Devlog 21 - Fire Deaths and Better Hit Timing

Summary

This update was about hit effects, animation timing, and making attacks feel clearer in-game.

I also worked on one of the more fun animations so far: Jack's fire death.

What changed?

• Continued exploring hit VFX.

• Tested a more cartoony impact direction, with comic-style hit effects.

• Started thinking about how much visual impact is too much.

• The exaggerated VFX are fun, but the game can get busy fast when many enemies are on screen.

• Worked on making punch animations easier to tell apart.

• The jab and hook were too similar, so I started separating their timing and poses more clearly.

• Added Jack's fire death animation.

• Continued updating the animation progress table.

• Reviewed how many layers and frames are already involved in a single Jack animation file.

• Changed the frame duration rules for attack animations:

  • fast attacks: 5 frames
  • medium attacks: 8 frames
  • strong attacks: 12 frames
  • special attacks: 18 frames

• Started backfilling older attack animations to match the new timing rules.

• I am thinking about improving the game's itch.io page as another place to show development progress.

What I'm unsure about?

• The comic-style hit effects are fun, but I need to be careful not to overload the screen.
• I am also thinking about whether Jackstrap needs a stronger public page outside the main website.

Open questions

• How much impact VFX can the game use before it becomes too visually noisy?
• Should the itch.io page become another main public showcase for the game?
• How different should each punch feel in timing and silhouette?

Next steps

• Fix collider bugs.
• Fix animation player parameters.
• Add the newly renamed animations into the game.
• Upload a private test build.
• Add anticipation frames for all attacks.
• Check the length of each attack.
• Continue updating attack frame durations:
  • fast: 5 frames
  • medium: 8 frames
  • strong: 12 frames
  • special: 18 frames

Media