Gushing About: The Legend of Zelda ~ Twilight Princess

     Twilight Princess is an incredible Zelda game. While it's not everyone's favorite, it's a favorite of mine. This game will always be one of the most memorable Zelda's to me because of all the fond memories and experiences I'm left with. This game had new things to do at every corner and was the next-gen Zelda I always dreamed about after playing Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker.

Let's revisit this Wii Launch title after the break.

Walk, Trot, and Gallop

     Clover's animations and speeds are dependent on her location and status. If she is in battle, she looks determined and runs around quickly. If she's indoors, she walks calmly with a smile on her face. If outside, she trots about like any cute cartoon pony would. When her health is low, Clover looks out of breath, both in battle and in the overworld. All these minor additions were added to her basic sprites easily thanks to the setup I have in MS Paint.

     I programmed these animations to be easily changeable on the fly. This will allow me to use more expressive sprites in cutscenes. I can even take individual frames out of context and reuse them as expressions. Little details like that will really make the game come to life.

Clover's Animations Complete!

     I literally finished putting these into the game minutes ago. I promised there would be a video today and I met that deadline. I was surprised how many little problems popped up toward the end. This took an entire day when I expected a few hours of work. But as with everything for this game, it was a labor of love. I want this to be the best game it can possibly be.

Check out the video showing off a fully animated Clover on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TysGyG8kDKI

Facing Different Directions

      One of the harder sprites to do was the front facing template pony. I spent most of the time staring at it and wondering what little detail was off about it. After a bunch of trials and referring to Bobby's pony sprites, I got something that looked just right. From that, I could make sprites facing the opposite way.

     I also put together a few other sprites for idling and talking. All of which were saved as templates to make spriting Clover, NPCs and even some enemies a lot easier and faster. I was able to dress up the template to look like Clover and I should b able to upload the video of what she looks like in motion tomorrow.