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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Topic started by: Sidewinder on March 30, 2012, 10:15:38 PM

Title: A Fantastic 2D Game Animating Tool
Post by: Sidewinder on March 30, 2012, 10:15:38 PM
I just received the following note from Mike Parent, member of the Natami team, Amiga enthusiast, and professional pixel artist.  He's been working hard on a new artistic tool for use in 2D games.  The tool is called Spriter, it's nearing completion, and there are already projects in the works that make use of this tool for new Amiga games!

"Hi everyone,

This is Mike at Brashmonkey.com

The beta version of the all new Spriter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/539087245/spriter?ref=live), a highly optimized 2D game animation tool, is finally available. What makes it special is it's specifically for creating animations for games!

(http://brashmonkey.com/index_htm_files/160.jpg) (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/539087245/spriter?ref=live)

It doesn't just export sequential images of full frames, it can also export the actual animation data in XML format, so game engines can recreate all the animations using just the original source images (like body parts) thereby saving massive amounts of VRAM and disk space. It will also support tons of game specific features, like visually placing unlimited collision rectangles per frame (with names and numeric values for each!), unlimited action points per frame, unlimited named variables can be changed per frame, and sound effects can be triggered per frame. It also supports an awesome feature called “Character Maps” which lets you show, hide, or replace images from specific folders on the fly to make game features like customizable character appearance and changes in weapons, armor, etc super easy and efficient.

Please check out the Kickstarter page (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/539087245/spriter?ref=live) to learn more and for the link to download the free beta version.

We'd love your feedback, suggestions, and support so we can make Spriter hands down the ultimate 2D game animating tool.

Thank you very much."
Title: Re: A Fantastic 2D Game Animating Tool
Post by: wrath of khan on March 31, 2012, 05:51:41 AM
Yeah it looks cool.This should make it easier to make cool natami amiga games.It's flying.They have already raised 10,000 dollars of a required 25,000.
Title: Re: A Fantastic 2D Game Animating Tool
Post by: commodorejohn on March 31, 2012, 05:55:01 AM
Not that some of the ideas aren't cool, but...why do we have to use XML for everything now? God, just negate the RAM savings right there, whydontcha...
Title: Re: A Fantastic 2D Game Animating Tool
Post by: Trev on March 31, 2012, 05:43:38 PM
After the XML file is interpreted, the data isn't stored in memory as XML. It's just an interchange format.
Title: Re: A Fantastic 2D Game Animating Tool
Post by: commodorejohn on March 31, 2012, 05:52:55 PM
You'd think they could just use the memory format and save trouble and disk space, then...

"You have a problem. You decide to solve it using XML. Now you have two problems."