It may not be perfect, but the very fact I’m accomplishing real animation is a milestone not just for this game but my life. I can honestly blame my fear of trying to animate people and animals that kept me waiting so long to make an actual game… I kept hoping to partner up with someone to take the burden off of me which had me sitting on my ass for roughly a decade – time I’ll never get back and honestly kick myself for wasting. Sadly, the reality I had slowly encountered is that most creative people either already work for someone big already or strike out on their own projects (after all, they are creative). So I had to face facts, until I took matters into my own hands, nothing will ever get accomplished. Above is just one of many completed animations I’ve done (I messed up the X position of a few frames here in this hastily made animated gif, in-game it looks less wobbly), though it is shrunk down to half size of the actual game (the drawings are much more detailed in reality).
In an effort to keep all aspects of this game open to the player’s preferences, I have added the Focus system. It’s essentially a form of class specialization for Arashi’s official base class “Blademaster”, where there are three subclasses that can be unlocked and mastered. The four classes, “Blademaster”, “Avenger”, “Technomancer”, and “Protector”, will each have the same base abilities, but the three subclasses will focus on specific aspects of Arashi’s base fighting style. The player will be able to switch Arashi’s “Focus” as desired (though there will be a relatively small delay once a new Focus is chosen, so as not to allow exploits to the system).
Also, after a lot of consideration after looking at the battle animation frames I’ve been working on, I may also add the ability to use weapons other than a katana. Keep in mind, Arashi’s fighting style is shinkirouken, which is unique to katanas, so using a non-standard weapon would disallow the use of her special techniques. There is always some benefit (some planned and most likely some unforseen) to using the weapons themselves, but for the most part, the player would have a harder time without a katana, especially on the skilled fighters (bosses) of the game.
I apologize for not updating the website with more info this month, but until I have a press release announcement of the game, it’s not a huge priority for me. I will add character bios and a list of announced game features up as soon as I get a break from all this animation work.
