This week was marked by my tangle with the Tangle monster. Story-wise, it’s a tangle of vines animated by a menacing power; in terms of development, it was a tangle of stress that menaced this animator this week! We’re quite proud of the resulting animations, though:
[That’s his main locomotion animation, and he looks pretty scary chasing the player around in test scenes.]
The Tangle pushed me to push myself. The original attempt at this animation was much weaker, and while the new version took an entire extra game dev session, the payoff was worth it.
[Above: The animation for the Tangle’s movement, viewed on a sheet of keyframes on the left, and previewed on the actual model on the right]
Giving up the time was hard. Admitting that the original animation wasn’t good enough was harder. But I’m glad I did both and redid it, because he looks so much better now. Every time I see this model moving around in our test scenes, I think “yeah, I’m glad I redid that.”
Merrix continued working on wiring up a behavior tree, then ripped it out entirely. I’m really glad that we’re doing this, actually: The tool we were using for behavior trees wasn’t working for us, and it was adding a lot of stress to the process. Merrix has been rebuilding the game since, and what he’s built himself is working remarkably well. I’m happy that we can use existing tools like addons, plugins, and assets when possible, but sometimes you just have to DIY to get exactly what you need.
Another week, another few strikes chipping away at this project. We are very excited to share what we’re making with you on an ongoing basis, so subscribe for more if you’re interested. Thanks for coming along with us!
-Peri