

We are now entering the runway

I’ve decided I’m going to try and submit Why Am I Dead 2 to Indiecade 2013. The cut-off for submissions is May 31, so I’ve got just under two months to turn the haphazard progress I’ve made into an actual game.

By my original estimates, two months (plus the work I’ve already put in) should be plenty of time to get the game to a stage where I feel comfortable submitting it. It shouldn’t be too much of a shock, however, that my estimates often turn out to be wrong. I’d say there are equal chances that I finish everything I have in mind smoothly and slide into a snug landing a week or two before the cutoff, or that I pull all my hair out and put off sleep only in order to manage a late submission. But hey, I’m okay with either, and the competition allows for submissions to be incomplete and/or updated after they have been submitted.

And at the very least this will be a great way to put a definitive deadline in front of myself where there really wasn’t any before. Anyone who’s worked on any major project will know that this can make all the difference in the world.

So, expect to see a lot more activity around here over the next couple of months!