Behind the Dice: Animations

[p]Wake up dice rollers, it's Behind the Dice time again![/p][p][/p][p]This week, we asked the devs: Show off a feature you’ve added to the game - could be art, animation, gameplay feature! How does it work? Why did you add it? [/p][p][/p][p]We added a big screen-wide banner to declare the player has rolled a Farkle!, and also to declare the encountering of rare mobs. I wanted to add it initially, inspired by the ‘’Rare Catch!’’ banner that appears on Sega Bass Fishing, and then when making it realised it would be a vast improvement on the square title pop-up we were currently using to announce a Farkle.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Farkle Sprite Sheet[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Farkle Animation[/p][p][/p][p]Before Dicealot, I had never done any animation, so getting used to creating sprite sheets was a whole process. (I have also developed a deep sympathy for full time animators... their poor hands.) As with most things, toward the end of the project everything becomes a little smoother as there is nothing you're doing/making for the first time (ideally). These banners were an opportunity to push the visual feedback on some more un-loved interactions, and make the game feel a little more alive. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Slash Sprite Sheet[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Slash Animation[/p][p][/p][p]It can be a bit of a challenge from a visual hierarchy point of view also, as one imagines that all interactions would benefit from some jaunty animation (and they likely would), but we already have quite a lot going on on the screen, and so using moving elements to direct player's attention is a really useful tool, one that becomes less effective the more banal things that are animated.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The little details are so cool and really make you appreciate artists that much more eh? Hope you enjoyed this week's Behind the Dice as much as I did - sprite sheets are so much fun (to look at)! Have a lovely weekend and see you in the next one![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]P.S., Look at these numbers[/p][p][/p][p]Credits: Discord community member djsac[/p][p][/p][p][/p]