Re: Labcoax - 2d H-platformer
With a perspective of realistic project goal and prioritizing in mind. Maybe:
- Farm out level designs out to someone else, after all that's a more common skill then animating things we all like
. If nothing else just a template (Hand drawn even heh) to save you time on that or just provide some reference/inspiration. Castlemania I think is quite good in terms of level design, and the guy studied super metroid/castlevania and the like before designing it. I think if you can find gamer like that to do up that part it'd save you time. You'd need to think up game mechanics beforehand like double jump, monster behavior and the like though.
- I wouldn't worry about Game over CG for the enemies until the enemies and animations are finished. In which case you can always release that as is and lessen the chance of abandoning the project; building the frame before adding bonus layers so to speak. If you have a decent platformer with nice smooth animation (and it's looking that way) backing the game up it can stand on it's own even with lower res, like UnHolY SaNctuaRy (though that has GO CG, but even without won't make that much of a difference.) which I consider a to be a product that can be sold with pride... ok maybe moar levels and enemies first muahaha.
- You could also go the route of a higher quality generic GO scene, like shinobi girl / 銀河戦士ソフィ. I honestly don't know which people prefer more though, as I don't have a preference myself. Again, the GO stuff are icing, I'd bake the cake first and eat just that if I have to
. I do really like GO animated followups though, like the SM queen and Orc (2nd) in Unholy Sanctuary which changes environ, or Fairy Fightings GO followups, though those are effort intensive bonus brownies.
- More then 1 animation type for each enemy, rather then more enemy type:
a) It's less work (I think) to animate 1 more scene of an existing monster rather then making a new monster with a new scene. And/or perhaps multiple stages to an animation like... Mitsuko X I think? I also quite liked incubus hunter's 3 stage animations, though it only had a small demo and is now defunct
. The animations contained within a single enemy for mitsuko X or incubus hunter feels more satisfying by factors compared to the standard formula stuff: Fighting Yuna / Guild meister / 銀河戦士ソフィ.
b) It can make for interesting mechanic in terms of requiring certain condition to trigger different animation (grabbed from back / ground / air / lust bar / flashing special attack ...etc), Iris action takes this to another level even, though I sometimes wonder whether so much time/effort on that couldn't be used in a better place. I wouldn't do it in the traditional JRPG style secret hunting which requires a completionist mentality, but I wouldn't hand everything to the players on a platter either.
c) If you have no inspiration for a monster type, by all means leave it at 0-1 animation, on the other hand if you have a gush of inspiration for another enemy you can fit a few animation on it, it'll keep players guessing whether he's seen it all when combined with point b
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d) I think it gives you more control over the project stages. You can always add more or set a smooth cut-off as your inspiration / motivation dictates.
- Start with designing the list of enemies and boss, their behavior/AI, just a rough concept sketch and notes would be enough I think. Then design the game mechanic / level around them. Well... Everyone works differently so a grain of salt and all that
As for the enemies list, I'm sure we can all give you a huge list of enemies within various fetish categories for you to pick or poll according to your preference
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I hope the above wasn't redundant or overbearing and at least some small bits of it was useful. Wishing your project all the best
Mitsuko X, UnHolY SaNctuaRy, Iris Vision are all good references
