Okay, so, let me tell you about this “after fight” thing I was messing with. It all started when I got this idea… I wanted to create a cool visual effect after a character takes a hit in a game. You know, like a flash, or maybe some particles flying off. Something to really sell the impact.
First, I doodled some ideas on paper. Nothing fancy, just some rough sketches of what I imagined it could look like. I was thinking maybe a white flash, or a burst of red… I wasn’t sure yet.
Then, I jumped into the game engine. My tools of the trade are my keyboard and a game engine.
I started by creating a simple script. This script’s job was to listen for when a “hit” event happened. You know, like when a sword collides with an enemy, or a punch lands. I had to figure out how to detect that event, and that took a bit of fiddling with the engine’s collision system.
Once I had the hit detection working, I moved on to the visual part. I initially experimented with a simple color flash. I made the character’s sprite briefly turn white. It worked, but it was… boring. It didn’t have that “oomph” I was looking for.
- First I add a animation.
- Then I try to trigger it.
Next, I tried adding some particle effects. I created a small particle system that would emit a burst of red sparks when the hit happened. This looked much better! It felt more impactful, more visceral.
But it still wasn’t perfect. The particles just kind of… appeared. It didn’t feel connected to the actual hit. So, I tweaked the particle system to make the sparks fly out in the direction of the attack. If the hit came from the left, the sparks would fly to the right. This simple change made a HUGE difference. It felt much more dynamic and realistic.
I spent a good chunk of time just playing around with the particle settings. Changing the size, color, speed, and lifetime of the sparks until I found something I liked. It’s amazing how much difference these small details can make.
The End Result
Finally, I added a little bit of screen shake. Just a tiny bit, to really emphasize the impact. And you know what? It worked! It finally felt like I had nailed it. The combination of the color flash, the directional particles, and the screen shake really sold the feeling of a powerful hit.
It was a lot of trial and error, a lot of tweaking and experimenting. But that’s the fun of it, right? Taking a simple idea and turning it into something that actually looks and feels good. And I learned a lot along the way, about particle systems, collision detection, and the importance of those little details.
