Wedding guests

As planned from the moment of animating Väinämöinen the sprites of the wedding guests were assigned to a previously existing skeleton. However, they were assigned to the skeleton used to animate Ilmarinen, not Väinämöinen, since Ilmarinen’s skeleton was more sophisticated than Väinämöinen’s. Väinämöinen, for example, lacked a neck, since it would not be visible behind his beard. Rather, the male wedding guests were assigned to Ilmarinen’s skeleton. For the female ones I created a new skeleton exclusively for their models, […]

Serfs

The serfs required even less time and work than the wedding guests. For the actual animation, at least. More sprites had to be organized, rescaled and cropped in Photoshop before being implemented but not as much work was necessary in order to animate them. The scene consisted of three serfs working a huge bellow for Ilmarinen’s smithy. They only needed one animation: The serfs had to hold a rod for the bellow, going up and down with it. This animation […]

Wolf

One of the first enemies the players would encounter were wild wolves. I managed to acquire template images for running and jumping canines and based my animations on those templates for those specific animations. For the attack, heavy attack, idle, knockback and death animations I was forced to improvise based on the shape and size of the sprites in comparison to the skeleton of the wolf and references consisting of video materials depicting wolves in sanctuaries. I took some liberties […]

Frog Boss

After having studied the movements and the anatomy of frogs jumping I began animating the frog boss. Because the anatomy of the wolf had not been as correct as it could have been the Character Designer and I worked together to make sure that the frog enemies would be able to be animated properly. The frog boss was the final enemy the players would have to defeat in order to complete the vertical slice. Given that, he had to be […]

Frog Minion

With the frog minion I had the exact opposite task as with the wolf. In this case the smaller frog enemy had to become lighter than its sibling. Since all animations that were needed for the minion was already created for the boss I merely had to refer to the animations of the latter. Because the anatomy of the two frogs, in terms of the size, scale and shape of the sprites, was different enough to require two separate skeletons […]

Väinämöinen

The first character I provided animations for was Väinämöinen. In the Finnish national epic Väinämöinen is the bard immortal. He is birthed, already an old and wise man, from a celestial being laying in the ocean and washed ashore, where he proceeds to use his magical voice to sing trees and vegetation to the world. Väinämöinen is inherently magical and he uses song to shape the world or summon objects or beings into existence.
He was one of the playable characters […]

Ilmarinen

When all animations for Väinämöinen were completed I duplicated the file I was working in and deleted the sprites used for him. I then replaced them with the sprites created for Ilmarinen. In the Finnish national epic Ilmarinen is the master smith. He is the one who forged the sky, so masterfully that there are no seems or traces of nippers nor hammer, among other magical items. He is also a very close friend of Väinämöinen.
Due to some minor differences […]

Learning Spriter

The first task that was assigned to me was to learn how to properly use Spriter as a tool for animation. For previous projects I had been using both Adobe Flash as well as Adobe Photoshop for animation. Even though neither of said programs provide tools for animating exclusively frame-by-frame, that was how I had primarily operated. What this means is that I had worked by drawing a figure in one frame and then had to draw the same figure […]

Serfs

The serfs required even less time and work than the wedding guests. For the actual animation, at least. More sprites had to be organized, rescaled and cropped in Photoshop before being implemented but not as much work was necessary in order to animate them. The scene consisted of three serfs working a huge bellow for Ilmarinen’s smithy. They only needed one animation: The serfs had to hold a rod for the bellow, going up and down with it. This animation […]

Battle music of Tale

The fighting music was the song triggered when the avatar was close to the enemy and was about to face combat. In comparison to the main level music this was a song containing a much higher intensity. This was to convey the danger of the situation since the avatar faces a threat from enemies. The song was used as a tool to tell the player when danger was ahead. Since Tale was a game about  exploring and obstacle progression there […]

Main theme music of Tale

When working with sound effects, one of the most vital parts of development is to create sounds that fit within, and enhances the main game design. Meaning that both the music and sound effects should  contribute to the mechanics, aesthetics and dynamics of the game in a balanced and fulfilling way. The  sounds can be created and put into place in a way that heightens and highlights the overall  sensation of the game, while also being distinct and colourful so […]