Devlog · Episode 7
My axe kept flickering and my staff would not come down
The characters now move according to the weapon in their hand. Here is what broke along the way.
Every weapon has its own way
A weapon is not just an object in a hand. The axe has weight, and the whole body leans to carry it. The staff gets planted, almost like a walking stick. The book is held against the chest, carefully. I wanted you to look at a character from far away and know what they carry just by how they walk.
When everyone moved the same
At first it was like this: everybody moved the same way. It looked like a shop dummy with an accessory glued to its hand. The axe and the staff walked identically, and that broke the illusion right away.
Worse, the mistakes were ugly. The axe kept flickering between one pose and another, as if it could not decide. The staff did not lower when the character stopped, it just floated up there. And a hand went straight through the shield, as if it were made of smoke.
Weapon by weapon, until it was right
I did not fix everything at once. I fixed it weapon by weapon. For each one, I checked three moments: standing, walking and running. If any of the three looked off, I went back and adjusted again.
The scythe is a good example. It is long and curved, and it looks awkward if the hand grips it in the wrong place. I had to get the grip and the arm swing right so it looked like a tool held by someone who knows how to use it.
How it plays now
Today the shield stays firm on the arm while you run, and the sword rides at your side without cutting through anything. It sounds like a small detail, but it is the kind of thing you only notice when it is wrong. When it is right, you just play.
Next episode is about the bosses, where size comes before everything else.