Gameplay and Interactivity: Sprite Animation

Continuing with the Lead Character Sprite, the team debated as to whether we needed a walking animation or not. In the end we decided to have her navigate solely using the grappling hook and by riding on her sword. This was subject to change, but we felt strongly about this at the time.

With that in mind, I began crafting attack animations for our lead character. Firstly, the standard upwards slash. It looked a tad vanilla so after feedback from fellow course mates I decided to add a purple flame of energy emitting from the sword. This is consistent with the aesthetic we have built up until this point and adds to that feeling of momentum we have been pushing for. Depending on how this works in Unity, I may have to clean up the sheet by adding an extra frame or two.

Despite being a particularly laborious process, there really is a sense of achievement watching your character come to life. I felt strongly about taking the lead on the main character and it looks to have paid off.

Next up, the sword grind! Dan was particularly fond of this idea and it was cool imagery so why not! It is better to have a multitude of animations as insurance and at worst case it would be jettisoned if we couldn't fit it comfortably within the game.

This was a far easier process as the frames can just repeat on one another granting the illusion of movement and revert back to the idol stance very quickly without too much disruption.

Now to test in Unity and see what needs fixing!

UPDATE: After taking the sprite sheet into Unity and cutting it up, we had a lot of difficulty getting the animation cycle to work correctly in tandem with our attack button. It seems to skip a frame or two and then quickly revert back to the beginning. Frustrating as I'm brand new to this sprite business but continued bug testing will be necessary.