Creating Game Art: Jim the Annoyed - Character Walk Cycle

The second game I am currently involved in producing art for is Jim the Annoyed. James came to me with the idea of a platformer where the character is being forced to move around and complete levels, and he wanted me to create the characters and backgrounds for him. Once again I accepted, and it is proving to be much more of a challenge than the previous game I helped with. This time I'm actually putting my animation knowledge to use in a way that I have not done before. Again, I'm working at an extremely small scale to what I would typically work at, and I really have to think about the movement of the character and pixels.

Though I have a lot of creative freedom with the art, this time around I have been given certain guidelines and characteristics to work with, unlike when I worked on Berry Picker. When he asked me to design the sprite sheet for the main character, he asked me to bear in mind that the character is disinterested and is being forced by the player to move around.

Example of Walk Sequence

Bearing this in mind, when I drew the character walking, rather than having him stood up-right, I had him curled over with his arms drooping in front of him to try and make it look like he couldn't be bothered and was putting in no effort. You can't really tell because of how small it is, but I also gave the character bags under his eyes to try and emphasize the aesthetic we were aiming for.

Sprite Sheet

Because I only had to draw out 8 frames, this process didn't take too long, though I did initially struggle with the shape of the character and how it should have been drawn. Once it was completed, I was also confused at how the sprite sheet should be laid out. When I initially drew the animation I worked around the planted-on-the-ground foot, but the frames will not be able to work in this way as he will take too much of a step forward when the player makes the character move. In the end, I thought it made sense to make each image line up by making sure that his neck was central horizontally throughout. I am still awaiting to see how this looks in game-play.