Happy Saturday, everyone! Time for a mini update--an update that only focuses on a single feature!

~Hello, Sprite Animations!~

It's finallly happened!! I've figured out how to animate Moira and Apollo when they do certain actions! *streamers everywhereee!!*   

So if you've played the test demo, you probably noticed there wasn't much happening when Moira jumped or dashed forward....

OG jumping and dashing. Moira's just a li'l stiff... Okay, okay, maybe a lot T - T

This is something that I've been thinking about for months now.  In most games, especially platformers since they focus so much on movement, I think we get a feel of the character's personality by the way they jump, attack or even their idle animation. Take Classic Sonic, for example. When he's been idle for a while, he'll look at you like, "Um, what's the hold up?" while he taps his  foot and puts his hands on his hips. We get the impression that he's impatient and gets bored just standing around. He's gotta be doing something! There's also some nice breaking of the fourth wall since he's "looking" at US. Hat Kid is another example I love. Her taunting and dances are so stinkin' adorable and fitting for an excitable kid! 

I really wanted to do something like this for Moira and Apollo--I want players to see who they are by the way they move (or don't move) during gameplay. The only problem? I had no idea how I was going to make this happen. It's not for lack of trying! It's just that ... everything I tried seemed to turn up glitches, graphical errors, and game crashes (which are a LOT scarier than lions, tigers, and bears for game devs).  I was starting to think I'd be better off just leaving it as is.

But I got brave enough to play around with the code in the platforming plugin I'm using and...  voilà! We have movement! ✨

New movement! 

I'm really, really happy with how it's turning out!

Shortened version of the apple-eating animation

Here's a  breakdown of the new animations* I've made for both Moira and Apollo:

• Jumping
• Dashing
• Eating an Apple
• Drinking Boost Juice
• Taking heavy damage
• Game over

*this will appear in the "true" demo.

And here's what I'm currently working on:

• Idle animations
• Mapping and tileset art
• Enemy design
• New transitions between maps
• Updated sound design

There's a lot more to do, but I'm having so much fun making this. Best of all, Dreamtrotter is feeling more and more like the game I'm envisioning. So that's progress!

 Thanks for stopping by and reading! Have a great weekend, everyone... and here's to a fun summer! 😎🍹

-Bree

Colored pencil art of "Acrobat B" or Gigi

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