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Hello Ylands team! Great job so far, I am really enjoying the stylized look of the game. However, because of how it looks, I am wondering why the animations look kind of bland. There is a lot of potential for a particular animation style, depending on the look you want (cartoony, realistic, quirky, exaggerated, etc.) Below are some things I was thinking about what could be done with the animations and some suggestions in general. I know some of what I write will be obvious, but I figured I would put it down just in case. My thoughts: - The character feels pretty stiff in a lot of its movements. I would suggest something exaggerated, but really, it depends on the look you're going for. Obviously, Ylands isn't something realistic, but how cartoony do you want it? I keep thinking of Jak and Daxter and how they exagerate a lot of their movements. Example: https://youtu.be/c9CX9r3HoNM?t=117 It isn't the best quality, but you can see how things are exaggerated and how they squash and stretch with each movement. The timing is a lot of fun too. And some of the poses/actions are exaggerated to the point where you can't do in real life, but it makes it a lot of fun to watch and control. - There are a lot of animations missing. The biggest one I noticed is the jump animation. The player pushes the spacebar and then the character suddenly floats. So it doesn't make it seem very responsive. Again, you can exagerate a lot here. You can do something similar to this: https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse459/13au/exercises/images/animation_principles/rw_jump_poses.jpg or something like this (again not the best example, but you can kind of get an idea): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrpNoHgFLZw - Something that could be fun to do, and give a lot of personality to the game/character, is that the items that are being carried have some sort of animation on it too. For example once you get the jet pack, while you're walking around, it just sits there and doesn't do anything. But you could have the rotors spin, or maybe it vibrates every so many seconds, or have some sort of movement that reacts with the player. I can't think of a game or clip to show you, but just something a little extra on it to show that it is attached to the character would be good. - Speaking of the jet pack, there isn't an animation when the character is using it. This one I think really brings the user out of the game immersion. Something that can show the character's weight in the jetpack is soemthing that will help put the character in the world. I keep thinking of the floating characters in Dota 2 and how they constantly move up and down. But you can also have a lot more fun with the animations too. While you may not be able to give the player character a personality (like if they were afraid of heights or not) but you could have the character be balled up tightly to the machine or dangle from it. Maybe if the jet pack moves faster the character animation can position the character in a way that makes it seem more aerodynamic. - The fall animation is a bit delayed. But regarding it, I would say more flaying should be involved. But that is coming from me, who is afraid of falling from heights. Depending on the style, you may want the flaying, or maybe something else. And of course, with the landing, add more follow through to give the character some weight. However, this gets tricky with the timing, as the player will probably want to move right away. - All of the animations for the terraforming controls are pretty static. The player is morphing a world! There should be some excitment in the process! There are some ways to make this more interesting. Does the terraforming device push back against the character and the character needs to adjust in order to control it? Or maybe it is light weight and easy to control, how would you want to show that? - You could have a lot of fun idle animations while the player may be admiring their creation. you can even make some special ones that appear depending on what the character is holding. Since the game is all about creation, while idleing, the character could bring out two objects and try putting them together while the player is waiting? Or pull out a notepad and write down an idea? One of my favorite idle animations comes from Crash Bandicoot: http://giphy.com/gifs/funny-gif-lolgifs-Gkzo1qC0wENFe It gives more life and personality to the character. - I didn't look too much at the animal animations. They all seemed kind of generic. The biggest thing I noticed is that they all seem to move at the same constant speed and have very obvious cycles. They also look like they slide around a lot too. Having some animals move faster could make them more threatening (especially if they are predators). You can also play around with their weight and timing too, to make them seem stronger. - Some other thoughts are when the character picks up an object, it is always the same animation. So if the player is picking up a plant, maybe they pull up from the roots. Whereas if they pick up a sword, they'd want to have a different animation to pick that up. And with the attacks, you can make the player feel like they are giving more damage by changing the timing of the animation and the weight of the character. Overall, the style of animation depends on the look you want in the game. I think the timing will play a big part in the feel of the movement and style. It can make things more inviting, playful, realistic, whatever you want. But at the moment, everything feels like it moves at the same speed. If you have any questions, or if something doesn't make sense, feel free to message me.