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Hi again!
Today I will tell you about another keyframe i made for Mermaid river. An important part of a game is those part that gives the player information. The signals that tell you if you’re doing something right or wrong. The keyframe I’ve made is for the animation that is shown in Mermaid river as you take damage.
The animation should tell the player that the avatar got hurt by an action. It is important that the player sees this animation and understand it. To grasp the players attention I thought that a change of shape should work. To make the whole avatar in another shape could have worked well to get the attention needed but with the realistic art style that we use in the game this was not an option. So instead I used the beard and draw it out in sharp and unpleasant form.
As you can see in the second picture the beard is in a smooth round shape and as the avatar is hurt in the upper picture his beard gets spiky and ruff.
However when the keyframe was implemented in the game and there was a possibility to test it. It appeared that the shape changing that I thought would draw attention did not work out that well. In the game screen the avatar appears small and this movement that close up in Photoshop looks rather large is almost unnoticeable. A reason for the player not noticing the animation is probably also the focus points of the game. The avatar is placed far to the left and the enemies appear from the right. With the enemies being the actual threat they are what consumes the players attention.
To improve the animations function there are some extra features I will try:
First of all: Sound. A good sound could provide the information needed even without any visual explanation.
Secondly the elaboration of color changes of the avatar or the screen comes to mind. Fast flash that grasps attention or perhaps like in super mario where the character disappears every second frame making it flash.
After all this has proved to be a matter that will be solved through game tests. I will try these other ways of making the animation better and test them until they fill their purpose.
Do you have any good tips on how to develop the animation? Please leave a comment.
 
About Nils Folker
2015 Graphics
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