{"author_link":"\/users\/jeremy-ryan","author_name":"Jeremy Ryan","author_uid":"jeremy-ryan","comments":[],"epoch":1493489477,"event":"LD38","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":29011,"likes":6,"metadata":{"p_key":"91912","p_author":"Jeremy Ryan","p_authorkey":"1015034","p_urlkey":"304830","p_title":"Games and Animation","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD38","p_time":"1493489477","p_likes":"6","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1015034","us_name":"Jeremy Ryan","us_username":"jeremy-ryan","event_start":"1492732800","event_key":"69","event_name":"LD 38"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD38","removed_author":false},"_superparent":9405,"_trust":14,"author":15034,"body":"This was my first Compo, and first Ludum Dare for that matter, and I decided to take a somewhat different approach than most games. With some inspiration drawn from former Ludum Dare winners (looking at you, \"The Rock, the Paper, and the Scissors\"), I decided to make a relatively simple game and put a much greater emphasis on the aesthetics and style than on the gameplay itself.\n\n![jumpR.png](\/\/\/raw\/aba\/3\/z\/2b60.png)\n\nIt turns out that frame-by-frame animation takes a whole lot of time. I've done a lot of digital art and cartoons in the past, but animation is another monster. I originally wanted to make eleven animation sequences for my game's character: idle, right and left jumping, and attacking in each cardinal direction and on the diagonals. After finishing the idle and one attack animations, I quickly realized this was infeasible in 48 hours along with finishing the game's code and writing the music.\n\nInstead, I decided to use one attacking animation for all directions and simply reverse the jump-right animation when jumping left (ninja cat backflips, anyone?). While I could have (maybe) gotten all of the material created, I felt that it was a time and work commitment greater than is reasonable for how much it would improve the playing experience.\n\nOverall, how do the quality\/breadth of animations affect your gameplay experiences? Would you rather play a game that is very polished visually at the expense of the number of levels\/smoothness of gameplay? Do you have a preference for computer-generated particle effects or for frame-by-frame animation for Ludum Dare games? Does your opinion change between Compo and Jam submissions?\n\n![Cat_3.gif](\/\/\/raw\/aba\/3\/z\/2b68.gif)\n\nYou can download Seven Pillars here: https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B4O5d69PTcqrdFpYNkFtOEdoSkE\/view?usp=sharing","comments":0,"created":"2017-04-29T17:47:36Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":29011,"love":6,"love-timestamp":"2017-04-30T05:58:22Z","meta":[],"modified":"2017-04-30T05:58:22Z","name":"Games and Animation","node-timestamp":"2017-04-29T18:11:17Z","parent":25567,"parents":[1,5,9,9405,25567],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/seven-pillars\/games-and-animation","published":"2017-04-29T18:11:17Z","scope":"public","slug":"games-and-animation","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":71509},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"29011","n_urlkey":"304830","n_parent":"25567","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/seven-pillars\/games-and-animation","n_slug":"games-and-animation","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"15034","n_created":"1493488056","n_modified":"1493531902","n_version":"71509","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/38\/seven-pillars\/games-and-animation","text":"This was my first Compo, and first Ludum Dare for that matter, and I decided to take a somewhat different approach than most games. With some inspiration drawn from former Ludum Dare winners (looking at you, \"The Rock, the Paper, and the Scissors\"), I decided to make a relatively simple game and put a much greater emphasis on the aesthetics and style than on the gameplay itself.\n\n![jumpR.png](\/\/\/raw\/aba\/3\/z\/2b60.png)\n\nIt turns out that frame-by-frame animation takes a whole lot of time. I've done a lot of digital art and cartoons in the past, but animation is another monster. I originally wanted to make eleven animation sequences for my game's character: idle, right and left jumping, and attacking in each cardinal direction and on the diagonals. After finishing the idle and one attack animations, I quickly realized this was infeasible in 48 hours along with finishing the game's code and writing the music.\n\nInstead, I decided to use one attacking animation for all directions and simply reverse the jump-right animation when jumping left (ninja cat backflips, anyone?). While I could have (maybe) gotten all of the material created, I felt that it was a time and work commitment greater than is reasonable for how much it would improve the playing experience.\n\nOverall, how do the quality\/breadth of animations affect your gameplay experiences? Would you rather play a game that is very polished visually at the expense of the number of levels\/smoothness of gameplay? Do you have a preference for computer-generated particle effects or for frame-by-frame animation for Ludum Dare games? Does your opinion change between Compo and Jam submissions?\n\n![Cat_3.gif](\/\/\/raw\/aba\/3\/z\/2b68.gif)\n\nYou can download Seven Pillars here: https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B4O5d69PTcqrdFpYNkFtOEdoSkE\/view?usp=sharing","title":"Games and Animation","wayback_source":[]}