Quick question on Renegade/Target Renegade graphics

[ukmarkh]

Yes - I was thinking about this, but it's something that I wouldn't want to see abused all the time like in a lot of other beat em ups with double tap run/dashes, as it end up as one huge leap fest!
I'm thinking that as well as having a health bar, there should also be a stamina bar (aka dark souls/boxing games), so you can't keep spamming/mashing moves unecessarily.
This again would make the game more tactical:)

But yes - a small evade step would be good to have.
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Just do it where if you use the evade or special move, it removes a touch of energy. People will only use it when they're in a pickle. I still think a special move would be good, or the ability to pick up guns and fire off a few shots

[Puresox]

As long as the game has a nice flow like the Renegade of old , it will be cool to have these nice features and stunning animations !!

[Gryzor]

Sigh, UKmarkh, I agree with you, and I considered a solution with a sort of penalty, like suggested. Maybe instead of losing energy the hero could lose some time, like stumbling and whatnot. Depends on the AI, but it could mean that, with dashing you gain some space but you also run some risk by remaining unmovable for a moment or two?

[sigh]

Just do it where if you use the evade or special move, it removes a touch of energy. People will only use it when they're in a pickle. I still think a special move would be good, or the ability to pick up guns and fire off a few shots

"Guns" is a big definite NO NO!!!! I just don't think that having special moves is necessary for so few characters on screen. Streets of rage has tons of characters on screen so a special move with the police car firing off a huge bazooka is definitely useful. I wont rule it out completely, but it's on a very low list of priorities.

Sigh, UKmarkh, I agree with you, and I considered a solution with a sort of penalty, like suggested. Maybe instead of losing energy the hero could lose some time, like stumbling and whatnot. Depends on the AI, but it could mean that, with dashing you gain some space but you also run some risk by remaining unmovable for a moment or two?

There's the stamina bar depletion with the step evade(again like Dark Souls) which would work.

As long as the game has a nice flow like the Renegade of old , it will be cool to have these nice features and stunning animations !!

Renegade of old with a lot more hopefully:) I'm still developing the final ideas for the block system which should make the game visually impressive with cues for dodging, evading and counter attacking.

I finished the "full nelson" (being grabbed animation) for the female along with her "armbite" animation which proved to be a bit of nightmare. I just need to adjust some leg sprite that can also be used for the victims reaction. I'll then need to do animation of her kicking while being held (2 frames), and being punched when being held (2 frames.)

[Gryzor]

Can we see?

[sigh]

Can we see?

Not quite yet:)

I just repixelled her first pose 5 minutes ago.

After house chores (which I haven't started yet ) to finish the female kick and her being hit left and right anims while in full nelson.
The full nelson torso poses are taking up to much space on the sprite sheet for my liking as I have both the attacker and victim torso as one sprite as they are interlocked. Their legs are still seperated from each other as normal. This meant that I had to take out some frames from the bite which has gone from 6 to 3 torso frames.

After she's finished today, I'll do the male version next.

Right - now where's that hoover......

[sigh]

I've been looking at the screen size that I currently have and it is 256 x 144. Would it be better to have it as 256x128 with up and down scrolling for the remaining 16 pixels, or is it better to keep it the size it is with no up and down scrolling?

The female full nelson anims are now complete.

[sigh]

These past few weeks have been crazy with deadlines and late nights at work so I haven't been able to do as much, so it's been rather slow.
Today I need to revisit some of the full nelson anims to cut down on the amount of sprites being used for them which hopefully shouldn't take to long. I'll be animating the males full nelson release which will be a kick to the groin and I'm hoping, that I'll be able to reuse some leg sprites for this one.
I'll then get on with the backfist which is a 2 frame animation and maybe the dust kick which wont require any new torso or leg sprites. I'll just pixel some dust (1 frame.)

I'll also pixel the female scream (War Cry) which will only be 2 frames. I have also started the female head knee and aim to finish that completely next week.

So. Here is what's left to do:

Female:
Hair Grab Knee (Grab move - Double Dragon style!)
Head Slam (Ground Fighting move)
War Cry (Scream that stuns multiple enemies for a second)
Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

Male:
Full Nelson Release (groin kick)
Back Fist
Headlock Punch (Grab move)
Choke Hold (Ground Fighting move)
Kick Dust In Face (Stuns multiple enemies for a second)
Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

Getting very close to finishing the main players:)

[sigh]

Did dust animation which turned out to be 3 frames instead of 1. Male Full nelson release is also done.

Current list is now:

Female:

Hair Grab Knee (Grab move - Double Dragon style!)
Head Slam (Ground Fighting move)
War Cry (Scream that stuns multiple enemies for a second)
Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

Male:

Back Fist
Headlock Punch (Grab move)
Choke Hold (Ground Fighting move)
Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

[Gryzor]

Dust animation... wow, attention to detail!!!

[sigh]

The plan for today mid-afternoon!

1: DO NOT PLAY DARK SOULS!

2: Finish off female hair grab knee (almost finished but needs careful optimizing)
3: Finish off male headlock punch (already started this with 3 more frames to do)

[sigh]

Okay - updated list of things to do:)


Female:

Hair grab knee complete!

Head Slam (Ground Fighting move)
War Cry (Scream that stuns multiple enemies for a second)
Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

Male:

Back fist complete!

Headlock Punch (Grab move)
Choke Hold (Ground Fighting move)
Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

This leaves 3 more animations left to per character. The war cry scream will be tackled at lunch time tomorrow:)

Hopefully I should get the headlock punch completed next week too.

[Gryzor]

Can't wait to see the outcome... can't stress this enough

[sigh]

HeadLock Punch is now finished. Choke Hold needs only one more frame. Been a bit of pain to do!

Female:

Head Slam (Ground Fighting move)
War Cry (Scream that stuns multiple enemies for a second)
Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

Male:

HeadLock Punch complete!

Choke Hold (Ground Fighting move) in progress
Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

Will be finishing the final frame for the Choke Hold today. I haven't laid out all the leg sprites yet, but the male seems to to fit all the legas on a 160 x 200 sheet. The female however, seems to be taking up a little more than that. I've yet to layout the torso's, but I have a feeling that further optimization will be needed.

[Gryzor]

Locked hands sounds neat as a playing mechanism!

How far till completion, you'd say?

[sigh]

Locked hands sounds neat as a playing mechanism!

How far till completion, you'd say?

Completion wise of the first level - not far off. The background for the first level was completed way back so it just leaves the enemies (the boss will be loaded in separately, so it's not too important memory wise). Once this is done we can then see how much memory this whole thing takes, which will enable us to either cut back on background tiles or drop entire animations completely . Ideally I would like to finish off all the enemy anims before christmas, but I have a work deadline up to that point..

HeadLock Punch



Choke Hold



The enemy and player torso in these animations are one sprite. The legs are still kept separate. Although there's not much going on, it's been rather tricky finding ways to optimize these type of animations with these type of torso sprites, as they take more space than I would like.

Updated List:

Female:

Head Slam (Ground Fighting move)
War Cry (Scream that stuns multiple enemies for a second)
Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

Male:

Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

Will most likely tackle the war cry scream, though I'm thinking of also giving her the kick dust move instead as it works better for a stun. It's also more sneaky:)

[Bryce]

Excellent animation. Reminds me of the neighbourhood I grew up in

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Who cares about games when you can just go out the door, right?

If I comment on these latest samples I'll just be repeating myself, so no point in doing so.

But... great job!

[sigh]

Okay - so I did the head slam move over the weekend which leaves these left to do:

Female:

Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

Male:

Locked Hands (Locked hands with enemy. Push fire button rapidly to gain advantage)

There's one more animation I forgot to do which is only 2 frames and is roughly 10 minute job and the easiest out of the lot.

The locked hand poses and 2 frame struggle animation is done. All I need to do now is the animation of them swinging each other around. The person who gets to swing, is the one
that gains the advantage. This animation should only need around 3 frames:)

[Gryzor]

What I'd like to see is the Locked Hands (Male/Female, locked hands with each other, being in love. Everyone wins... babality).

[sigh]

What I'd like to see is the Locked Hands (Male/Female, locked hands with each other, being in love. Everyone wins... babality).

Trust you to think of something like that

"Locked hands" has now been changed to - "tussle".

[sigh]

Update:

1 more animation to do which I should finish on sunday and I will then start optimizing the animations as much as I can. For some reason, the female legs seems to be taking up far too much space as a lot of her moves have wide stances. After these are optimized I can then get on with tracing the enemies.

[Bryce]

For some reason, the female legs seems to be taking up far too much space as a lot of her moves have wide stances.

I know the feeling

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Wach that female animation. Pretty soon she'll have half the screen filled with shoes, clothes and little bottles of stuff.

[sigh]

Hello people,

Starting from next week I will begin optimizing the playable characters through the christmas period. This is the biggest major factor that I need to get done in order to start animating the enemies. After optimization is done, everything else art wise will be much easier to do. The backgrounds and level design will probably still be the hardest to concept, but nothing as complicated as the animations.