Rare Apex Legends animations help "inject personality" into its cast of characters

Development for live-service games is a never ending series of sprints. There's always something to be updated, something to be iterated upon, and something new to be fashioned in order to keep millions of players around the world entertained, week after week. So how do developers find their fun amid this cycle of development for games that are constantly being updated?

Well, in Apex Legends, Respawn Entertainment's team of animators get their kicks from developing rare animations that'll only trigger for a small percentage of the player base at any one given time. These rare animations range from Octane twirling his syringe, to a weapon reloading in an unorthodox fashion. They might be a small part of the game - but it's where the animators of Apex Legends find their fun.

Apex Legends animation lead Shawn Wilson, tells The Loadout that "a lot of these animations come about when we have small pockets of free time." Wilson says that the rare animations hidden away in Apex Legends, like the magazine popping out of the top of the G7 Scout rifle, are one way that the development team relaxes and takes a load off at the end of a prolonged development period. It's a way for the development team to have some fun, knowing that they've got the "core combat" loop and metrics down and perfected.

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