So, I've been developing a turn-based RPG with Ren'Py and despite the limitations of the engine I've done a lot of progress. However, now I'm stuck with a very technical question regarding displayable performance.
In my game, there can be anywhere from 2 up to 8 (or more for limited amounts of time (summons, evocations, etc.)) characters on screen. Each character has 3 base animations: idle, hurt and attack; and each one last anywhere from 1 to 2 seconds with the idle one being the only one that loops (attached an example as .gif for better visualization).
So far I've attempted these three methods I found to make animated sprites:
- Importing each frame into the game folder and using image blocks to animate them.
- Transforming the individual frames into .webm files and using alpha masks for transparency.
- Importing the individual body parts of the character as different image files and using ATL transformations like rotate(), pos(), zoom() and warpers to created rigid but smooth animations.
So far the only things that I know for certain are that:
- Using ATL transformations requires the least storage space since I only need ~12 files for each character instead of the ~45 files per animation per character.
- If I ever try to make a mobile built .webm files won't be supported.
- Both .webm files with its corresponding alpha masks and importing every transparent frame weight around the same even after compressing .png into loseless .webp
Thanks in advance.