I’m currently writing for a new top-down JRPG game in GameMaker with some mutual friends from my last jam! No spoilers yet - but think Final Fantasy and Pokemon. I wrapped up the last indie game I directed, coding, and wrote and want to share this complex animation.
In Ren’py (game engine), animations are hard. While it supports live2d models, it lacks good processing power to actually handle animation or cut scenes.
In this scene, we have:
- a tv animation background
- a looped fake tv host audio
- live2d models
- a screen with point and click hands
- a movie file playing a vase smash
- dialogue box with slow text speed
- a blinking cursor animation
In other engines, these layers are easy. Seamless. In Ren’py, not so much. We had to cut file sizes, use more obscure file formats, and add custom code to identify each layer of the scene (like the dialogue box layers over the point and click which layers over the live2d model which layers over…).
This game, “Hear Me, Hear You,” is truly a work of ingenuity, problem solving, and art. Thank you to every amazing dev, voice actor, artist, writer, and sound designer who worked on this with me!