Look, you’ve been around the pond a while. You’ve swam with the old ducks, you’ve seen duck empires rise and fall, and you have some moss growing on your underside (you should probably get that checked out). As such, I’m sure I hardly need to ask you this question, but I shall anyway:

Remember when Zakumba: Astraia only had 4-directional sprites?

That’s right, despite the current isometric nature of the game, our characters and enemies only had animations facing left, right, up, and down. So, whenever you wanted to move diagonally, it looked a little awkward. This was a byproduct from when the game WASN’T isometric, and everything faced the primary cardinal directions.

Now, I could talk more about this, but I’m not sure this stone has enough blood to squeeze, so this is all a primer to discuss the consequences of adding in four more directional sprites to just about everything. But, to do this, we must travel back in time.

At one point in the world of video games, 3D was the future. No more would you have to look at crusty, pixelated plumbers and hedgehogs; now you could embrace the dead-eyed polygonal gaze of an aesthetically deficient 3D schmuck who emotes like he has popsicle sticks stuck in his jaw. Although this transition was likely a product of innovation, it also came with an incredible benefit:

If one wanted to “turn” the animation of 2D sprites, an artist would have to draw every piece of that animation once more in that new direction. But when turning the animation of 3D models, you can literally just turn it. Now, getting that animation to look good from any direction is another axis of thought entirely, but, ultimately, this is a MUCH more time efficient endeavor.

Now, this is all to say that, for Zakumba: Astraia, swapping from hand drawn 4-directional movement to hand drawn 8-directional movement doubled the amount of necessary work.

That’s right, this sick animation working in the cardinal directions isn’t enough anymore; now you need four more separate animations to really bring the “sub” to “subcardinal directions.” Luckily, this was the only animation this needed to be done for.

Oh, wait, no it wasn’t. And as wonderful as it would have been to use the magical duck wand we have in storage to do the work for us, we actually don’t have a magical duck wand, so it’s only through grit and perseverance that this task got done.

I say “us,” but I only wrote words. So please give gracious thanks to our team of artists for making Zakumba: Astraia look all the more polished!

You’re probably wondering why we decided to keep using 2D sprites despite shifting to a 3D background. I am too, which is why I’m waiting to write that blog. But it will come. Eventually. Or maybe, before I get to that, I’ll have to start off a blog much further down the line like this:

Remember when Zakumba: Astraia only had 8-directional sprites?

The 8-Directional Sprite Story: When One Choice Leads to Untold Hours of Work