I can hardly build anything without animating my player, even if it's not 100% complete. I know many people would say build it with blocks and worry about the sprites/animations at the end. Well, I'm not that guy! haha.

I have spent a good chunk of time taking my character concept and putting him through the planned animations I need for the game mechanics I plan to have. Here are a few...

Run & Crouch Animations

Jump Frames & Attack Animation (sans weapon)

Explanations

Jump Frames?

I have a method of animating the players jump that does not play a traditional key-framed animation. Instead, it uses the player's vertical (y-axis) velocity and maps that value to the appropriate frame of the jump. The result is a bit different than a canned animation, and I really like the feel.

This method of animating the jump is something I have implemented a few times in the past, including in the Jam Entry "One Hero's Trash." Hit me up if anyone is curious for more details about my method of achieving this :) †

Where's the Weapon?

I plan to have the player's weapon visible at all (or most) times. The weapon will be added as a secondary sprite, overlaid on top of the player sprite.

I have already built a POC of a player sprite that has a secondary sprite overlaid. This POC also addresses keeping the sprite frames in-sync with each other.

It will be fun to plug in my custom animations and put it in the game, which I hope to do this week. Again, feel free to ask me if you are curious about the POC and my implementation.†

Takeaway

I'm going to reuse some frames from animations for things like a dash move - and let those stand unless I have time to polish more at the end. Overall, I think I have managed to slam out a good foundation that meets my goals for the Jam, and will require minimal work (hopefully) as I develop the gameplay.

Notes

† While I am happy to document or even create a video showing my method of implementing these features, I likely won't do this during the game jam period ( May 15 - Jun 15 2023 ). I need all the time I can get for my project, haha!