Animation goal

Hello everyone, today I want to talk about that secret item, I think you all figured it out from the poster, and the name is rather unremarkable, right? This post is huge, but with lots of useful information.

Well, enough digressions, let's talk about this. Recently one person has contacted me and offered some services, namely animation. As you might know, we always strived to implement animation in our game but thought it to be an unattainable goal. Where could we find someone who could realize all our desires, and moreso at a required level? But destiny is impossible to predict, and such a person found us instead. So, in order not to make a literal wall of text, let's divide the info we want to tell you.

So, the items:

Secret item 1: Main menu animation.

We decided to start off with a smaller, but still rather important task, staying efficient, the main menu, the literal starting place of anyone who played our game. 

*By the way, some of you may remember that we tried to work on animation for SlutCraft before, and there were even some successes, but because of a number of problems we gave it up and hid it in an unremarkable black box.*

So what's different this time, you might ask. Approach. This man is very experienced in his business, and from the very beginning, he was confident that he would do great. Of course because of past experience we had our share of doubts, but when I got the first result... I wouldn't say I was surprised, I was downright shocked. Not only was the animation at a high level, but it also lacked all the problems we encountered previously. Namely the integration into the game, and the amount of work. This man just did the impossible in the literal sense, he works wonders! I think you will soon see it for yourselves. Anyway, you have already seen some of his work, and personally, we are looking forward to his future creations.

Secret item 2: Gallery animation

This was another small project that we decided to try because we thought it wasn't a bad idea. You will be able to see this animation in the coming update already!

Secret item 3: Feeding scene animation

As you may recall, we were always proud of our feeding scene; I think it's one of your favorite scenes, too. It has left a lot of people very impressed with it. So that's where it all really starts, we've already done some work on it and we're actively moving forward. But I think we won't spoil anything with this one. We will finish it by the 26th update, in which you will see it for yourselves.

As for the implementation of the animation in-game, yes it takes some time, not as much as we thought it would, but still some. We decided to go a very interesting way, you will be able to choose whether you want to see animations or not. In the settings, there will be a switch that determines whether animations will be shown whenever possible. 

*You should be aware that we will not animate all the scenes, and on those that we do plan to animate, we will spend a lot of time since there's still quite a lot of those.* 

In other words, 2D scenes will remain unchanged, and if you have them turned on, you will see animated scenes too and they will hopefully be in a very harmonious balance. Thus, we do not belittle the work that has already been done, but simply add animations on top of it. Quality reigns supreme and everyone will be happy!

*We already got the first results and the transition from 2D to 3D and back is hard to notice, so we are happy with it.*

Now let's talk about the other side of the coin. Animation for a serious project like ours costs a corresponding amount. A lot of people are eager to see animation in action and not just in action, but animation of ALL scenes in action - sounds very charming, doesn't it? To be fair, we want to see it too! Especially since at the beginning of our journey we set ourselves a public goal of in-game animation if we put more than $3,000 a month into the game. It seemed impossible to us at the time, but we were passionate about it. Now we're closer to that mark and we're reminded of that long-time dream, but... But we can't afford to quickly animate a large number of scenes. We've almost reached our goal, for sure, but that's just the starting line. All because of the amount of work it entails, you have to understand that animation is a time-consuming process, and high-quality animation is even more so. Therefore, it will take time and, of course, your help! And we, on our part will try to make each update include at least one additional animated scene, either an old one rejuvenated with motion or a brand new one. 

*Important! Do not forget that all of this is new to us too and of course this as well will take time because any innovations and changes in workflow are labor-intensive. We are also planning to conduct polls on what scenes you would like to see animated.

Okay, since there's been lots already, one more little digression, and I promise it's the last one. You know, the most interesting thing is that the animator is very interested in working on SlutCraft, it's like a challenge to him, a challenge from himself to himself. He's just burning up with enthusiasm! Certain things he's never even animated before and he's very eager to stretch his skills. But you know, this attitude couldn't make me any happier, I don't doubt him one bit, especially after what I've already seen.*

All in all, we will greatly benefit from your help. We rely on you!

This is not a call to donate all your money to us, no, absolutely not! It's not. It's important to us that you do well; that's our priority, because we create only because of you, and only for you. If your life is good, then our life will also be good; it's the circle of, heh, life. So if it's too much for you then it's better to take a break, wait till things get better, and they will definitely get better, and of course we're always happy to see you return. Even without financial support, you can always support us with nice, warm words, which we hear constantly and so much! We are eternally grateful to you for that. 

Well, I guess we can end here, I think you are a little tired of me, hehe. We have a new addition to our team and with our increased financial possibilities we'll be able to make even more cool animations and not only that, we'll be able to take over the whole world! Ahem...

And of course be sure to write what you think, how do you like the animation, what do you feel about it? What do you think should be animated first and foremost. Write everything, you are always welcome :) This is a very significant moment for SlutCraft, we're on the verge of moving to the next level! And we are very glad we have someone to share this moment with. That we made it together, and it doesn't matter how much time it took us. All that matters is that we are here and now! Thank you again for that!

Some news from the man himself:
"Hi everyone, my name is NEAT. I'm really proud to be a part of the Slutcraft crew. Like you, I'm here in large part because of the awesome artwork. Animating it is an absolute honor. If you're wondering who I am, I'm a full-time animator living in Australia. My personal goal is to constantly improve by thriving on good feedback and listening to critiques. I hope I can bring something to the table that adds to your experience. Cheers - NEAT"

Yours eternally,
Shadow Portal Games

P.S. There's a better quality animation in the attachments.