Well, Joseph asked, and since I’ve mostly spilled the beans on as much gameplay talk as I am comfortable with, I thought maybe I could discuss some of the technology we’re building for Lila Dreams.
Some graphics snobs will scoff at a 2d game. The client is what? Flash? The server is what? Java?! Ha-ha-ha-ha! “Your game is so low-tech players have to pedal to keep it running.” (Ok I just made that up–it’s bad, I know.) But, seriously, there’s a lot to love about 2d art. Especially when you’re on a budget! 
One central technology for the game is the “2d bones” animation system. That’s just fancy-talk for little bits of art attached together like a paper doll puppet that has joints. Only digital. This has a ton of great benefits over traditional animation techniques.
Avatar Customization
Since player avatars are made up of various pieces, it’s really simple to mix and match. So, instantly you get a huge range of customization options. And because the system uses hierarchical rotations, we can do cool things like attach items to your avatar’s hand and the item will move with the hand. It’s gonna rock.
On-demand Animations
Because the art is in pieces, and there are no “cel” frames, we can create animations separate from the art, then mix and match animations. For instance, maybe there are several styles of walking animations (one of which is a limping walk, just for Chris Pasley). Since the animation consists only of motion data, and not artwork, that animation can be used by any avatar.
But wait! There’s more. This opens up a particularly large amount of options for emotes! You could have hundreds of emotes. I could design a dancing mini-game around that fact. (Wait, did I just type that out loud?)
This just goes on and on.
Creature Comforts
Well, maybe not comfort, but body parts! Interchangeable ones. So the game can randomize body parts for creatures and the issue of a room full of clones goes away. So maybe for each creature there are several head, torso, and limb variations, and each creature would have some random configuration of them so that each one appears a little different from the others. How cool is that?
Animation for Everyman–sorry, Everyperson
One more nice thing about this system is that to create an animation, you don’t have to be able to draw. You just drag joints around and set keyframes. So even if we can’t all be an artistic god like Greg, we can maybe make some really cool animations. This has the benefit of allowing us to spread that workload around the team, or maybe even to talented community members! That way we can generate mountains of animations without killing a single starving artist.
So, there’s a little taste of the kinds of things we’re doing in terms of technology. We’re doing a lot of other stuff, too, but we have to parcel this out across weeks so there’s something to talk about! It’s for your own good, so don’t complain.
And now, we present concept art of a snail mail courier.
12 comments ↓
Just wanted to say I’m very excited about Liladreams and can’t wait to play it! Sounds like you guys are really doing things creatively and it’s gonna rock.
One comment though — please make the combat challenging! It doesn’t have to be over-powering hard but if it’s easy to beat new enemies your first try combat will feel grind-ish.. you can always overcome challenge, but you can’t do anything about a game being too easy! Thanks for reading and good luck, can’t wait to play the game.
Interesting choice there, guys! Not quite what I was expecting, but I’m looking forward to see how exactly you guys handle the art together with this style of animation.
And I’m willing to bet that alot of us community members would be more than happy to lend a helping hand if needed! =P
I added an image of a mockup of a test character to show a practical example of how the pieces might fit together and form a complete image. No motion here… yet.
Awwww man, I want to see these guys running and jumping! Can’t wait.
One of my favourite games is Ragnarok Battle Offline which uses this tactic extremely well. This game will look awesome.
In 2008, my character WILL limp.
Woohoo!
This is a really interesting concept that’s being produced here. Hey, anything to help distinguish your avatar from the background noise - humans subconsciously utilize gait recognition in real life, why not in Lila Dreams?
Can’t wait for the release…but I suppose I’ll have to.
D:
Excellent idea with the monsters being slightly different guys! Thats the first time I have ever heard of that never mind seen it done!
To re-iterate with r.Okamo, I’m sure many of us would be very very willing, myself included, to help out with anything possible. If I lived near your office I swear I would bring you coffee ^.^
Can you suggest where we can read more about 2d bones animation and how to do it? Is it anything like Anime Studio (http://my.smithmicro.com/win/anime/index.html)?
Thanks!
This is looking pretty awesome! You guys are doing some really cool stuff with the game. Definitely let us know if you need us to design some animations. I’m sure us folks here reading the blog would be glad to help- I know I sure would!
Yet another fascinating look into the game world you guys are creating. The animation system seems very flexible and easy at the same time. All these ideas are great and I would love to help this team out.
Just let us know
Sweet! Thanks for going all in depth!
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