I feel I’m a bit overdue for an art update, so here’s a twofer; two new characters in one post!
I’m not sure I want to go into great detail about each character whose art I finish, since I think a big part of the game will be figuring out about them as you play. And a lot of times they won’t be at all what they first seem, so it’s a bit hard to come up with non-spoiler descriptions.
First up is Xu:
Second is Marcurio:
I’ve already tried to mix up the pace/mood of the characters’ walk-cycles, so hopefully the animations are still clear. It definitely makes things more interesting, and I generally walk away from each character having learned something new about animating.
Also, here’s the typical spritesheets for both games, old and new, side by side.
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!
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.
Well, so much for expanding the content of my blog and frequency of posts–it’s been nearly a month since my last update!
Oi. I blame it on holidays.
For anyone sticking around, I figure it’s about time I put in concrete my next major project. I’ve alluded to it pretty strongly before, and you’ve probably figured it out from the title, but just for clarity’s sake: Why Am I Dead 2!
I wouldn’t normally jump at the opportunity to do a sequel to something; I’ve got enough ideas for new content that I’m itching to make. So when I say that I’m making a sequel, that comes with the implicit statement that I believe the original left room for either improvement or further exploration, or, in this case, both. And, of course, that comes with the implicit statement that I’ll be aiming to make a sequel that substantially improves or expands the original, or, in this case, both.
So with Why Am I Dead 2, I’m raising the stakes. The game will be considerably longer and have higher production value: better graphics, better writing, better audio. A mostly new cast with lots of characters that I think you’ll love (and/or hate). Instead of approaching it as a side-project, as I did with my last game, I’ll be approaching the development of this game as its own full-time job.
How I imagine myself about a month from now
As a result of this, the game will not be free. This is mainly just to support the time I spend developing the game–the original Why Am I Dead, although I enjoyed making the ever-loving crap out of it, earned a laughably small amount of money. Which is fine, of course. And that doesn’t mean I’ll be charging a lot–I don’t have a particular price worked out yet, but you can be assured that it will be very very cheap by anyone’s standards. I’ll definitely be releasing a long-ish free demo as well, so you can try the game out and get a good idea what it’s all about first.
(Note, this doesn’t mean I’m done releasing free flash games forever! I just think that for this project, that model doesn’t really make sense.)
I know what you’re probably thinking now. When on Earth is this coming out? I want to give you all my money!!! Okay, I may have embellished your thoughts a little bit, sue me. Still, the basic time-line that I have for development is about 2 months of full-time core development, and another 2 months of full-time buffer, which means taking into account things not going as planned (because they never ever do), beta-testing, and polishing. So that puts me at 4 months of full-time work.
But regardless of the exact timeline, when I release the game it will be polished and tested to death; I have no plans to repeat the stormy release of the original.
During this time, I’ll be hoping to market my game, which is something totally new to me. I may even do little teasers and release info about the cast, story, and gameplay in episodes. Who knows.
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