The Mana World Forums

Apparently (http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/mag.dyn/Features/2622.html), there are now 386 Pokemon. So yeah Crush is very right when he says how hard it is to make something that doesn't share some characteristic with a pokemon.

Irony: A while back in these forums i played satire on the anime-style of art, saying it was prepackaged and hackneyed, by showing a Pokemon poster with Pokemon crossed out and TMW scrawled in its place. And now i end up with a monster that looks uncannily similar to the style of a Pokemon. We can change him easily though.

Funny you should bring that creature back up though, Crush. i just decided "they probably aren't going to use this ever" and deleted its files from my computer the other day. Probably still have them on my website though.

I don't think that we have to change it. the similarity isn't that strong that you could call it a plagiarism. By the way: there are some quite creative creations between the pokemon. Some could serve as an inspiration for us.

But let's get back to the topic. This is the front attack animation:

the only animation that is still missing is the back attack animation.

Crush wrote:

The front attack animation lacks depth. The head doesn't go forward during the bite. To get this effect the eyes should roll forward and the perspective of the upper ueeth should change. I think that'll change a lot.
Also the movement of the head isn't only up and down. It's more like a circular movement. So the frame where the mouth is furthest open doesn't have to be the frame at which the upper head part is at its highest point pixelwise.

Very nice with keeping the cartoony size factor uniform though. But i agree with Modanung, the bites look different. Is now a bad time to point out that the side bite could not really bite our characters? He bites down, perhaps scratching with his teeth, but not biting anything. If it were to overlap the character sprite a little bit it might work though... i don't know. Narrowing the mouth width and making the feet a little smaller (as if his body is moving farther forward than his feet), in addition to what Modanung suggested, should help make the front look like the side.

People, remember this with every attack animation: Killing intent is the key!

Predator's role:
Hunts in two's and three's. Favorite food is incidentally TMWians. Catches players offguard by sprinting on screen, going for the player immediately. Do not cause much damage. When near death, they sprint away. If magic attacks are ever implemented, when one is adjacently attacking the player, the other could be a few steps back shooting fireballs from its mouth.
Perhaps:
Domesticated Predators could be used similarly to domesticated horses? To my knowledge TMW is as of yet without any form of transportation.
The Predators are thickest around a Predator Shrine (with adjoining quest). A predator-themed shrine seems like it'd be fun to design and pixel.

What do you think, Crush and all?

The concept of "every newbie goes to this shrine and gets a pet/mount/whatever" is too convenient to my taste. Newbie friendliness is good in a sense, but it's hard not to take that too far.

Rotonen wrote:The concept of "every newbie goes to this shrine and gets a pet/mount/whatever" is too convenient to my taste. Newbie friendliness is good in a sense, but it's hard not to take that too far.

Ultim also mentioned a quest, which may also have some level requirement? I like that idea.

Gonzalo wrote:Ultim also mentioned a quest, which may also have some level requirement? I like that idea.

Which will in my opinion be against the spirit of a world built on a LBD (learning by doing) system.

The thread hijacking ends here, this is a thread about the creature.

I'd really like to see a larger and hence more detailed version (and also quite possibly a finished version of this cute little fellow too).

the only missing graphics are the four of the up attack animation. here the almost completed spriteset:


i'll maybe do a larger and more detailed version after i became more skilled at animating.

niiiiiiiiiiice

Very well, very well.

Regards.

How can you hijack a dead thread? I prefer "rejuvenation."
And the shrine/quest idea and the horse->predator idea were two completely separate ideas. I hadn't really thought into what would be at the end of the quest. Kind of not important though.
This may be radical, but i think the most successful games do not practice newbie friendliness.
Oh, and (when) is TMW going to get monster magic attacks like that fireball one?

you shouldn't expect many new gameplay features before the new server is working.