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I don't think it would take a lot of time (unless they go the space saving route). It's kind of a more robust version of structuring folders to put animation files in. But maybe you're right. It didn't take me that long to create an animation player.

Amazing asset! Love the vibrant colours! It's rare for such a colourful asset to have such a good palette.

I'd like to make a suggestion about the animations though. Not about the animations themselves but about the structure.
Generally you've done a great job having a consistent folder structure. That helps a lot for users to have an animation engine that works on runtime without writing a special case for every animation. There are however some inconsistencies that make it a bit harder and require "if statements" to get addressed that would otherwise be unnecessary. I'll mark them here in the order that I encountered them in case you want to change them. Note that I operate under the assumption that each folder inside an animation represents a layer that contains mutually exclusive animation parts and I only checked the character animations, not the rest.

* Within the Acc layer, there are subfolders that represent layers (beard, elf, butterfly) but there are also pngs there that could be in their own subfolder (headgear). There's also a pirate eyepatch there that I think would be better in its own folder (eye accessories or eyegear whatever)

* The fishing animations have a weapons folder but unlike the rest of the animations with a weapons folder instead of having a weapon type subfolder it's just pngs of the fishing rod tiers. That means that there needs to be a check when encountering a weapons folder to determine if there are subfolders inside or just pngs.

* Similarly, the 4th animation (pickaxe hoe and bugnet) has subfolders for the first two, but the bug net is just a png

* The horse, bicycle, bear and broomstick folders all represent a mount layer but since it doesn't have a consistent name all require a special case. Also the horse and bear require an offset for the character animations to display correctly while the rest don't

* Umbrella, flute and healer stuff should all go to the weapons layer but their naming is inconsistent so they need a special check. Also the umbrella is quite non standard. It has the only transitional animation I've seen here (the opening animation) which only exists for the idle animation.

* The special Fx layer that exists for some animation is not standardised: sometimes it's just Fx.png, others its "Fx [action].png" (like "Fx sweating .png" (it also has that insidious empty space at the end there)) others it's "[action] FX.png" like "Blood FX.png" in Damage animation and "Arrow Fx.png" (note that Fx here is not all capitalized like Blood FX) in Bow and arrow animation. Also, in the bow animation the fx is within Bow and arrow folder, which makes sense conceptually, since it belongs to the arrow, not the player, but if we're thinking character animation layers, it should be top level like the rest of the effects.

* The swim outwater animation has Accessories folder instead of the standard Acc

* "Hair's" folder is named "Hair" on horse animation. Yes it's better grammar but it's non standard :P

* The swim submerged animation does not have a left direction. I understand it's pointless, but all the rest have it.

So that's all I kept notes on. I might be missing some. They may look like they're many but for such a massive undertaking they're about as many as expected.

My suggestion however is not to simply fix the inconsistencies. I think the project might start becoming unwieldy for you and the users. I suggest you add animation metadata (json would work well because it's very flexible) for every animation so a generic engine can run all the present and future animations you may add! That's kinda how 3d animations work. For example the sims games are so easy to add new animations to because it's not the sim that holds the animation data, but the new objects, so adding new objects easily adds new actions without needing to change anything about the core engine. Unfortunately 2d animations have no standard equivalent afaik plus this stuff is more difficult to do in 2d because for every new animation you need to make more assets instead of just data to move a skeleton but it still would be so much more flexible! For example you could easily add transitional animations like a landing animation that after jumping/falling transitions to the idle animation. I'm not actually suggesting you add transitional animations because they would be a lot of work for a project that size I'm just using it as an example of how flexible using animation metadata can be.

Actually I've created a small project to showcase all character animations here: https://watersilver.itch.io/farmrpganimationviewer

It's not public, the password is 'farmrpganims' (if you want me to take it down let me know)

In this project I've used a simple version of what I'm proposing: I've made a godot resource for every animation that defines how the textures should be split, how many animation frames there are per direction, at what frame each directional animation starts and the character offset (for horses and bears). A simple custom animation node takes that data and runs the animation.

Animation metadata could be much more flexible than that and it could also save space. You basically already have some metadata, but it's baked in the empty space you're using in the pngs. For example most hats are the same sprite but for each frame they are positioned differently. That's basically offset metadata. The size could blow up if you decide to add more animations, or even more clothes etc. However the metadata could have instructions on hat offset per frame for example and save all that space.

However even if you don't try to save space a simple version of metadata would mean that a simple animation engine could only need the folder name the animation is in and then detect the metadata and run the animation without the user needing to do anything more than that manually. Adding a new animation from the side of the user could be as simple as just dropping in the new folder, and passing its name to the engine! 

If you like the idea but have trouble structuring the json, I'd be happy to help! Regardless of whether you do any of that I hope to see more of your stuff! Again, great work!

Not really unless I change some stuff. I'll keep this in a list of stuff to do for when/if I ever do an update (alongside allowing the player to change the keys) but it probably won't be anytime soon.

That was the plan! There'd be an in game editor and a textfield that takes a level data json to build the custom level... Unfortunately the plan failed... The rudimentary editor I made for this game only worked for long enough to make it and then it gave up the ghost because of a massive bug I never fixed (or really looked into). It wasn't presentable anyway. Making a proper public facing editor takes both time and effort that feels like it's not worth it for a little game like this. I do have another project planned that will be reading ldtk output for level data, so I won't have to make an editor myself. Still it might take a while to find time. Browser games aren't big anymore and it's pretty hard to justify wasting too much time on one.

Hey, glad you like it! Unfortunately I don't think I can help you. I'm not really an artist, I'm a programmer. You'd have better luck asking an actual artist if you want to customize this character template or make other assets to go with it. I don't think they'd have trouble mimicking the style.

Hello, I am assuming you are referring to this?

Sorry I can't be much help, I didn't even know this exists!

Anyway, I did check and yes you can use the spritesheets to create animations in gbstudio. Keep in mind that while the character itself is 16x16 you need a bigger grid, like 16x24 or 32x32 to contain the animations because some of them are bouncy.

I'd suggest editing the spritesheets for something like gbsudio though. The files would be too big and have too much empty space for a gameboy game. For example the aforementioned bounciness itself should be part of the spritesheet as it just takes space. It should just be an frame offset in the internal gbstudio sprite/animation creator.

Ok, done. Just download the all_animations.png file. It's not as organized as I'd like but it's the best I can do with gimp which has comically bad ux. It simply wasn't cooperating.

All animations have their name to their right, and when they are multidirectional the order is down, left, right, up if you read them left to right and top to bottom.

Still, I have to say that they are more easy to customise in libresprite because it's what I made them with and the files still have the original layers I used. Also you can see the animations as you are editing. So you might want to give it shot. It's free.

Sure, I'll bundle them up later today and let you know when I'm done!

Glad to hear it!

Yeah hand-crafting jsons is so annoying that making this seemed like the less tiring option. I didn't want to do it again even once lol

Thanks! Glad you like them!

Hey there! I added a licence.

Hey there! I used you music for my game here! Good stuff!

Nope

Use it any way you like in both free and commercial projects, don't redistribute or resell even if modified.

Incredible work, godsent for my project! If only you'd made this sooner you'd have saved me a bunch of trouble. :P

I accidentally bought it twice too because I didn't notice the DX version and itch doesn't let you pay the difference to get the extra stuff. I think. Anyway the point is: still worth it. :D

Hope to see more from you in the future!

Thanks! I probably won't make any more but there are plenty of resources here that go well with it.

I updated the zip to contain an .ase file with all animations.

Let me know if it has any problems. Cheers!

Thank you very much, I hope you find it useful :D!

I didn't know that about sharing all animations in one file. You mean like this?

Sorry no plans for that. It would definitely be much more difficult.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Well if you can throw fireballs might as well some fun with it!

Hey folks, I finally made a remake of smb1 but all the levels are all squashed together. Wanted to do that for a long time. You can play on the browser. Let me know what you think.

https://watersilver.itch.io/super-mario-browser

That's some great art! I'd love to work with you! My discord is WaSi#3963. Send me a friend request, and we'll talk more there.

No. I'm just looking to team up with an artist who also wants to make a game of this kind.

Here's the demo: https://watersilver.itch.io/lovegame

Judge only the game feel (make sure to speak to the npcs to check out the weapons/spells and better mobility!) to see if you're interested. Artwise anything can be replaced, the game doesn't even have to use a gbc art style. Your call.

Some things to keep in mind:

• I want the game not to be too big. I want it to be done before 2019 is over at least.
• The way I've programmed it, it's going to be a top-down adventure game that isn't too "talky" (as much as I love talky games). Again, think Zelda oracle games or Link's Awakening.

Everything else is open to debate. You'll have as much creative control as I do if we partner up.

You have to charge the jump meter with the mouse in casual mode. Check the description for more in depth instructions and if it still doesn't work, I'll check it out.

By the way, here are some pointers to help with the timing and jumping in general in normal mode.

When you're trying to bounce, you usually need to get the most out of your jump, so it's usually best to press and hold the jump button again immediately after you jump. If you do that, even the shortest (as in least high) jump you can perform gives you enough time to fully charge the next jump.

As for the timing, if you've noticed, when you hit the ground there's a small landing animation. As long as this animation is playing the jump meter does not reset. That's when you must release the jump button to get the timing right.

Hey AlphaBetaGamer. This shouldn't be happening, it's either a bug or you're doing it incorrectly. You must hold the left mouse button to charge the jump and the right to uncharge it and it stays put. Then, when you tap you jump as high as you've set it. If you hold she will still charge a high jump. It's in the description  but maybe it's not clear enough. Have you done all this and it doesn't work? If yes, I'll take a look again.

No problem. Thank you for the feedback :)

Haha, that's ok. Of course I had to make it necessary to complete the tutorial, because if you couldn't do that and started playing the actual game, it'd be a disaster. So I figured It'd be best to practice them first in a place you can't die.

You know it's not that hard for me, but that just goes to show what happens when you don't have playtesters or get feedback during development... You end up making a game only you can play. The funny thing is I kept making some levels harder, because I thought they were too easy... Depending on what feedback I get, I might also tweak some levels in PrincessCasual.exe to make it all around easier.

Anyway, let me know if it's better for you now with the casual controls.

Have you already downloaded it? I noticed an inconvenience. The jump meter resets to lowest upon transitions. I'm uploading an updated file without that problem. If it bothers you download it again.

EDIT: Re-Reuploading to fix a minor visual bug.

Yeah, it's not for everyone. I was thinking of including more traditional controls before releasing the game, but decided to wait and see what people would say... And turns out the first comment is a complaint about controls :P. Damn.

It's easy enough to do, but the problem is that all level design goes out the window if I do that... But I suppose not everyone's looking for this kind of challenge.

Alright, I'll think about this and probably do it. Anyone else feel the same way about controls?

EDIT: Done. Let's see if this will work better for more people.

First of all, hey everyone, I'm new here, I found out about this place while looking for a place to host my game. Don't know if this is the proper place to introduce myself, but I might as well kill two birds with one stone.  So, nice to meet you :).

Alright, the game is a pretty unforgiving platformer starring a princess who hits things with her head to smash them. It's my first game and I wanted to keep it simple but I tried a couple of weird stuff, like losing your balance if you're too close to an edge, jumping by releasing the jump button (pressing it charges the jump) and not having too much control in the air. All these combined make the game less about having good reflexes where you'd get out of a sticky situation by a last moment jump, and more about being aware of the environment, since there can't be a last moment jump unless you've prepared it.

EDIT: Since I like customization and got a complaint about the mechanics being too hard, I'm now also including an .exe that allows players to choose which of the above to have in their game.

There's also plenty of NPCs and cutscenes. Talky stuff. Doesn't really have much to do with gameplay, but I thought I'd mention it.

Here's an image that isn't on the game's page:

And the gameplay video I included on the game's page:

Finally, the game page:  https://watersilver.itch.io/the-princess-and-the-plumber