Pixel Game Animations

Through my experience taking the pixel animation course at LMU through the esteemed pixel animation artist, Nick Woz, who made Shovel Knight for YachtClub Games, I have gathered a diverse portfolio of characters and animations through the medium of pixel animation.

The following are characters that were animated as part of the more focused character design portion of the class.

The 3 enemies are based upon water creatures like Sharks, Seahorses, and Squids.

Game concept pixel art animations:

(Idea based on the game Katana Zero )

Protagonist:

The protagonist of the game that the player controls is Lion Hood! He is a lion that adourns a red hood over his dark blue tunic. He has a standard (light character) run cycle as well as a "slashdodge" attack that has him leap forward to dodge attacks and enemies in front of him as well deal damage to those vulnerable in the hitbox trajectory in front of him. To deal damage, enemies must have their weak points facing towards him before he initiates his attack, or else he will not deal damage and hit the enemies' shields. Players can hold his leap dodge to jump farther and time when they want to dodge enemies and then can quickly tap the button to actually deal damage when they don't need to leap as far when near and facing an enemy's weak point.

Hitbox version:

Mob enemies:

Sad Necromancer summons Skeleton Lizards and Dino Heads to attack the player

- encourages player to use their leap dodge attack to move straight towards and take out these enemies that summon the smaller enemeis that deal damage

- Necromancers can't do damage themselves, once all their summons are killed, their crystal ball cracks and they hold nothing (and can no longer summon additional help)

- Necromancer hides face from player once all it's ally summons are destroyed

Big Bear is a harder second enemy that sinks it's big claws in the ground if front of it to prevent the player from leaping through it to attack it's blind spot (the tail behind it)!

- The large claws deal damage and also serve as a shield

- Players need to time their leap dodges right after the bear swings to attack to make it through him to deal damage

- The bear can turn if given enough time or in response to taking initial damage to it's tail

Deer Mage is the hardest third type of enemy in the game. It poses as a pseudo boss and attacks by shooting floating fish in a pool of water and sending them flying at the player

- Player learns to time their attacks because the deer drops the water when properly attacked, but the fish defend him otherwise

- Players can attack him after his fish projectiles miss and they flop on the ground -- - - - Once both fish are dead, the player can leap dodge attack through the Deer Mage, and destroy his staff

- This process happens twice (with him pulling out a new staff once the first is destroyed), until both his first and second staffs are destroyed and he dies

- The player must kill the fish first each time before destroying the staff because the Deer Mage's body faces the opposite direction of the player, making him impossible to die until the player can forward slash special dodge through him

Boss concept:

Wolf swordsman shrouded in a smokescreen caused by his burning cigar.

- attacks with his blood swords in the cover of his smoke

- He gains an additional sword in the second half of his fight

- Additional details are in the animated concept gif attached below.

In summary, the boss utilizes his unique blood powers to summon powerful swords to his side and attack the player while attacking in his smokescreen. Players can locate him by slashing to clear smoke, identifying the shine of his attacks right before they are executed as actions, and when they hit him, blood will splatter across the screen. These blood splatters, although mildly extreme, will provide feedback to the player when they actually hit the boss when he is not defending with his swords or they miss him. Additionally, the smoke will clear upon transition from form 1 to form 2 to show him bringing out his second sword in his final form. In his final form, his smokescreen will have thicker areas that cannot be cleared by slashing with your sword, and these parts also cover the shine cues of his attacks so players need to watch the screen more carefully.

Extras: