Okay so yes I was definitely far too ambitious
2026-03-07
Ughhhhh okay fine! I started IOTA with a pretty clear vision in mind: I wanted to make an RPG wherein, instead of random encounters and turn based fights, all the fights were Over the Shoulder Boxing matches à la Punch-Out!!!. In my brain, these fights would be full of incredibly fluid pixel-art animation. One such mental animation sticks out - Cyber Squid doing a sort of "Cyclone" move where he flips over and spins his tentacles around in a whirlwind, functioning as a sort of sustained clothesline. I don't even know how a person would dodge an attack like that, but I wanted it to happen. I made several iterations of the basic idle / jab / hurt animations, and it didn't really seem like that big of a deal as I was doing it! They went by a lot quicker than I'd seen people say animation tends to take. For example, the very first serious animation I EVER MADE (Not just for IOTA, for ANYTHING) was this 10 frame idle loop for Cyber Squid. It took me around 5 hours of work, not including breaks:
I personally still think this animation looks pretty solid, especially for a first go! But, unfortunately, my hubris caught up to me pretty quickly. As I started trying to make more animations of more complicated and specific motions, I pretty quickly found out that even 5 or 6 frames of animation are incredibly time consuming! I've sort of been stuck in a rut where I feel like I can't work on the game until I have some animations done because I don't like to work with placeholders, but in order for me to not lose any and all motivation, I think I have to go simpler instead. I do like the detailed Idle animations - I think they're certainly easier to make than hits or blocks or whatever, but I've been looking to Super Punch-Out!!! for inspiration. If you look at most of the animations for enemy boxers, they sort of slide around in the frame on single poses instead of using frame-by-frame animation. It seems a bit weird and stilted at first, but I really love how it looks, and I think it could be a better direction to take the art of IOTA. Of course, this is being written before there's even really anything to modify or change so it's honestly not a huge deal. I dunno! Thought I'd put it into words. Watch some clips to see what I mean - I do honestly like the more stilted and less frame-intensive style - I think it could lead to more clarity in motions and gameplay stuff, but I dunno! Whatever!
I've been getting back into drawing and animating, so I'm hoping to be able to update this website more regularly. I have no idea if there's even a soul on earth who reads these, so if there is, shoot me an email. You'll be in the credits as "Number #1 Fan".