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NPC ANIMATIONS. A NICE LITTLE TOUCH, OR WASTE OF TIME?
Posts
ZINGuh
0
ZINGuh
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CloseRight now I'm working on the beginning of my game (there's still many things yet to do) and I recently got the idea of having npc's be more... alive-like. Besides making conversations more endearing for some npc's, I think it would be a nice touch to add some animations here and there. As in, a sprite for an npc sitting down and reading a book on the bench in town. Or, the weapon smith holding a sword with a simple eye blink animation.
One of the reasons I liked Demon Legacy so much was because time was taken out to add the appropriate extra animations to the characters to make them not be such still-bodied figures. And while I certainly think that should be done with main characters, I have to wonder "why not do it with the npc's as well?"... A bartender mixing a drink, a child playing with a butterfly... Simple little things that make a game more alive.
Before I continue this idea any farther, I would honestly like to know the opinions of others. Do you think doing this would just be a waste of time? I understand story and mechanics are far more important and that they should definitely come first but... Would any of you, personally, like to see a little more character in the every day NPC's?
One of the reasons I liked Demon Legacy so much was because time was taken out to add the appropriate extra animations to the characters to make them not be such still-bodied figures. And while I certainly think that should be done with main characters, I have to wonder "why not do it with the npc's as well?"... A bartender mixing a drink, a child playing with a butterfly... Simple little things that make a game more alive.
Before I continue this idea any farther, I would honestly like to know the opinions of others. Do you think doing this would just be a waste of time? I understand story and mechanics are far more important and that they should definitely come first but... Would any of you, personally, like to see a little more character in the every day NPC's?
Why not? Extra detail in the world would be great, as long as it fits in and that it doesn't seem like it's the only thing that had work gone into it. But otherwise, I would really wonder why someone would say "no". Even if they did, you would be doing the correct thing by saying "oh well, I'll do it anyway".
It only gets to be a problem again if that's all you're really doing or if you don't finish your game because you obsessively need to add animations to everyone.
It only gets to be a problem again if that's all you're really doing or if you don't finish your game because you obsessively need to add animations to everyone.
This is what I've been doing, and it's actually cut down on some of my spriting work! Personally, it's a lot faster for me to make a dude sitting down polishing a giant silver dildo sword than it is to animate him walking around in 4 directions he might never move to. But I don't know if this is an approach I'd really recommend if you already have NPC sprites to work with.
ZINGuh
0
@Pentagon Buddy: I have tons of charasets that I've collected over the years i've been messing with rpgmaker. A good handful of them I have never even seen in rpgmaker games, so I've been messing with the sprite work for those in particular. However, I do love spriting, and if I have the time between other things that I'm working on, I will go out of the way to make my own. But yes, it definitely is easier (though the sprites are so small it's hard to make it look clean...) to do sprites when the body as a whole is in a fixed state.
@Ocean: Yeah, that's pretty much the thought process I have right now. I sincerely think that, while I have played many games that were very good in other areas, they lack in the creativity to excite the world around the player. When I play a game, I WANT to want to walk around the place, see the sights, talk to people, etc... I want it to be interesting. So I'm trying to implement that into my game.
@chana: I'm happy to know that other people agree! :)
@Ocean: Yeah, that's pretty much the thought process I have right now. I sincerely think that, while I have played many games that were very good in other areas, they lack in the creativity to excite the world around the player. When I play a game, I WANT to want to walk around the place, see the sights, talk to people, etc... I want it to be interesting. So I'm trying to implement that into my game.
@chana: I'm happy to know that other people agree! :)
Shinan
4314
Animations is a huge thing to me. It's not only a "nice little touch" but I'm instantly more forgiving of a game that includes some sweet animations. Picking something up on the ground or actually opening up a treasure chest is always insanely more impressive than just having a text box popup saying you found something.
Yeah. I may be a graphics whore like that. But these things can really make a game to me. I played some of the original (or the second one, probably both) Monkey Island and I was surprised at just how much incidental animation there was (especially in the main character) and it really added a lot to the game. Even if it only was graphics-wise.
But of course, as I said, I am a graphics whore.
Yeah. I may be a graphics whore like that. But these things can really make a game to me. I played some of the original (or the second one, probably both) Monkey Island and I was surprised at just how much incidental animation there was (especially in the main character) and it really added a lot to the game. Even if it only was graphics-wise.
But of course, as I said, I am a graphics whore.
author=PentagonBuddy
This is what I've been doing, and it's actually cut down on some of my spriting work! Personally, it's a lot faster for me to make a dude sitting down polishing agiant silver dildosword than it is to animate him walking around in 4 directions he might never move to. But I don't know if this is an approach I'd really recommend if you already have NPC sprites to work with.
This is the truth. I hate making npcs walk but making poses for them is much more fun and exciting <_<;;;
Dyhalto
7536
For a second there, I thought the shopkeeper was taking a page out of the Mana series and playing a real guitar (as opposed to Mana's air guitar).
Custom poses as an alternative to a 4-directional sprite (that might never face left or down) are a great idea. I'll keep that in mind for my future projects :D
If you start to get obsessive, like making the homeless man hopscotch instead of walk, then you may want to save the trivial stuff for after the core of the game is done.
Custom poses as an alternative to a 4-directional sprite (that might never face left or down) are a great idea. I'll keep that in mind for my future projects :D
If you start to get obsessive, like making the homeless man hopscotch instead of walk, then you may want to save the trivial stuff for after the core of the game is done.
Hoddmimir
200
I approve of anything that helps make a game feel less like a game and more like a world. People acting like people, monsters behaving like monsters, ecosystems that function like an ecosystem, etc... I love it all.
I like NPC animations for that special touch as mentioned above. It is a little on the time consuming side, so just make sure you are being equally detailed with your gameplay and story.
Emotions > animations. People still talk about FF3's emotions and how much it did for the presentation.
Shinan
4314
author=ShortStar
Emotions > animations. People still talk about FF3's emotions and how much it did for the presentation.
I think you miswrote there. Really you meant emotions = animations.
They did it like that because they didn't have as good of pixel Artists and such as we do today, nor did they have the time, I think, Short.
If they did, they would have obviously did a way better job of creating that game, no matter how great it is.
Most old Square games back then in days of FF 3, even way earlier, never had much, if any actual, detailed animations.
If they did, they would have obviously did a way better job of creating that game, no matter how great it is.
Most old Square games back then in days of FF 3, even way earlier, never had much, if any actual, detailed animations.
I think this sort of thing really comes down to the 'scope' of the game. If your game has hundreds of NPCs, then naturally it might not be feasible to customize all of them (but if you want to try, more power to you!). If on the other hand the game takes place in only a few locations, or even just one town, then you can go all Twin Peaks and make every NPC character interesting and complex, with their own routines, animations, and even storylines.
But to answer your question directly, yes, I think custom NPC animations are a neat idea.
But to answer your question directly, yes, I think custom NPC animations are a neat idea.
Shinan
4314
author=Thiamor
Most old Square games back then in days of FF 3, even way earlier, never had much, if any actual, detailed animations.
If you mean FF3 for the NES then yeah. But if you mean FF3 for the SNES then... I'd be hard pressed for you to find a single cutscene in that game that doesn't feature an animation that is not the four-direction walking animation.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
I would much rather see animated enemies than animated townspeople, as to me enemies and battles are fun and meaty, and towns are awful and boring.
Don't get me wrong, I definitely love cut scenes, and animations can definitely help bring those to life. I just hate towns and don't think anything can bring them to life. My goal in most towns is to get out of them as soon as possible and get back to the parts of the game where things are happening.
If you can somehow utilize animations to make me feel like towns are full of action that I'm involved in and that matters to the game, that would actually be super cool. I'm kind of tired of always feeling like these people are just living their uninteresting irrelevant non-action-filled lives, and I'm forced out of the action into that monotony for a few minutes while I buy groceries and get my robe stitched up.
Don't get me wrong, I definitely love cut scenes, and animations can definitely help bring those to life. I just hate towns and don't think anything can bring them to life. My goal in most towns is to get out of them as soon as possible and get back to the parts of the game where things are happening.
If you can somehow utilize animations to make me feel like towns are full of action that I'm involved in and that matters to the game, that would actually be super cool. I'm kind of tired of always feeling like these people are just living their uninteresting irrelevant non-action-filled lives, and I'm forced out of the action into that monotony for a few minutes while I buy groceries and get my robe stitched up.
@LockeZ : you're really making a point about towns in rpgs there, if it wasn't for the confort of going to the inn getting all your mps and hps back and stocking up, they're almost always quite a bore. So, yes again, interesting NPCs any time.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
I think it's theoretically possible that animations could liven up a town a lot, but I don't think animations alone are quite enough - you need the characters you're animating to actually be doing something worth seeing.
Hoddmimir
200
Perhaps then something more needs to be done with towns? If the issue is that towns are not worth a visual overhaul, then let's make towns that are more deserving of animations.
Right, I was thinking, also, of this topic : http://rpgmaker.net/forums/topics/9472/.
