I've been playing around, trying to draw various stamps in different shapes and forms Mostly changing the outlines, colors, trying to make authentic and fake ones so that they can be compared.
An old animation of mine, made for Simple History channel, previously published on LinkedIn. Drawn and animated in Adobe Animate. This is the first time I've tried "rigging" process in Animate (got better later but it wasn't that bad, I guess).
Hi all,
wanted to show you the iterative process (at least part of it) while designing the ECHO stamping machine.
The idea behind the machine was that we could stamp papers with true or false, being a definitive action that affects further play. I took references from various places and initially thought of making it as a kind of a stamp that you can move around (Version 1).
The trouble with that approach is that it requires additional controls, depths and I just couldn't feel the power of it: turned out tall, probably not stable at all so I've ditched the idea (even though that brown handle turned out to be super contrasty against the background).
Then I went different path - fixed variant (Version 2). For that I've picked the right side (that side of the screen is mostly free). I imagined it as a kind of a metal head moving on rails, with cables visible. Turned out that head itself is too small, not powerful enough, not prominent enough.
And that's how I got to version 3 (Final) which is implemented. Took that handle going down but not over the text of the display (nor controls for true and false), stamping part clearly visible, still fixed to the right side.
And here is the mess that was left over when quickly iterating, God only knows know what is where, when, how.
I've finally managed to gather some footage and assemble a sort of a mini trailer. It shows part of the core mechanics (message/paper handling, decoding, encoding, verifying, conversations/dialogues) as well as a bit of meta (screenplays, playable areas).
"Sailor walks in, carries a piece of paper with some of the equipment listed. You need to sign it and vouch for it.
You took over that post 10 minutes ago, some of the equipment is missing.
But procedure is procedure."
This is the scene (one of the gameplay tasks) from False Echo game that I am making.
Last September I took a few days to venture a bit outside of the main art direction I was taking. I was impressed with 2 bit graphics (which is way off from this) and thought to minimalize colors and palette. After a few days I went back to the main art style but kept this as a memento of that moment.
Looking through the periscope of Submarine 227, realizing that the quadrant that Naval HQ has sent us is infested with enemy shipping:
https://i.redd.it/ekhrlsc9mozg1.gif
It was supposed to be just a convoy that we are supposed to attack, without any cover.
Turns out that there are Fletcher class destroyers actively protecting the convoy, searching for our submarines:
As we send message to the HQ, informing them that someone has gravely mistaken there is one destroyer that spots us. While submerging we can hear depth charges floating down, following us:
Even in the morning, when everything is quiet there is a nasty surprise above: one destroyer is still there:
This is showing part of the scenario of my game False Echo. Apart from encryption, decryption and verification of various documents we shall have situations like these, dangerous encounters, choices to be made.
Scene from my game False Echo. The waters around us were supposed to be clear but obviously Oppressian Air Force was wrong...again.
Very potent enemy. And a particularly dangerous situation since moonlight can easily reflect our periscope and put us in harms way.
Game is False Echo.
Location: Stellantic Ocean.
Status: what HQ reported an "easy prey" convoy is swarming with destroyer escort.
Not a pleasant sight to see through your periscope, that's for sure.
One of the biggest submarine foes, well armed and prepped destroyer. Fletcher class is probably the most well-known WW2 destroyer with an impressive career.
In this particular scene we are monitoring the ship movement since Political Officer and Captain are having a dispute and neutral party needs to verify that there rally is a massive enemy convoy protection outfit.
One interesting thing: we are aboard Submarine 227 (based on U-boat Type VII). While drawing and comparing the size I've realized that Fletcher class is almost 2x the size of the submarine, which did impact the level of details (as I wanted to have animated crew visible on the destroyer). Just not enough screen pixels to add them as well.
There are some Liberty ship silhouettes in the far background as well.
Hi everyone,
I would like to show you logo animation that I made for our indie team, for my game (specifically). One peculiar thing about it is that it is made inside Game Maker Studio 2, with very rudimentary controls and limited possibilities and I will try to give some insights on how to utilize it on your own, should the need arise.
https://reddit.com/link/1t48wfg/video/ib64ctgbe9zg1/player
Ideation
Our indie studio is quite young, focusing almost exclusively on retro games, old style pixel art graphics. The logo that we made is reflecting upon that. It's a pixel art, simple shape and form, limited colors, sharp corners. It kinda reminds of the console controller as well, which are all factors to be considered when planning the animation.
Taking that into consideration I've planned the animation to represent an opening, transformation of geometrical shapes, like a robot or some rudimentary movement steps and lines. Key words that I had in mind were also ninja, Goku, 1990-ies, Kung Fury, things like that. Which led me to some technical limitations of the appliance of those ideas.
Technology
Since start I had multiple options on how to tackle this, which tool to use to make that animation. Of course, I could've used AE, Premiere, Animate, even Photoshop, so many different tools but in the end, I wanted to make animation inside the engine/editor itself, of the game that I am making at the moment.
The GMS2 is an engine very specialized for 2D games in particular. It works well with sprites, nicely fits the pixel art style (which is why we picked it for our games). But it has very, very crude and rudimentary controls. So I've listed pros and cons of making animation in the editor itself and it boiled down to these:
pros:
cons:
When taking all of that into consideration as well as the original idea to make it more retro, less mesh transformations, more straight movements, simple transforms - I've opted out for the engine animation. Plan was laid out and executed.
Animating in GMS
GMS 2 has one cool feature which is Sequence entity. What it does is it actually gathers sprites, allows transformations that you can save and edit via timeline, it has curves which are fairly OK:
You can translate, rotate, scale, change color of the sprites. You can add text, particle effects which are the same ones you can use in the game later on. Sound, if added, also plays as well as any objects that you add to the composition. You can broadcast message which is kind of event system (calling code functions or classes for any future use, triggering other things). And you can layer composition inside composition. You can also utilize masking which is very powerful but luckily I've managed to skip it this time: I say luckily because it's buggy, it can create additional issues with other masks and so forth.
https://reddit.com/link/1t48wfg/video/2z229ykpo9zg1/player
You can also group layers, link them with parent-child structure, copy created curves (that can be utilized in the game or other sequences). Those are the good things.
The bad thing or what messes things up the most is handling of the sequence editor itself which has potential but is clearly unfinished thing. Zoom in and out, selection, panning, track movement, snapping, all of that is buggy, you need to make sure you follow several additional steps for handling those tasks properly which is not efficient at all. One common thing that happens is that you want to move a layer that you've selected in the scene but you actually move a layer that was last selected in the timeline.
If one overcomes that the rest is more or less easy.
Logo Animation
I've opted out for simple movement paths, linear transformations, similarities in scale and shape. Since our studio is pixel art studio I've decided to start the animation itself from a pixel. That pixel is a box made from two square-like sprites, rotated towards each other:
I've picked a spin as anticipation part for dissolving/spreading of those two white elements and applied even a bit of exaggeration with the counter-scale and movement, to give that spin some additional preparation and power. As they spin and end that spin I spread them out creating a bit of controlled opening/explosion:
As it spreads it also gives pretext for the gray parts to open up, top first, bottom next:
So that the top white "spits out" top grey parts which go up and then expand down. As it expands down it transfers the visual path of movement and dynamics for the bottom grey parts. When they open with a bit of overshoot and settle the next ones are letters:
The letters take 5 frames to scale down from scale 2 to 1. I've tried to overshoot and settle that as well but it created either twitch or jelly-like movement which is something I couldn't fit into the animation itself.
To finalize animation I've made simple fade in of studio name (in English and Japanese) as I thought that culmination was already passed and additional strong and pronounced movement would ruin the experience, resetting the watcher attention and giving that uncanny valley feel.
The first version and the latest version don't differ much:
https://reddit.com/link/1t48wfg/video/inwep6v3t9zg1/player
The only major difference is post-processing.
Post-processing
From the very beginning I've experimented with various PP effects. Initially I've applied bloom but then I went further on and applied dithering, rays, some distortions, VCR flickering and scanlines, like in this mid-version:
https://i.redd.it/12xfzpoyt9zg1.gif
In the end I've toned down quite a few things, toned down VCR distortion lines as logo is supposed to be very clear and concise, main source of movement coming from the animation itself and not from the post-processing. I've also tinted it towards the blue like colors (linkage to the game itself, False Echo, which is submarine themed, ocean, water depth etc.):
https://i.redd.it/xk3169imv9zg1.gif
Conclusion
A rather simple animation with a bit of flavor of post-processing that signifies the game visuals and appeal, made rather fast with rudimentary controls. That kind of pipeline can work if you don't require substantial and extended controls, complex animations or effects. It also serves well if your general animation idea is coherent with the tool that is being used. In my case it was, movement lines and patterns, shapes, visuals, all in all are working together to create the final result.
Hopefully this can help you in your own projects. If you have some questions or you would like to know additional details or peculiarities comment bellow and I will be more than happy to help. Also feel free to feedback the animation itself, this is the rare case where animation turned out exactly as I envisaged it from the very start which also creates that uneasy feeling that I might be riding the intuition snowboard.
So any comment is more than welcome.
Game is False Echo.
This shows the progression of the complex event (depth charge attack), over the course of almost a year (first vid is from 5th of August 2025). If we overlook the fact that in the second vid Captain is still looking through his binoculars while submerged it shows the long path of visual adjustments and tweaks on multiple fronts: VFX, graphics, post-processing, coding/behavior.
A depth charge explosion, drawn in Ps, assembly is in GMS2. Quite a few frames required and several techniques used until hitting the right spot. There is an old version in the gallery, definitely Blocking+ is the approach that pays off when creating FX dynamics.
To simplify things the first frame is the depth charge barrel. At precise moment animation is played as a spritesheet, creating "explosion" effect, coupled with PP.
Since water is more or less dynamic (movement speed of the submarine is light) the issue of reducing the size of the object (explosion) for the far depth charges is not that big (pixel leaking and uncanny valley feel). Although separate sprite for far barrel was required since it has very clear and clean strong shape.
Even though this is not the primary mechanic nor core gameplay (core gameplay is more inclined toward document check of Papers Please) these situations serve to change the pace of the game, bring additional tension and danger to the player. They are caused either by scenario or by some player mistakes in encoding/decoding.
The worst part is that entire crew is at stake and there's not much one can do except trust the Captain's instinct and previous experience.
Barrel full of explosives, no way to see it, just hope and pray it misses the boat. The submariner worst nightmare: sonar ping and water washing of depth charges.
Sometimes inevitable, sometimes caused by player mistakes. There is a destroyer lurking in the shadows, sneaking around the smoke and mist cover. Quite a break from the ordinary typing, document stamping and checking and chitchatting with the rest of the crew.
