How was Aquaria animated?

[Cities]

Well... yeah, that's pretty much it   I am a big fan of the art, and was wondering what the process was for the actual animations?  Did you animate in an outside program and import the files, or are they built into the engine itself?

Thanks!

[silverflagon]

CQ Alec or Derek! That is a very good question and I have no idea at all?

[Hiro]

Well I know that the animations for things like Naija's limbs are all done with a bone structure type system..so I guess thats engine. And the waving of tiles as if they're in water is something in the engine that can manipulate sprites, so thats in their engine too.

I don't think they used any 3rd party stuff to make animations for the game. 

[Xiagan]

I don't think they used any 3rd party stuff to make animations for the game. 

Nope, Alec made an own game engine afaik.

[silverflagon]

I don't think they used any 3rd party stuff to make animations for the game. 

Nope, Alec made an own game engine afaik.

That explains why this game is so special and so much a part of Derek and Alec then

[Danger Mouse]

Don't forget the particle effects engine as well... some very nice animations come from that.

[Alec]

There's an animation editor and a particle viewer built-in to the game/engine.

Not to toot my own horn, but I wrote the editor and did all the animations. (that's why a lot of them aren't so great, lol)

[silverflagon]

There's an animation editor and a particle viewer built-in to the game/engine.

Not to toot my own horn, but I wrote the editor and did all the animations. (that's why a lot of them aren't so great, lol)

Oh come on Alec, those animations are what give Aquaria it's magical feel, and besides I love how they all articulate

[Danger Mouse]

Yeah; Alec, you don't give yourself enough credit for the awesome creations you have made! I definitely wouldn't call it tooting your own horn, nor gloating. Well deserved credit, and very well earned. Excellent Coding, Animating, and Musical scoring!

[inkblob]

animation is an art unto itself and not all artists are good animators and vice versa. you were beyond successful in breathing life into the still images, sometimes literally just 1 profile to work with, and augmenting each fish and creatures personality with it's own locomotion characteristics. we'll toot the horn for you, the animation is brilliant and I've pointed that out in person to a few people viewing the game 

[Hawkey]

Just if anyone missed the Independet Tour from the Wolfire guys: Part 4 : Aquaria with some making of stuff 
(hopefully Alec&Derek inlcude a "large/full" Making off Special to the boxed Version of Aquaria)

[Xiagan]

Wow! That's amazing! It deserves an extra thread in my eyes. (But it is highly spoilerific too, so beware, young gamer. )

And the stuff about badly executed puzzles is bullshit. You never get it balanced out so that it is not to hard/easy for everyone. Someone who is into game business should've known this fact... *rolleyes*

[Danger Mouse]

Xiagan, I couldn't have said it better on that point. What's hard for some is easy for others, and visa versa.

[Chibi]

Also, his problem with unexplained features is easily solved by a visit to this forum.

[silverflagon]

I played Myst which he mentions as an equal in the amount of difficulty in solving problems and there is no way that Quaria can be considered as hard as Myst or as uninforming..
All Aquaria needs is for the player to keep their wits about them and look around and play hard.. Of course trying out different key also helps but no one say's that you can't try everything..

The first puzzle that got me stuck was getting energy form and the only reason why I was stuck was because I wasn't being patient enough to go through the entire cycle