The Beginning

Finally putting this little project out into the world! I started this project as an experiment to learn about procedural IK animation. I'll do a spider, I thought, all those legs to procedurally animate! And then I had to add a keyboard controller to test the legs, and then it needed to climb walls, and things just kept on going from. It's finally reached a point where it has all the major features I wanted, and isn't totally broken.

I do plan to do more with this, the pedipalps need more "character", and there are some things I'd like to make look nicer in the leg and body animations. But, I'd also like to bring this little guy (with an improved model) into a game where you can stalk and pounce on prey while avoiding bigger predators. And maybe eventually make a game or level where you have to dance to impress a female jumping spider. It's so hard to choose what to work on next! There's also the need to make some more arthopods, both as predator and prey for this little guy, and maybe some that can star in games of their own. I feel like there's a void of good arthropod games that needs to be filled!

Anyway, I'm hoping this little demo project might help generate some interest in this project as well as allow me to get feedback on the basic spider mechanics. While the middle of a pandemic is probably not the ideal time to try and drum up funding for a new project, I'm losing my job soon and having a project helps me deal with all the anxiety about the unknown future.