Topic

people watching

it i clear that glitch is eventually going to have a pretty incredibly avatar system.

we can already get into some pretty fine detail when it comes to rearranging our noggins, and i imagine that similar polish will come to adding clothes, accessories, hats, shoes and other things that will make our avatars completely unique and stylish.

that's part of people watching, but another aspect of people watching is not simply seeing what people look like, but seeing the activities they are engaged in.

i would like to see gardeners walking around with hoes over their shoulders while they're walking around, or with watering cans out. i'd like to see bubble tuners blowing bubbles all around them, blowing into their bubble tuning devices in public. i'd like to see people riding around on bicycles or hopping around on pogo sticks. most of all, i'd like to see people flying kites with keys attached in order to collect lightning.

i understand that this is probably extremely difficult to accomplish. maybe not even worth accomplishing. it would probably require character animation for every single item in the game, which might restrict the rate at which the developers think up and create items, slowing down development.

but i think if the intent is to create a lively, entertaining world to visit, with unique activities happening all around you [other than running and jumping] that this is worth considering.

Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Bryan great idea :) If you could see in text what others were doing nearby you would that be a good halfway point?

    For example if people are busy making Sammiches you could see that in an activity log of sorts? You could filter this or turn it off, but it would give you an idea of what was going on around you.
    Posted 3 years ago by Jason Subscriber! | Permalink
  • a good halfway point would be if i could see what they were doing above their heads, with an icon.

    so if they were tending a patch, it would show in a bubble above their head "Wintermute is tending a patch" with the Hoe icon beside the text.

    or maybe just show the item they are using blink above their head as they are using it, no text at all. that might look cool. that could look very stylish if done correctly.

    i still think that with some planning, a small selection of reusable character animations could be applied to almost all the items you could dream up .. but it is unquestionably "more work" for a small team to pull off, resulting in unknowable complications.

    blinky item above head of the avatar doing the thing would definitely be a good halfway point, text optional. could look super fantastic if done stylishly.
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • or maybe it could be the item blinking with one word, the verb at hand. hoe + "tend". watering can + "water". nothing + "harvest". etc. etc.
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • This too is coming! We already have all the tools animated (like when you use a cooking tool, it shows the frying pan frying or the knife & board chopping). Right now, we aren't using the hoe or watering can animations, but will.

    A good next step is to show the tools animation to other players in the vicinity. This will eventually come too (it's not very hard - just a lot to do on the client side).

    We've already ruled out separate animation states for the avatars based on tool use: we'll have 100s of tools and creating 100s of animations for them which work across all possible avatar customizations will make things really hard. But a generic animation for "doing something" was already created – we just aren't happy with it. We might end up with a couple of those. A generic "making" animation state for the avatar + an animation of the tool in use overlayed will probably be a good compromise and is not that difficult.
    Posted 3 years ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • that sounds wonderful. animations are good!
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • this is really quite exciting - i have been curious which of the people i pass are trying to cultivate which skills sets...
    Posted 3 years ago by EgIantine Subscriber! | Permalink